Rare Leaf from Tour Scriptorium | MS 570

RARE LEAF FROM TOUR SCRIPTORIUM

MS 570
MS Short Title RARE LEAF FROM TOUR SCRIPTORIUM
Text
  1. RENTAL OF THE ABBEY OF ST. MARTIN IN TOUR, ACCOUNT LISTING 46 TENANTS WITH AMOUNTS OF PRODUCE TO BE PAID TO THE ABBEY
  2. ST. EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN: POEM ON THE LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH
Description MS in Latin on vellum, St. Martin's Tour, France, 2nd half of 7th c., 1 f., 23x19 cm, 2 columns, (23x19 cm), 22-24 lines in Merovingian cursive (text 1). Lined with part of a leaf of a late classical papyrus codex (text 2) in Greek, 7th c., originally 2 columns, 20 lines in Greek uncial.
Context From the binding of Philippus on Job, MS 10.A.1. in Den Haag, the Meerman-Westreenen Museum, together with 31 further ff. now in, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale and 1 f. in London, British Library, originally comprising one or more account rolls.
Provenance 1. Benedictine Abbey of St. Martin, Tour (ca. 675-1789); 2. Bibliothèque Municipale de Tour (1789-1832); 3. Amans-Alexis Monteil, France (1832-1833); 4. The Monteil sale, Silvestre, Paris 1833:473; 5. Sotheby's 20.6.1989:26; 6. David Thompson, Toronto; 7. Sam Fogg Rare Books Ltd., London. 8. De-accessioned Sotheby's 10.7.2012:15
Commentary Rare leaf from a major Merovingian MS of great historical and palaeographical importance, representing the oldest MS of the Tour scriptorium (Bischoff), and preserving part of the only extant papyrus codex to have survived from antiquity north of the Alps. Text 2 is by far the earliest MS of the text. Cf. ChLA vol. IV:238 and XVIII:659.
Published Pierre Gasnault: Deux nouveaux feuillets de la comptabilité domaniale de l'Abbaye Saint-Martin de Tour à l'époque mérovingienne, in: Journal des Savants, Paris, June-Dec. 1995, pp. 307-321, and ChLA vol. 47, no. 1404, Zürich 1997.
Exhibited Comité International de Palaéographie Latin (CIPL) at Senate House, University of London, 3 September 2008.
Place of origin France
Dates 2nd half 7c AD