Beschreibung:

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX (1090-1153). Apologia ad Guilelmum Sancti Theodorici abbatem , De praecepto et dispensatione , De diligendo deo . HUGH OF ST VICTOR (c.1096-1141). Liber sententiarum , DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [England, mid-12th century] In original binding of white tawed skin over oak boards. 278 x 197mm. 168 leaves: 1-21 8, later ink foliation 1-167 (final leaf unnumbered and pasted to rear cover), signed with roman numerals at centre lower edge on final versos (most signatures cropped), 27 or 28 lines in dark brown ink written in an upright romanesque bookhand between two verticals and on 27 or 28 horizontals ruled in plummet, prickings visible in the outer margins of most leaves, justification: 205 x 120mm, one four-line divided initial in red and blue with leafy infill sketched in plummet and partially executed in green and blue (f.1), one five-line divided initial in ochre and blue (f.139), two four-line initials (ff.97, 113) and numerous two-line initials in red, blue, green or ochre, a few with simple marginal extensions, chapter headings in red (spaces for rubrics not filled in on f.1 and on f.137 and following), directions for the rubricator visible in some margins (cropped), contemporary notes in the margins in brown, some erased but taken into the text as corrections written in erasures, erased marginal drawing of duck and a man holding a club with erased inscription of which the word 'Leicest...' is still legible (f.133v), ff.160-163 cancelled by marginal notations 'vacat' in a slightly later hand, occasional marginalia in 15th-century cursive, later marginalia, pencilled annotations on ff.97v-98 (blank lower portion of f.167 trimmed away, natural flaws to around 10 leaves, repair before writing to f.78). CONTEMPORARY WHITE TAWED SKIN OVER OAK BOARDS, the board edges flush with the edges of the bookblock, the covering pieced together from two pieces of skin neatly sewn together across both boards, double square-cut tabs in thick and thin tawed leather at head and foot of spine (thin outer tab lacking at head of spine), double head- and tailbands in linen thread, the headband in blue and white, preliminary quire of two vellum bifolia of which the first two leaves pasted down and the last two excised, original closure consisting of a long brown leather strap attached to front cover and catching on a pin on the back cover, brass strap-end and chased square bronze catchplate with central hole to receive the pin, the strap stitched in linen thread with ornamental patterns of circles and chevrons (minor wear, spine reinforced with a piece of brown leather adhered to the surface without disturbance to the medieval binding structure). Modern morocco-backed box. A REMARKABLE ROMANESQUE BINDING IN ORIGINAL CONDITION PROVENANCE: 1. St Osyth (Chich), Essex, Augustinian abbey of St Peter, St Paul, and St Osyth: inscription on f.1 (see following item); shelfmark 'N.6' (15th- to 16th-century?) on f.1 2. Nicholas Busshe, canon of St Osyth at the Dissolution: partially erased inscription on f.1 ( Iste liber pertinet ad Nicholas Busshe presbiterum ac olim canonicorum monasterii S. Virginis et martiris in Essexia. 1557 ); cf. N. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (2nd ed., London 1964), pp.170, 303 3. Unidentified owner, early 17th century, possibly a member or agent of the Tollemache family (cf. following item): erasure to inscription on f.1, 'Barnardi opera' entered there, manuscript titles on front cover, table of contents on front pastedown, scattered marginalia. The same person annotated several 12th- to 13th-century manuscripts from St Osyth and Helmingham Hall: St Ambrose, De officiis , now Pierpont Morgan Library, G.65 (Sotheby's 6 June 1961, lot 1); St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 101-150 , now Huntington Library, HM 26052 (Sotheby's 6 June 1961, lot 3); works of St Augustine, now British Library, Add. 56252 (Sotheby's 14 June 1965, lot 4); and St Ambrose, Hexameron (Sotheby's 14 June 1965, lot 2