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Detailed record for Egerton 2610

Title Four Gospels, with the Canons of Eusebius and the epistle to Carpianus
Origin Eastern Mediterranean (Constantinople)
Date 11th century
Language Greek
Script Greek minuscule
Decoration Canon tables in architectural frames in gold and colours (ff. 3v-4, 5v-6, 7v-8, 9v-10). 4 miniatures of Evangelist portraits in colours on gold grounds (ff. 12v, 91v, 144v, 230v). Large headpieces in colours and gold, with foliate patterns and birds (f. 13), and 4 large initials in colours and gold, at the beginning of the Gospels (ff. 13, 92, 145, 231). Initials in gold. Simple head- and tailpieces in gold. Chrysography.
Dimensions in mm 150 x 115 (95 x 65)
Official foliation ff. 296 ( + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 3 paper flyleaves after f. 295)
Form Parchment codex
Binding Pre-1600. Brown sheepskin over wooden boards, with blind-stamping of fleur-de-lys and rosettes, probably Cretan. Fore-edge painting, 14th century, probably also Cretan.
Provenance Note in Greek of the birth of a daughter, 1229, partly defaced (f. 295v).
15th-century marginal notes in Latin
16th-century notations in Latin and Greek on a paper flyleaf (f. 296v).
'No.147' overwritten ('No.15'?) on the upper pastedown, not later than 1550.
17th-century Latin title inscribed on the spine.
A member of the Albani family: bookstamp in ink with the arms of the Albani family surmounted by an ecclesiastical hat and accompanied by the initials 'RA', between 1650 and 1750 (f. 1).
A German bookseller: bought at the sale at Puttick's, 28 April 1882, lot 30, by the British Museum, using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829).
Notes Remnants of characteristic three braided tabs inside the lower cover, once part of the book's fastening mechanism.
Select bibliography Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1882-1887 (London: British Museum, 1889), no. Eg. 2610.

Herman C. Hoskier, A Full Account and Collation of the Greek Cursive Codex Evangelium 604 [Egerton 2610 in the British Museum] (London: David Nutt, 1890).

Caspar René Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs: 1900), p. 213-4, 1110 (as e 700).

W. H. James Weale and Lawrence Taylor,Early Stamped Bookbindings in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1922), no. 365.

A Guide to the Exhibition of Some Part of the Egerton Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1929), no. 44.

Marcel Richard, Inventaire des manuscrits grecs du British Museum, Publications de l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, 3 (Paris: C. N. R. S., 1952), p. 86.

T. S. Pattie, Manuscripts of the Bible: Greek Bibles in the British Library (London: British Library, 1979), pp. 7, 31, pl. 2.

Bruce M. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), no. 37 [with additional bibliography].

Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des neuen Testaments, ed. by Kurt Aland, Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung, 1 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1994), 700.

T. S. Pattie, Manuscripts of the Bible: Greek Bibles in the British Library , revd. edn (London: British Library, 1995), pp. 9, 38, pl. 2.


Images
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Cover

upper cover
Cover
Spine

spine
Spine
Headband

top headband
Headband
 
Headband

top headband
Headband
Headband

binding
Headband
Canon tables

f. 7v
Canon tables
 
Canon tables

f. 8
Canon tables
blank page

f. 91
blank page
Miniature of Mark and illuminated headpiece and initial at ...

f. 91v
Miniature of Mark and illuminated headpiece and initial at ...
 

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