Beschreibung:

HOMILIARY: a complete bifolium in exceptionally good condition, in Latin, manuscript on vellum[Austria (Salzburg diocese?), 10th century]
a bifolium, c. 280 × 390mm, each leaf c. 280 × 195 mm, blind-ruled, c. 215 × 140mm, for 28 lines written in a fine, regular, Carolingian minuscule script , 3- line red initial ‘A’ at the beginning of the second text, two rubricated lines in fine uncial script; a few small flaws but generally in very fine condition with ample margins; bound in a modern green cloth-covered folder with gilt leather title-piece.
PROVENANCEBernard Quaritch, Catalogue 1315 (2004), no. 79; bought by:The Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 903.
TEXTParts of three homilies for feast-days in June:
(p. 1) The end of a Homily on Mark 13:7–13 for the feast of Sts Protaise and Gervaise (19 June), Pseudo-Maximus of Turin, Sermon 92 (“[con]fessione non seducaris … in pacis fidelis conscientia coronatur … amen’ (Migne, Patrologia Latina, LVII, col. 716).
(pp. 1–2) Homily on Luke 5:1–11 for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, with rubric: “XVIII Dom(inica) VI Post Pentecost(en) Lectio sancti evangelii secundum Lucam cap(itulum) XXXVIIII’, followed by a short extract from the gospel, Luke 5:1, another rubric, ‘Omelia lectionus eiusdem’, and the homily itself, ‘Audiuit dilectissimi caritas uestra …’, breaking off at ‘ … adducere conantur’.
(pp. 3–4) Homily, doubtless on Luke, as it quotes Luke 1:8–9 and 11–14, concerning the birth of John the Baptist, and therefore doubtless for the feast of his Nativity (24 June), beginning and ending imperfectly: ‘cum in iustitia et timore dei … dominus ipse pręcipit. dicens: Que’).
A bifolium from an early Homiliary, in perfect condition. Homiliaries are collections of homilies, or sermons on passages from the Gospels, arranged according to the ecclesiastical calendar for reading as part of the Divine Office.
It has not been possible to determine with certainty which early Homiliary is represented by this bifolium. It was previously identified as coming from a copy of the Homiliary composed by the abbot of St Michael’s, Mondsee, near Salzburg, between 811 and 819 (on which see Barré, 1961), but this is perhaps not correct. According to Barré, the homily on Luke 5:1–11 that corresponds to our second one was for the Sunday after the feast of Sts Peter & Paul at Mondsee and not, as it is in our manuscript, for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost. Yet no other homily of those he studied (tabulated in Barré, 1962) has the same incipit. The same biblical reading is the subject of the homily for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost in the edition published in 1580 by Quentell (from a now-lost manuscript), yet it has a different incipit. Perhaps we are dealing with either an earlier version of the Mondsee text, or a slightly later revision of it, that apparently cannot be matched in any of the other surviving manuscripts.
REFERENCESH. Barré, ‘L’homiliaire Carolingien de Mondsee’, Revue Bénédictine, 71 no. 1–2 (1961), pp. 71–107.
H. Barré, Les homéliaires carolingiens de l’école d’Auxerre: authenticité, inventaire, tableaux comparatifs, initia, Studi e testi, 225 (Vatican, 1962).
Bernard Quaritch, Ltd., Catalogue 1315: Bookhands of the Middle Ages, Part VII (2004), no. 79 (full-page col. ill.).