Add MS 11848

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Date
c 820-c 830

Title
Gospels

Content
A Gospel book of Köhler's second group of manuscripts assigned to the abbacy of Fridugisus at Tours (807-834).ff. 1v-4r: Jerome, Epistle to Damasus, title: 'Beato pape damaso hieronimus', incipit: 'Novum opus facere.'ff. 4v-5r: Jerome, 2nd Epistle to Damasus, rubric: 'Incipit argumentum evangeliorum', incipit: 'Sciendum tamen nequis.'ff. 5v-8r: Jerome, Prologue to the Gospels, rubric: 'Incipit praefatio alia', incipit: 'Plures fuisse.'ff. 8v-9v: Eusebius, Epistle to Carpianus, rubric: 'Incipit epistola Eusebii episcopi de evangelio', incipit: 'Eusebius carpiano fratri.' ff. 10r-12r: Canon tables.ff. 12v-206r: The Four Gospels, each preceded by an incipit page of the prologue, the prologue, and capitula; with the Ammonian sections and references to the Canons in the margins.f. 206v: Added table of the Gospel readings throughout the year, 'Index evangeliorum quae in festis summis leguntur.'ff. 207r-218r: Capitulare evangeliorum, rubric: 'Incipit capitulare evangeliorum', incipit: 'In vigilia natalis domini'.ff. 218r-219r: rubric: 'Capitula evangeliorum necessariae', incipit: 'Pro ubertate pluviae.'f. 219v: A carmina figurata of thirty-seven acrostic verses on the Evangelists; the lines forming an outer frame of the square read: 'Matheus laevi cimitem tenet ordine Marcum / Marcus voce fremit ast intonat ore Johannis / Mattheus lucae concordat splendides ut hoc / C... mi... ndit sacramenta Iohannis'; the inner square highlighted in green reads: 'Jesus Cristus verus hominum salvator'; and the letters in the centre: 'DNS / IHS / XPS'.Decoration:Full-page miniatures of the Evangelists and their symbols in colours and gold, at the beginning of each Gospel: Matthew (f. 17v); Mark (f. 74v); Luke (f. 109v); and John (f. 166v). Canon tables divided by architectonic arcades in colours, decorated with birds and trees (ff. 10r-12r). Title pages, some encircled by architectonic arcades, at the beginning of Gospels and prologues (ff. 12v, 18r, 110r, 167r). Large decorated initials in colours or colours and gold in an early version of the Franco-Saxon style (ff. 1v, 13r, 18v, 75r, 110v, 167v). Large initials in red with display script (ff. 4v, 5v, 8v, 71r, 106v, 164r). Verse initials in red.The manuscript is the earliest known Tours Gospel book to contain Evangelist portraits.
 
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Languages
Latin

Physical Description
  • Materials: Parchment.
  • Dimensions: 300 x 230 mm (text space: 205 x 130 mm).
  • Foliation: ff. 219 + 4 modern parchment flyleaves: 2 at the beginning and 2 at the end; + 3 modern paper leaves on a mount after f. [ii]). Old pagination (late 15th or 16th century) beginning on f. 1v.
  • Collation: i6+1 (ff. 1-7; f. 1 is a singleton attached to f. 2); ii2 (ff. 8-9); iii4 (ff. 10-13); iv4+1 (ff. 14-18; f. is a singleton); v-x8 (ff. 19-66); xi6-2? (ff. 67-70; 2 leaves excised after f. 68); xii8+1 (ff. 71-79; f. 74 is a singleton); xiii8-1 (ff. 80-86; 1 leaf excised after f. 83); xiv-xv8 (ff. 87-102); xvi8+1 (ff. 103-111; f. 109 is a singleton); xvii-xxiii8 (ff. 112-163); xxiv8+1 (ff. 164-172; f. 167 is a singleton); xxv-xxviii8 (ff. 173-204); xxix2 (ff. 205-206); xxx8 (ff. 207-214); xxxi4+1 (ff. 215-219; f. 215 is a singleton attached to f. 216).
  • Script: Caroline minuscule. Square and Rustic Capitals and Uncials for display scripts (Uncials for prologues and genealogy).
  • Binding: Treasure binding;1st half of the 9th century; refurbished in 14th and 19th centuries. Repoussé silver covers over wooden boards of Christ in Majesty, on the upper cover, and the Agnus Dei on the lower, with foliate decoration and enamel bosses of the symbols of the Evangelists (the eagle of St John and the ox of St Luke, the two remaining symbols are missing) in each corner of the upper cover, probably a 14th-century (?) Limoges addition. Coloured stones were replaced in 1838 for Bishop Butler. The clasps were also probably replaced, 19th century. Within the oak boards of the cover are fragments possibly of human bones, presumably to be understood as relics.

