St John's College S.68 (James 453)

John Palmer, Transcript of missing fragment of IV Ezra. Latin and English, 1826

John Palmer, Fellow of St John's College and Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic at Cambridge (1769-1840): transcript from a MS in the Complutensian Library then at Alcalá of the missing portion of the Latin version of IV Ezra, with a list of readings to be re-examined. This text fell between II Esdras vii.35 and 36 in the Apocrypha. The date Dec. 1826 is derived from Palmer's journal, SJC MS S.76. His transcription is printed with an introduction and notes by J. S. Wood in the Journal of Philology 7 (1877), 264-78. See too Robert L. Bensly, The Missing fragment of the Latin translation of the Fourth Book of Ezra (Cambridge, 1875). Bensly derives his text from an apparently later MS at Amiens. The companion paper headed 'Readings in the transcript of a portion of the MS Biblia Latino-Gothica in the Complutensian Library to be reexamined' (fos 9-12) is not printed in full by Wood.

Manuscript extra information

225x160 mm. [16] fos (12-16 blank). Small College bookplate (nineteenth century) inside front cover, also a plate recording the bequest of John Palmer. Apparently presented by John William Pieters, Fellow and Senior Bursar of St John's (1824-1901), in 1877, it was described as 'recently transferred to the Library of St John's College' in Wood's article, p. 264.

Autograph in single, neat hand. Paper. Rebound in half leather, marbled paper on cardboard, nineteenth century, possibly at the time of donation. Spine title in gold lettering: 'Missing Section of Esdras II. Palmer'.