Accession number:
MS M.827
Title:
Gospel Book
Created:
France, possibly St. Bertin, or Belgium, at St. Vaast in Arras, late 10th cent.
Binding:
Original oak boards, lozenge-shaped depression in center of upper cover, 12th century North German incised copper-gilt Crucifixion panel with sun and moon on lower cover, cut out to show the red leather underneath, in maroon morocco case.
Credit:
Purchased on the Lewis Cass Ledyard Fund, 1948.
Description:
128 leaves (1 column, 27 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 362 x 261 mm
Provenance:
Thought to have been in the library of the abbey of Moenchen-Nieuburg in Magdeburg diocese in the 12th century (exact copies in outline drawings of the Canon Table marginal figures were drawn into a Gospel Book from the second quarter of the 12th century which came from this abbey and is now in the Anhalt Museum at Dessau); Prince George II, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau (b.1507); no. 85 in Dessau Library; Sotheby's sale (London, 31 May 1927) to Gabriel Wells; purchased by H. P. Kraus from the Wells estate in February, 1948; purchased from H. P. Kraus in February 1948.
Notes:
Ms. gospel book; written and illuminated in France, possibly St. Bertin, or Belgium, at St. Vaast in Arras, late 10th century.
Decoration: 4 full-page Evangelist portraits, 8 decorated incipit pages, 14 illuminated canon tables.
Artist: the Evangelist portraits were executed by an Anglo-Saxon artist who was also responsible for the decoration of London, BL, MS Harley 2904, Harley 2506, Orléans, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 175, and Boulogne, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 11; it has been suggested that the remaining decoration was produced at either St. Vaast in Arras, St. Bertin in St. Omer, or even at Corbie.
The illumination of M.827 is unfinished. On fol. 66v Luke's ox is painted in outline only.
Script:
Caroline minuscule
Language:
Latin
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