JOSEPHUS. FASCICULUS TEMPORUM

MRJ number
8
College classmark
A.8

    Vellum and paper, 15 x 11.2, two volumes, the second a printed book. 

    Donor, T. C. S.

    Collation: Vol. I, i8 - xii8 (17 leaves of blank paper), four leaves vellum,

two leaves paper, three leaves vellum1, xvi8-xxix8 xxx4 (wants 4).  ff. 218+19

paper.

    Vol. I is from Christ Church, Canterbury, and is of the 12th cent. in the characteristic hand, with fine initials.  It is in double columns of 39 lines.

    On f.2 is the old mark J-C.

    Also on f.2 (3) (xv) secunda pars Josephi de claustro ecclesie Christi Cant.  Also on ff. 133, 243.

    Secunda pars Josephi (xiii) is on the flyleaf.  Ancient Libraries, p. 51, no. 340, and p. 509.  The ‘Prima pars' is in the University Library, Dd.1. 4.

    On f. 1b (unnumbered) is a reference (xii) to the testimonies of Josephus about Christ, John Baptist, and James.

 

    Contents:

   I.    1.   Iosephi Antiquitates (libb. xv-xx).

                Titles in red, green and blue capitals.

                Inc. capitula xv libri antiquitatis Iudaice hystoriarum   .          .          f.  1(2)

                Expl. capit. Inc.  liber xv qui continet tempus annorum decem

                   et octo.

                Text.  Sosius quidem et Herodes    .          .          .          .          .               1b

                Lib. XVI.  Capitula, f. 16.  Text, 16b.

                Lib. XVII, 39b.  Lib. XVIII, 58 (48).  Lib. XIX, 76 (66).

                   Lib.XX, 91 (81).

                Ends f.101 (91)b : aliud prohibemur.

                Colophon in capitals :

                Flavii Iosephi hystoriarum antiquitatis Iudaice liber xx explicit.

         2.    Flavii Iosephi in textu librorum de Iudaico bello prologus inc.

                Quoniam bellum quod cum populo romano    .          .          .          .         102

                     -sunt digesta.  Expl. prol.

                Inc.lib. primus hystoriarum Iosephi de bello Iudaico   .          .          .       103b

                (red, blue and purple capitals).

                Cum potentes iudeorum inter se dissiderent.

                There is a gap in lib.1 between ff. 106 and 123 (so numbered)

                   which is filled with blank paper.  It extends from 1, iv, 7:

                octo milia hominun extra totam iudeam profugerint. quorum.

                to 1, xxi, 7: in colle cesaris templum.

                f. 127 is also wanting, containing xxiv, 8: Nam pro suo quisque

                   odio uel inimicicia, to  xxv. 5, ipse rediit cum adolescente in

                   gratiam.

                Lib. VII ends f. 245 (218)b: que scripsi  habuerint coniecturam.

                No colophon.

 

    There is a very fine series of initials to the books.

    Lib. XV, f. 1b .   Magnificent initial with deep blue ground.  Above a man trampling on another and clutching a bird.  Below on L. a man with a lap full of stones.  On R. one about to slay another with sword.

    Lib. XVI, f. 16b : Man bitten by dog, and dragons.

    Lib. XVII, f. 39b.  Above, horned man:  then one scourging a dog (?).  Below, one kills another with axe.

    Lib. XVIII, f. 61.  Climbing man.

    Lib. XIX, f. 76b.  Grotesques.

    Lib. XX, f. 91.  Two nude men bitten by green serpents.

    Bell. Iud.  Lib. I, f. 103b.  On L. Samuel 2, a tonsured monk in green habit, writing, with pen and knife.   On R. stands Iosephus in rich dress, bearded, holding open book inscribed, Fuit autem isdem temporibus iesus sapiens uir christus hic erat.  Blue ground.

    Lib. II, f. 136b  Fine initial.  Nude figure in pointed cap.

    Lib. III, f. 164.  By another artist (?).  Beasts blowing horns.  No ground.

    Lib.IV,  f. 180b.  By the second artist.  Decorative, coarser.

    Lib.V, f. 191.  Man takes book from dragon: purple ground in head of letter.

    Lib.VI, f. 200b.  Decorative, with bird.

    Lib.VII, f. 219.  Decorative.  Medallion of head.  Dragons.

 

    Vol. II, paper, is a printed Fasciculus temporum.

    At end is an engraving impressed from a metal plate:  a shield, a chevron between three escallops.  Crest a demi-man in cap holding a baton or dagger.  Motto: Sola spes mea in te virginis gratia.

    Colophon:  Fasciculus temporum | a carthusiense compilatum | In formam cronicis figu|ratum.  Vsque in annum | 1478  A me Nicolao gotz de Seltzstat impressum.  =Hain-Copinger *9922, Proctor 1112.

 

1 Apparently quires xiii, xiv are wanting, xv8 (wants 5).

2  Doubtless the artist.  Old Testament names of monks were very common at Christ Church, Canterbury, during the Norman period.  See Searle, Christ Church, Cantrbury, pp. 164 sqq.

Manuscript extra information

Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.

T. S. R. Boase, English Art, 1100-1216 (Oxford, 1953), p.45, pl. 12.
B. Brinkmann, Hexenlust und Sündenfall: die seltsamen Phantasien des Hans Baldung Grien/Witches’ Lust and the Fall of Man: the strange fantasies of Hans Baldung Grien (Petersberg, 2007) pp. 62-65, fig. 32 (initial S f.1v).
W. Cahn, Romanesque manuscripts: the twelfth century (London, 1996), vol. II, p. 33.
G. N. Deutsch, Iconographie de l’illustration de Flavius Josephe au temps de Jean Fouquet (Leiden, 1986).
C. R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination (London, 1954), p. 22 f., 32, 36 ff., 63, 70, 77, 121, pls. 14c, 25a, b, 37a, d, 47b.
C. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190 (London, 1975), no. 44, ills. 117, 118, 121.
Ian Logan, ‘Ms. Bodley 271: Establishing the Anselmian Canon?’, The Saint Anselm Journal 2.1 (Fall 2004), 67-80.
R. Mellinkoff, ‘Cain and the Jews’, Journal of Jewish Art 6 (1979), 16-38 (reproduces f.1v).
C. Michael, Image on the edge: the margins of medieval art (London, 1992), p. 63 (reproduces f.1v).
F. Saxl, English sculptures of the twelfth century (London, 1954), p.17 n., 21, fig. 16.
H. Swarzenski, Monuments of Romanesque art (London, 1954), fig. 278.

Exhibited (f.1v) at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, from 26 July to 11 December 2005. See the exhibition catalogue: P. Binski and S. Panayotova (eds.), The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West (London: Harvey Miller, 2005) no. 109.