Leaf from a Glossed Gospel book
Leaf from a Glossed Gospel of St John, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [France (or possibly England), second(?) quarter 12th century].
An example of the earliest page-layout for Glossed biblical books.

c.220 × 157mm. Ruled in plummet for up to 31 lines of Gloss, preserving the prickings in outer and lower margins, the main text in a central column of fixed width, the Gloss to both sides and between the lines, in two sizes of script, foliated in pencil ‘67’ and in ink ‘70’, the main text comprising John 13:15–30 (‘dedi vobis […] exivit con[tinuo]’) (some minor staining and darkening of the edges, one edge flaw with old repair)

Provenance:
(1) Otto F. Ege (S. Gwara, Otto Ege’s MSS, 2013, Handlist no 1): included as the first item in his most famous portfolio of Fifty Original Leaves, attributed to Switzerland(?); 18 leaves sold by his heirs at Sotheby’s, 26 November 1985, part of lot 43; bought by Quaritch.
(2) Colker MS 314; acquired in 1983 from Maggs.

Colker believed this leaf to be English, perhaps because of features such as the use by the scribe of the insular abbreviation mark for ‘est’ (in the form of dots either side of a wavy horizontal, similar to a mathematical division sign, ‘÷’), but this was not used exclusively in England. With the benefit of 18 leaves to study, Christopher de Hamel attributed the manuscript to ‘possibly Eastern France or Paris’.

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