Current Location: In storage
Titles
St Ephraem the Syrian and St Isaac of Nineveh, Sermones
Maker(s)
Author:
St Ephraem the Syrian
Author:
St Isaac of Nineveh
Translator:
Traversari, Ambrogio
Entities
Categories
Description
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, iv modern parchment flyleaves + 217 fols. + iv modern parchment flyleaves, 230 x 155 mm (160 x 83 mm), 31 long lines, ruled in faint brown ink, quire and leaf signatures, vertical catchwords, marginal subject-headings and Nota signs by original scribe, leaves lost before fol. 1 and after fol. 217 (four stubs extant).
BINDING: Fifteenth century, Italy, olive green leather (darkened to brown) over wooden boards, sewn on three double supports, blind-stamped with interlaced rope work design, two leather straps with metal clasps on upper cover, two catch plates on lower cover, traces of chain attachment and label holder on lower cover.
CONTENTS: fols. 1r-4v Extracts on St Ephraem the Syrian from Marcus Michael of Cortona, St Jerome and Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium; fols. 4v-5r Tituli sermonum; fols. 6r-7v Ambrogio Traversari’s dedication of his translation to Cosimo de’ Medici, inc. Peregrinum nuper offendi; fols. 8r-129v St Ephraem the Syrian, Sermones, in Latin translation by Ambrogio Traversari (ed. Xxx); fols. 131r-135r Extracts on St Isaac of Nineveh from St Gregory, Gennadius and Marcus Michael of Cortona; fols. 135r-138v Tabula sermonum; fols. 139r-217r St Isaac of Nineveh, Sermones, in Latin translation; fol. 217r-v Sententiae attributed to St Isaac of Nineveh, but some of them probably by St Jerome or by Isidor of Sevile, inc. Nunquam de ore monachi turpis aut lascivus sermo egrediatur.
DECORATION: Two historiated initials in gold on red or green grounds with gold filigree ornament and one-sided floral borders: fol. 8r [D, 8 ll.] Half-length author portrait of St Ephraem the Syrian wearing a black habit and reading a book; fol. 139r [A, 6 ll.] Half-length author portrait of St Isaac of Nineveh wearing a black habit and reading a book.
ORNAMENTATION: Buff initials [3-5 ll.] on green, blue or red grounds with geometric ornament and one-sided floral borders (fols. 2r, 6r, 131r); blue penwork initial [E, 4 ll.] with reserved ornament and red pen-flourished infill and extension (fol. 1r); alternate blue and red penwork initials [2-3 ll.] with red or violet pen-flourished infill and extensions; headings written in red epigraphic capitals (fols. 6r, 7v, 21v, 129v).
Notes
History note: Old classmark ‘D.3’ inside upper cover; Charles Fairfax Murray (1849–1919); his gift, 1905.
