Historia ecclesiastic / Bede the Venerable

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Description:

Script: Textualis formata.
Decoration: The preface, books I-V, and the list of chapters for book V each open with a 6-to 8-line decorated initial of red or blue or parti-colored red and blue on green and ochre fields, decorated with red, purple, and sea-green foliate penwork and marginal pen flourishes, fols. 1r, 3r, 26r, 52v, 83v, 112v, and 113v. Chapter lists for books I-IV open with smaller initials in red or blue (decoration?), fols. 2r, 25v, 51v, and 83r. Chapters within each book open with 2- to 3-line initials alternating red and blue. Some simple line-fillers in red ink consist of dots, crosses, and series of H-like vertical and horizontal lines.

Binding note:

Germany, 15th century (?). Cushioned boards, probably oak (10 mm thick), covered in tooled dark brown calf; squares at top and bottom; fore-edge almost flush.

Provenance:

Kane MS. 16 probably dates from the 15th century. Early provenance of the manuscript is uncertain. The London antiquarian bookseller Maggs Bros. acquired the manuscript at the Baillie-Weaver sale and sold it later that year to Sidney Graves Hamilton (1855-1916), fellow and historian of Hertford College, University of Oxford. The manuscript was auctioned again at the Hamilton sale in London on 25 July 1917. At this sale, according to de Ricci, it again went to Maggs Bros. Grenville Kane (1854-1943), of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., purchased the manuscript in 1918. Princeton University Library acquired the manuscript from Kane's heirs in February 1946.

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Contributor:

References:

Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, page 24-26.

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