A Homiliary written in Farfa-type minuscule
Fragment of a Homiliary in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Italy, 11th/12th century].
Written in romanesca (or ‘Farfa-type’) minuscule: one of the rarer variants of Caroline minuscule.

c. 263 × 149mm. Probably the upper part of the inner column of a book written in two columns, preserving 32 lines written in a distinctive Romanesca or ‘Farfa’ type minuscule, rubrics in red, one large initial ‘F’ in red with simple ornament, the following two words in rustic capitals, one smaller initial ‘O’ infilled with yellow wash, the text comprises part of the Synopsis to Leo I’s Sermones (‘ne pereant … in saecula saeculorum. Amen.’), followed by a rubric ‘De ipso die. lectio sancti evangelii secundum Lucam’, i.e. Bede’s In Evangelium S. Lucae, Book II, Chapter III (‘Factum est in una dierum […] de qua transfretando sicut’), and on the verso Book III, Chapter IX from the same work ('[c]astigat; perfectos autem [...] ut per unum hominem’) (recovered from use as the wrapper of a small slim volume, the outer face worn and dirtied, but the inner face, with the decorated initials, in good condition).

Provenance:
Colker MS 280; acquired in 1978 from B.M. Rosenthal.

Script:
The script has a distinctive flattened, rectangular aspect, leaning to the right, and the final minims of ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘t’, ‘u’ extend sharply rightward. The ascender of ‘d’ appears in both upright and flattened form, ‘g’ has an open lower bowl, ‘r’ is jagged and descends below the baseline. There is frequent use of ligatures (‘st’, ‘ti’, ‘ra’) and abbreviations. This Italian minuscule, first called Roman minuscule by E.A. Lowe, and less helpfully the ‘Farfa type’ by W.M. Lindsay (in Palaeographica latina, Pt. 3, 1924, pp. 49–51; he named it after a monastery about 20 miles north of Rome), is the subject of a study by P. Supino Martini: Roma e l’area graphica romanesca (secoli X–XII) (1987).

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