Gregory the Great (c.590-604)
A leaf from Dialogi Miraculorum, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Germany, 12th century].
Three stories of 6th-century Italian miracle-workers from Gregory the Great’s Dialogi.

310 x 203mm. 27 lines of text in a very regular and upright Romanesque bookhand, ruled space: 230 x 143mm, the text from Dialogi 3, XXXV-XXXVII, beginning: ‘eu[m] sanu[m] ad lectum p[ro]p[ri]um reduxit’ and ending ‘maioribus hu[n]c v[er]bor[um] co[n]tumeliis detesta[ri coeperunt]’, three initials in red with blue penwork decoration, rubrics in red, running header ‘III’ in upper margin, pinpricks survive (natural flaws to the vellum in the margins, a few stains and creases). Modern cloth binding.

Provenance:
Colker MS 317; acquired in 1983 from Maggs.

Gregory the Great structured his Dialogi, a work on the miracles and wonders performed in 6th-century Italy, as a conversation between himself and Peter, a deacon (the rubrics ‘Petrus’ and ‘Gregorius’ are here seen in red). The present leaf contains the end of the story of Amantius, a priest from Tuscany who cured the sick; the story of Maximianus, Bishop of Syracuse, who miraculously steered a storm-stricken ship through the waters of the Adriatic sea to safety; and the beginning of the story of Sanctulus, whose death causes Gregory to reminisce about his miracles - including one that involved turning water into olive oil.

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