Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 048: Bible

purl.stanford.edu/wx717zj2675

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 048: Bible

Alternate Title:

Biblia

Language:

Latin

Extent:

ff. 276 + 3

Dimensions:

324 Height (mm) and 212 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1175 - 1199]

Provenance:

The presence of the tract of Senatus Bravonius in this Bible has always suggested the probability that it is a Worcester book. I would point out that there is a very great similarity in size, arrangement of writing and contents, between this and a Bible at Eton College (no. 26 in my catalogue). This latter book is written in triple columns of 62 lines. Its contents are arranged in much the same way, viz.: Genesis - 2 Chron. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentation (Hebrew alphabet precedes in red, blue and green). Ezekiel - Malachi. Job. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, 1 Esdr. Proverbs - Ecclesisastes, Oratio Salomonis. Tobit, Judith, 1, 2 Maccabees Psalter (triple, with much prefatory matter). Table of Epistles and Gospels. Eusebian Canons. Evv., Acts, Catholic Epistles, Apocalypse Pauline Epistles (verses of Damasus, and preface of Pelagius). Laodicean follows Hebrew The Eton book was given to St Albans by Prior Mathias. This is recorded at the top of f. 1r and at the end of Proverbs. There was room for a like record at the top of f. 1r of the Corpus Bible, which has been removed. There is no direct proof that the Eton Bible was written at St Albans, but my belief is that it was a sister book to the Corpus Bible and that both belonged to St Albans. The Corpus book is far more finely decorated. A third book closely connected with these two is a 2nd volume of a Bible at Trinity College, Dublin (A. 2. 2: no. 51 in Abbott's Catalogue). This has the prologue of Senatus; the same prologues to the Pauline Epistles: the writing and ornament also agree (note specially the mottled marble shafts in the framework of the Gospel Canons). It belonged in the xvth century to Westdereham in Norfolk.

Table of contents:

Bible

Description:

This Bible from St Albans, CCCC MS 48, dating to c. 1170, is part of a group of manuscripts produced at the abbey during the abbacies of Abbot Simon (1167-83) and Abbot Warin (1183-95). Related in text and decoration are two other St Albans Bibles of this period, Eton College MS 26 and Dublin, Trinity College MS 51 (A.2.2). The main artist of the Corpus Bible also worked for the Abbey of St Bertin and may be French in origin; he seems to have been a travelling illuminator. The book has thirteen historiated initials some of them on separate pieces of vellum stuck onto the page. The version of the Vulgate in this Bible has been classified by Glunz as 'Lanfranc's Scholastic Text'. The book is much smaller than most twelfth-century Bibles, but is considerably larger than the small 'pocket' versions which become popular in the middle years of the thirteenth century. An unusual feature of the page format is a three (and occasionally four) column text.