Vitae patrum
- Published/Created:
- Spain (Toledo)
between 1175 and 1200 - Physical Description:
- ff. i + 106 + i : parchment ; 515 x 365 mm.
- Notes:
- Manuscript on coarse, yellowish parchment. Mutilated. Includes around 40 selections from saints' lives. Copied by a single hand in careful Iberian Praegothica.
According to Creasy and Shailor the text of this manuscript is extremely close to a Visigothic manuscript in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional (MS 10007), dated 902 and formerly in Toledo. The codicological features, the handwriting and the decoration are according to the same authors very much resembling those found in several contemporary manuscripts produced in Toledo; it is probable that the same scribe and artist were involved in our manuscript and in some or all of the latter manuscripts. In the margins of the Vita sancti Antonii (art. 37) the mentions Lectio V up to Lectio nona are preserved, pointing to liturgical use of this text and maybe to the destination of this manuscript. The corrections are written in the margins in rectilinear frames of irregular shape; there is a long note in documentary cursive script on f. 29v, beginning Hoc miraculum non recipit ecclesia .... Noteworthy are the numbering of some texts with Roman numerals (see artt. 9, 15, 27 and 36) and the strange appearance of artt. 1 and 42.
Fine Romanesque initials (2-5 lines) with foliage penwork in red and blue. Some contain human heads (ff. 9r, 16v, 25r, 25v [two heads], 70r [two heads]). On ff. 64v, 125v and 135v initials of exceptional development, the latter two with animal decoration.
Binding: Twentieth-century. Blind-tooled brown calf over....On the spine two labels with the hand-written inscriptions: FLOS SANCTORUM MS and TOLEDO SAEC. XII.
D.L. Creasy, B.A. Shailor, Beinecke Library, Yale University: An Unpublished Vitae sanctorum, in Classical Texts and Their Tradition. Studies in Honor of C.R. Trahman, edd. D.F. Bright, E.S. Ramage (Chico, CA, 1984), pp. 13-24. Shailor, The Medieval Book, 73.
There is a double modern foliation. One, from "1" to "106", applies to the codex in its present state. The other, adopted here, was made before many leaves got lost, and runs from "2" to "136". In the detailed description (see link) the missing folios are indicated between brackets. - Topics:
- Devotional literature, Latin (Medieval and modern)
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscripts, Medieval -- Connecticut -- New Haven - Topics:
- Catholic Church
- Language:
- Latin
- Genre:
- Manuscripts, Medieval
- Format:
- Mixed Material
- Content Type:
- Archives or Manuscripts
- Rights:
- The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.
- Access Restrictions:
- Public
- Call Number:
- Beinecke MS 625
- Orbis Record:
- 9614569
- Yale Collection:
- Beinecke Library
- Digital Collection:
- General Collection, BRBL, Yale University
- oid pointer:
- 10539659
- Extent of digitization:
- Complete work digitized.
- OID:
- 9998909
- PID:
- digcoll:3687744
