Dialogi: MS McClean 111

Titles

Dialogi

Maker(s)

Author: Gregory the Great

Entities

• Other

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, ii paper flyleaves + i contemporary parchment flyleaf + 87 fols. + ii paper flyleaves, 240 x 165 mm (170-179 x 115-118 mm), two columns, 25-32 lines, ruled in pale brown ink, running headers, catchwords

BINDING: Before 1820, France, gold-tooled orange paper over pasteboards with red morocco spine and corners, edges gilt, blue silk bookmark, by Thouvenin (lettering on spine: R.[elié] P.[ar] Thouvenin)

CONTENTS:
fols. 1r–87v Gregory the Great, Dialogi, with capitula preceding each of the four books

ORNAMENTATION: Graded pink initials [3-7 ll.] with white geometric motifs, blue foliage infill on pink ground and acanthus extensions on gold and blue grounds within green and orange frames for books (fols. 1r, 16v, 34r, 60r), Prologue to Bk III (fol. 34r) and Bk III, chapter 13 (fol. 40r); alternate red and blue penwork initials [2-3 ll.] in blue or red pen-flourished infill and extensions for nearly all of Gregory’s and Peter’s speeches and for the first entry in the capitula to Bk IV (fol. 59v); alternate red and blue one-line penwork initials with blue or red pen-flourished infill; capitals highlighted in yellow.

Notes

History note: In France by the early nineteenth century (binding); Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), his MS 286 (number on recto of second paper flyleaf at front, on verso of parchment flyleaf at front, and on the spine); his sale, Sotheby’s London, 6-11 June 1898, lot 619; Frank McClean (1837–1904); his bequest, 1904.