A Study Group A study group of leaves and fragments, in Latin, manuscripts on vellum [12th to 15th centuries]A selection of theological and literary manuscripts from Western Europe, with a fifteenth-century Manual of wisdom and courtly behaviour and a copy of one of the great medieval florilegia. Comprising : (i) A gathering of four leaves from Ambrose, Hexameron [Germany, 12th century]. c.205 × 280mm. 28 lines, ruled in plummet, written in a protogothic bookhand, with marginal rubrics; text comprising part of St Ambrose's Hexameron , Book 5-6, with one bifolium lacking between ff.2 and 3 (foliated in modern pencil, all leaves have been used in binding, part of ff.1-3 cropped with text lacking, some text on f.4 very faded).Provenance : Colker MS 33; acquired in 1963 from Salloch. (ii) A partial leaf from Petrus Pictaviensis, Sententiae [France?, 12th century]. c.255 × 203mm. 2 columns of 40 lines, with a double row of pricking visible on the fore-edge, in a protogothic bookhand with a penwork initial in blue and red ink; text comprises part of Book 2, Chapter 19 on the topic of original sin; see Patrologia Latina , 211, 1016-1020 (lower leaf and gutter margin cropped, some darkening and fading of text throughout from use as a cover, remains of adhesive in one margin).Provenance : Colker MS 58; acquired in 1964 from Dawson’s Book Shop, Los Angeles. (iii) A bifolium from [Quodvultdeus], De Promissionibus et praedictionibus Dei [Germany, 12th century]. c.205 × 150mm. 31 lines, blind-rule with pricking visible on the fore-edge, written in a protogothic bookhand, inclined to the right; text comprising part of the De Promissionibus from the prologue ('Tempus ante legem') to the first lines of chapter 4, preceded by opening lines of a numerological nature, not from the main text; see Patrologia Latina , 51, 0733-0858. The text is often attributed to Quodvultdeus, a fifth-century bishop of Carthage who wrote extensively against Arianism (upper and out margins cropped, very minor holes and staining).Provenance : Colker MS 65; acquired in 1964 from Maggs. (iv) A leaf from Thomas de Hibernia, Manipulus Florum [England, 14th century]. c.310 × 200mm. 2 columns of 52 lines, ruled in plummet, in a gothic script, with pen-drawn initials with ornamental flourishes in red and blue, and alphabetical indices in margins; with text from Thomas of Ireland's great florilegium , which he compiled from sources at the Sorbonne library. The Manipulus Florum is a good example of early developments in mise-en-page to facilitate the organisation and indexing of information; see Richard and Mary Rouse, Preachers, florilegia and sermons: studies on the Manipulus florum of Thomas of Ireland (Toronto, 1979), pp. 3-4; (remains of adhesive in margins on verso).Provenance : Colker MS 149; acquired in 1969 from Maggs. (v) Two bifolia from a Manual, in verse [Bohemia, 15th century]. c.120 × 155mm. 25 lines, ruled in plummet, in a gothic script, scribe names himself "Wenceslaus" in the rubric on f.3v ("Explicit Katno p[er] manus Wenceslav"); text comprises part of the anonymous classical work known as Catonis Disticha , with one leaf missing, and the beginning of an anonymous courtly manual known as Facetus ("Cum Nihil Utilius" version). These texts were always transmitted together in a German context; see Leopold Zatočil, Cato a Facetus. Pojednání a texty. Zu den deutschen Cato- und Facetusbearbeitungen. Untersuchungen und Texte (Brno, 1952) (leaves cropped unevenly, small holes throughout).Provenance : Colker MS 23; acquired in 1958.