Details

Subject(s)

• Bible. John—Sermons—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]
• Illumination of books and manuscripts [Browse]

Former owner

• Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872 [Browse]
• Friend, Albert Mathias, Jr., 1894-1956 [Browse]

Donor

• Friend, Albert Mathias, Jr., 1894-1956 [Browse]

Related name

• Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Princeton MS. 127 [Browse]

Notes

• Script: Protogothic, by two scribes.
• Decoration: Fol. 1v (Sermon 39) opens with a 9-line initial U (Uerba) decorated with a dragon and rinceaux foliage colored in red, green, and ochre, and vine-scroll decoration with a red line along the center of each vine. Subsequent sermons each open with a 3- to 8-line red Romanesque initial, some plain, but many decorated with calligraphic and geometric ornament; sermon 102 (fol. 125v) has a 4-line initial D enclosing a dog biting its hind paw. Sermon summaries and the minor texts on fols. 173v-174v each open with a 2-line red initial, with the exception of the Tractatus de anima, which has a 3-line initial, and 1-line initials within the text on the liturgical year.

Binding note

England (?), 19th century. Parchment over paste-board. Spine title (written in brown ink and partially readable under ultraviolet light): “ ||Expositionis Sancti Augustini||.”

Provenance

Princeton MS. 127 was originally in the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Martin de Tournai, Belgium, and is listed in the earliest surviving catalogue of this monastery, datable to between 1160 and 1180. The manuscript was still in Tournai library in the 17th century. In 1824, Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), of Middle Hill, Worcestershire, purchased 146 Tournai manuscripts and left them behind in Brussels with a man surnamed Eeman, who in Phillipps' absence proceeded to sell many of the manuscripts to the Brussels bookseller Castanet. The latter in turn eventually sold them to various people, including the bookseller Castiaux in Lille. In 1927, Prof. Albert M. Friend, Jr. (1894-1956), of Princeton, New Jersey, Class of 1915, purchased the manuscript from the Brick Row Bookshop, which had branches in Princeton, New Haven, and New York. Professor Friend bequeathed the manuscript to Princeton University. However, the manuscript was put in the custody of Prof. Kurt Weitzmann (1904-1993), Friend's colleague in the Department of Art and Archaeology, probably from 1956, the year of Friend's death, until 14 April 1983, when it was transferred from Weitzmann to the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.

Source acquisition

Gift Albert M. Friend, Jr.

References

Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 360-362.

Cite as

Princeton MS. 127, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

OCLC

1112088899

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