Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

F-q74v

Toronto, ON, The Robertson Davies Library at Massey College, Gurney FF 0001

Remarks by the Editor

Note from Otto Ege: It is usually difficult to dinstinguish the miniature or portable Bibles made by the young Dominican friars in England from those written in France. At times the colophon tells us that a book was executed in the Sorbonne, the newly founded school of theology in Paris, or in the University Center at Oxford. The Dominican order was founded in 1216 A.D. and soon spread all over Europe. About 1219 A.D., King Alexander of Scotland met St. Dominic in Paris and persuaded him to send some members of his brotherhood to Scotland. From here they spread to England. The original master text was carelessly transcribed again and again. It may even have been incorrectly copied from the Alcuinian text written for Charlemagne. Therefore, "correctories" had to be made. In the latter part of the 13th century, Roger Bacon condemned unsparingly manuscripts which, although they were skillfully and beautifully written, transmitted inaccuracies of text.

General Information

Title Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata
Material Parchment
Place of Origin Oxford, England
Script, Hands

Angular Gothic Script

Original Condition

Page Height 197 mm
Page Width 139 mm
Height of Written Area 136 mm
Width of Written Area 96 mm
Number of Columns 2
Width of Columns 35 – 45 mm
Number of Lines 48
Line Height 2 – 3 mm
Ruling Yes
More about the Condition

Thin vellum.

Current Condition

Dimensions 197 x 139 mm
More about the Current Condition

Vellum dirty on the edges where handled, visible residual glue from Ege's mounting. 

Book Decoration and Musical Notation

Description

The leaf is lined in brown ink, with brown ink for the text and decorations in red and blue. There is no illumination. The initials are flourished, and book name and chapter numbers are also done in colour. Interspersed initials are either red or blue and the decoration around them is the other colour. There are smaller initials thoughout the small writing that are also alternating between red and blue.