Leaf from a Medieval Bible, Fragment

Type: Fragment

Date: 13th century

Setting: France (?)

Produced By/For: [unknown]

Contents: Bible leaf: Acts of the Apostles 2:3-3:17

Shelf Mark: Fragm.Brown.Lat.1

Location: Brown Collection Box 4 (Acc. 2003-018, Item #1)

Description by Erin Donoghue Brooke as part of coursework for a manuscript studies class with Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin (ENGL), completed December 2016

Bible Leaf: Acts of the Apostles 2:3-3:17

Codicology

Single sheet of very thin parchment that is white, creamy, and well-preserved. Text is written in two columns of 46 lines each, in black ink with some rubrication and red splashing of significant letters. Dimensions are 86mm x 138mm (text area 63mm x 95mm, columns 23mm x 95mm). There is very little damage, though the leaf is somewhat warped, and the running header at top of recto shows evidence of trimming; no pricking is visible. Pencil ruling used for vertical columns, drypoint (?) for horizontal lines. Running title: AC / T(US).

Paleography and Decoration

Main text by one hand, likely French, is a gothic textualis c. 1250, certainly thirteenth century. A second hand responsible for rubrication, decoration, and running titles; minor marginal corrections with signes-de-renvoi likely show a third hand. One decorated capital P (for “Petrus,” on verso a5) marks the beginning of the third chapter of Acts; it is four lines high, in blue ink decorated with thin red penwork.

Textual Remarks

The leaf contains nearly all of the second chapter of the Vulgate Acts of the Apostles, beginning about halfway through Acts 2:3 (at “dispertite lingue tamquam ignis”) on the recto, and continues to Acts 3:17 (to “et nunc fratres scio quia per ignoran…”) on the verso.

Provenance

Donated to the University of Victoria by Bruce and Dorothy Brown in 2003.

Description and transcription by Erin Donoghue Brooke, as part of coursework for a manuscript studies class with Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin (ENGL), completed December 2016, available here.

Transcription conventions follow Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Cornell UP, 2007), pp. 75-77, with the exception that a semicolon indicates the punctus elevatus.

Images

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Recto

Verso