Beschreibung:

NICHOLAS OF GORRON (1232-1295), Sermons De Tempore et de Quadragesima , in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [northern France, last quarter 13th century].
NICHOLAS OF GORRON (1232-1295), Sermons De Tempore et de Quadragesima , in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [northern France, last quarter 13th century]. i + 136 + i leaves, 203 x 138mm, COMPLETE (final blank cancelled), catchwords in most gatherings, f.113 a contemporary addition, blank on the recto, and with blank spaces for decorated initials on the verso, written in 2 columns of up to 35 lines, written space: 142 x 95mm, A LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL DEPICTING CHRIST ENTHRONED, BLESSING A KNEELING DOMINICAN , presumably intended to be the author, with an extension running almost the full height of the page, expanding into the upper and lower margin, in which a rabbit perches, smaller initials throughout alternately red or blue, flourished in the other colour (the outer margin of f.113, and the lower margin of ff.11, 62, and 113 excised). 19th- or 20th-century dark brown leather over bevelled wood boards, each cover with four metal bosses. PROVENANCE : (1) The script and style of illumination are consistent with a French production of the last quarter of the 13th century. The sermons for Quadragesima end on a recto, f. 280, with the sermons for the feast of St Andrew, the first of Gorron's Sermons de Sanctis , on the verso. Although the latter appears at first sight to end imperfect, the text ends at precisely the same point as in the table of contents, which therefore suggests that the scribe simply stopped at this point, and that nothing is missing. The Quadragesima sermons begin on the verso of an inserted, very slightly later (spaces for initials remain blank), single leaf, for no obvious reason. These textual-codicological peculiarities may perhaps be explained by the fact that the manuscript was written within the lifetime of the author, and was therefore perhaps still in a state of flux. (2) Loosely-inserted notes in French on the contents are signed and dated October 1938, 'T. Chenu'. CONTENT : Table of contents ff.1-12; Sermons for the Temporale from Advent to the 25th Sunday after Trinity ff.13-92v, Sermons from the beginning of Lent until Holy Saturday ff.93-112; Sermons for the feast of St Andrew, ending imperfect (f.112v); Sermons for various occasions: Ad religiosos f.113v, In visitatione f.115v, In synodo generale f.117, In dedicatione ecclesie f.120, In dedicatione vel consecratione altaris (this is absent from the table of contents) f.121v, In electione prelati f.122v, In prima missa novi sacerdotis, vel in electione f.124, In ordinibus f.125, In ordinibus ante natale domini de tercia lectio f.125v, In ingressu religionis f.130v, In consecratione virginum f.131, Ad impetrandum serenitatem f.132, Ad impetrandum pluviam f.133v, Per quacumque tribulatione f.134v, De cruce f.135. On the text see Kaeppeli, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi , no.3091, and Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones IV, pp.255–73 ( de Tempore ), 273–80 ( de Quadragesima ), and 281 (de S. Andree). In the table of contents the sermons for various occasions (ff.113v–136v) occur before those for Quadragesima, suggesting that gatherings 12–13 were formerly bound between gatherings 9 and 10. Nicholas of Gorron became Prior of St-Jacques, the Dominican convent Paris, in 1280, where he remained until his death in 1295; it is therefore tempting to speculate that this copy WAS MADE AT ST JACQUES ITSELF, AND UNDERWENT SOME CHANGES UNDER NICHOLAS'S DIRECTION .