St Jerome (d.420)
Fragmentary bifolium from his Commentary on the Minor Prophets in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [England, mid 13th century].
A handsome example of an English 13th-century manuscript.

c.252 × 200mm. 2 columns of 48 lines, written below top line, the text comprising Jerome’s Commentaries on Joel 1:43–2:10 (‘magis timorem et cultum […] per muros ingrediantur’) and on Hosea 3:11.40–12.9 (‘[signi]ficat. Si meiam de mari intelligitur […] dictum est ad eos On [i.e. ὢν] inter[pretatur]’), decorated with blue and red initials (recovered from use as a pastedown in a tanned leather binding, with consequent damages, stains, etc., with some loss of text, but the cropping of margins not affecting the text).

Provenance:
(1) Philip Bliss (1787–1857), Under-Librarian of the Bodleian Library from 1822-1828, Registrar of Oxford University from 1824-1853, Keeper of the University Archives from 1826-1857 and Principal of St Mary Hall from 1848-1857. His collection of leaves was sold at Sotheby’s, 21 August 1858, lots 100 and 119, where acquired by:
(2) Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872), English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. Bliss’s collection of leaves became at least partially MS 18133 in the Phillipps library. Sold at Sotheby’s, 24 April 1911, lot 390, where acquired by:
(3) Edmund Hunt Dring (1863–1928), the first managing director of Bernard Quaritch Ltd.
(4) Edmund Maxwell 'Ted' Dring (1906–1990), senior director of Bernard Quaritch.
(5) Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue 1036: Medieval Manuscript Leaves, Principally from a Collection Formed in the 19th Century: Bookhands of the Middle Ages [I] (London, 1984), no. 81.
(6) Colker MS 386; acquired in 1987–88 from Quaritch.

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