Bible fragments

Three leaves, foliated 289, 294 and 300, from a dismembered Latin Bible of Parisian workmanship, possibly from the Carthusian monastery of Val-de-Benediction in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France. The leaves contain the texts of Jeremiah 50.3 to 51.18, Baruch 2.11 to 4.25 and Ezekiel 12.7 to 14.21. The fragments are dated to c1250, and there are marginal and interlineal notes in 13th or 14th century hands. With this manuscript are photocopies of two leaves from the same manuscript, from the collection of Dr B. Barker Benfield, sold at Sotheby's on 14 Dec 1978.

Access to the items in the collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the controlled environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Access to archive collections may be restricted under the Freedom of Information Act. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

See R Watson 'Descriptive list of fragments of Medieval manuscripts in the University of London Library' (1976).

8¼" x 5¾". Initials in red and blue, with red and blue ornament; capitals touched in red; running title and book numbers in red and blue; the whole written on fine vellum.

Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Other leaves from the same bible are now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford University (Ref: MS Lat bibl e 6); the collection of Mr. Mark Lansburgh, Santa Barbara, U.S.A., possibly among the manuscripts given by Lansburgh to Colorado College before 1967; and possibly the Dunedin Public Library (Reed Collection).

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

The leaves are thought to have been in the possession of the Folio Society. Folio 289 (MS 576) was given to the University of London Library in 1963 by Miss Joan Gibbs, who received it from Dr Helena Chew. Folios 294 and 300 (MS 546) were bought from Bondy in 1961.

Leaves from this Bible were described in Bulletin of European Miniatures and Illumination , no. 2, Nov 1962. Similar leaves, possibly from this Bible, are listed in K.V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts (Sydney, 1969), and C. De Hamel, 'Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts in the Dunedin Public Library's Alfred and Isabel Reed Collection' (1973).