Ownership
Origin: France (Tours).Provenance:The Benedictine abbey of St Martin, Tours: probably made under the abbacy of Fridugisus (807-834), successor of Alcuin.Added table of readings for the year, c 1675-1749 (f. 206v).Count Jan Peter van Suchtelen (b. 1751, d. 1836), Russian Ambassador to Sweden, his book stamp (f. 1r).Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe (b. 1780, d. 1855), 6th Viscount Strangford, diplomatist, Ambassador to Sweeden and Russia: sold as part of his library at Sotheby's, London, 12 August 1831, lot 465 and purchased by Butler for £100, see note by Frederick Madden (f. [ii] recto).Samuel Butler (b.1774, d.1839) headmaster and Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield: his book stamp 'Bibliotheca Butleriana' (f. [i] verso); a letter addressed to him, dated 13th October 1838, regarding the replacement of the gems of the binding (ff. [iii-v].Acquired by the British Museum in 1841 from Thomas Butler, son of Samuel Butler. Thomas Butler

Bibliography
  • Catalogue of Additions to Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years MCCCCXLI-MDCCCXLV (London: Woodfall and Son, 1850), p. 111.
  • Walter De Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 3.
  • [E. Maunde Thompson and G. F. Warner], Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1881-1884), Part II: Latin, pp. 26-28.
  • Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingishen Miniaturen', in Zweiten Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (p. 59).
  • Edward Kennard Rand, A Survey of the Manuscripts of Tours, Studies in the Script of Tours, 1, 2 vols (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mediaeval Academy of America, 1929), I, no. 78.
  • Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, ed. by Wilhelm Koehler and Florentine Mütherich, 6 vols (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1930-99), I (1930): Die Schule von Tours, no. 19.
  • E. K. Rand, Review of Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, ed. by Wilhelm Koehler (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1930), I: Die Schule von Tours,Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 193 (1931), 337-51 (p. 341).
  • Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen, 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. XLIX no. 155*.
  • G. L. Micheli, L’enluminure du haut moyen age et les influences irlandaises (Brussels: Editions de la connaissance, 1939), p. 190.
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  • Carl Nordenfalk, Codex Caesareus Upsaliensis: An Echternach Gospel-Book of the Eleventh Century, 2 vols (Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell, 1971), commentary volume, pp. 51 n. 2, 105 [with facsimile volume].
  • C. R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe: 800 to 1200 (London : Penguin Books, 1971), p. 34.
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  • C. R. Dodwell, Pictorial Arts of the West 800-1200 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 71, 413.
  • Rosamond McKitterick, ‘Carolingian Bible Production: The Tours Anomaly’, in The Early Medieval Bible: Its Production, Decoration and Use (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 63-77 (p. 71).
  • M. Garrison, J. L. Nelson, and D. Tweddle, Alcuin and Charlemagne. The Golden Age of York (York, 2001), no. 55.
  • Michelle P. Brown, The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (London: British Library, 2003), p. 71, fig. 36.
  • Charlotte Denoël, 'Entre imitation et invention: un livre d'Évangiles de style tourangeau (Paris, BnF, ms latin 269)', in Les manuscrits carolingiens. Actes du colloque de Paris (Bibliotèque National de France le 4 mai 2007), ed. by Jean-Pierre Caillet et Marie-Pierre Laffitte (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009), p. 95.
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