Vita Sancti Gregorii papae: MS McClean 110

Titles

Vita Sancti Gregorii papae

Maker(s)

Author: John the Deacon

Entities

• Other

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, iii modern parchment flyleaves + 151 fols. + iii modern parchment flyleaves, 257 x 182 mm (193-199 x 127 mm), 24 long lines, ruled in brown ink, quire marks

BINDING: 1903, blind- and gold-stamped brown leather over wooden boards, by Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (name and date gold-stamped signed inside upper cover) , probably re-using the oak boards from the previous binding (cf. Phillipps sale catalogue of 1899), rust stains from fastening devices of earlier binding on fol. 1

CONTENTS:
fol. 2r Versus in laude sanctissimi Gregorii pape
fols. 2v–151v John the Deacon, Vita S. Gregorii papae, with Prologue and capitula
fol. 151v List of Gregory’s works (fifteenth-century addition)

ORNAMENTATION: Gold initials [6-14 ll.] with white vine-scroll terminating in flowers and fruit on blue grounds, sometimes combined with red, green and gold, for Prologue (fol. 2v) and books (fols. 4v, 23v, 54v, 94v); red penwork initials [1-2 ll.]; capitals highlighted in red.

Notes

History note: At the Camaldolese Abbey of San Michele in Murano, Venice, by c.1450, as revealed by two partially erased ownership inscriptions: Iste liber est monasterii S. Michaelis de Muriano ordinis Camaldulensis [et] diocesis Torcellane (fols. 1v and 151v); at San Michele in Murano at least until 1779 (listed in Mittarelli 1779, cols. 472-473, as [Gregorius], Vita scripta a Johanne Diacono, codex speciosissimus in folio sec. xiii num. 704, and dated to the thirteenth century); probably sold with the main part of the San Michele library after 1810; French owner or dealer (inscription ‘150 feuillets’ on fol. 1r); Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), his MS 4559 (number on fol. 1r); his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 5-10 June 1899, lot 654; Frank McClean (1837–1904); his bequest, 1904.