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Auction archive: Lot number 24

Two bifolia from a copy of Papias the Grammarian, Elementarium Doctrinae Rudimentum, in Latin wit

Estimate
£2,000 - £4,000
ca. US$2,770 - US$5,541
Price realised:
£4,800
ca. US$6,649
Auction archive: Lot number 24

Two bifolia from a copy of Papias the Grammarian, Elementarium Doctrinae Rudimentum, in Latin wit

Estimate
£2,000 - £4,000
ca. US$2,770 - US$5,541
Price realised:
£4,800
ca. US$6,649
Beschreibung:

Two bifolia from a copy of Papias the Grammarian, Elementarium Doctrinae Rudimentum, in Latin with a few words in Greek, manuscript on parchment [Italy, late twelfth century] Four consecutive leaves, and thus once the centre of a gathering, each leaf with four columns of 40 lines of a squat and angular bookhand (with entries from the text from 'placare' to 'portus'), with occasional biting curves and written below topline, capitals touched in red and line-fillers in same penwork, tall red abbreviations set in margins next to entries marking where the reading is taken from (see below), occasional extra readings supplied interlineally or in small red boxes in margins, one leaf with a catchword ('abellane', the last word for the entry 'ponticae') despite this not being the end of a gathering, prick-marks for lines visible and so leaves most probably not cut down, some splashes and small areas of discolouration, a few small holes, some cockling overall, but in good condition, each leaf approximately 614 by 342mm. Provenance: 1. From a monumental codex of this important encyclopedic text, most probably produced for a large ecclesiastical centre. 2. Acquired from a private European collector in 2013. Text: Little can now be known with certainty about this 'Papias' (almost certainly a pseudonym, with the word meaning 'guide'). He may have been a theologian in Pavia, and most probably produced this work in the 1040s. However, while he has been almost forgotten, his Elementarium Doctrinae Rudimentum has not, with the late Richard Sharpe calling it 'the first fully recognizable dictionary', and noting that it is the first lexigraphical work to cite its sources (in Medieval Latin, An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, 1996, p. 96). Papias arranges his entries by their first three letters, and here cites his Classical sources as 'hyg' (Hyginus), 'Vir' (Vergil) and 'P's' (Priscian). Bruno of Würzburg (d. 1045) saw an early draft of the work, and it was complete by 1053 when the chronicler Alberic of Trois-Fontaines noted that copies had been distributed. G.L. Bursill-Hall records 110 extant manuscripts (Census of Medieval Latin Grammatical Manuscripts, 1981), but the only study of the manuscript stemma is that of B. Zonta who lists none there older than the twelfth century (in Studi Classici e orientali, 9, 1960, pp. 76-99). The text is rare in manuscript in private hands, with the Schoenberg database recording only two on the market in the last century: (i) a copy dated 1410, ex Thomas Phillipps, his MS. 21039, offered by Sotheby's, 27 April 1903, lot 500 (and now Berlin, Staatsbliothek); and (ii) that of the late thirteenth century, sold in Bonham's, New York, 2 December 2012, lot 1006. To these should be added the fragment of 63 leaves from a twelfth-century French manuscript offered by Erik von Scherling in Rotulus V (1949), no. 2089.

Auction archive: Lot number 24
Auction:
Datum:
6 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
Beschreibung:

Two bifolia from a copy of Papias the Grammarian, Elementarium Doctrinae Rudimentum, in Latin with a few words in Greek, manuscript on parchment [Italy, late twelfth century] Four consecutive leaves, and thus once the centre of a gathering, each leaf with four columns of 40 lines of a squat and angular bookhand (with entries from the text from 'placare' to 'portus'), with occasional biting curves and written below topline, capitals touched in red and line-fillers in same penwork, tall red abbreviations set in margins next to entries marking where the reading is taken from (see below), occasional extra readings supplied interlineally or in small red boxes in margins, one leaf with a catchword ('abellane', the last word for the entry 'ponticae') despite this not being the end of a gathering, prick-marks for lines visible and so leaves most probably not cut down, some splashes and small areas of discolouration, a few small holes, some cockling overall, but in good condition, each leaf approximately 614 by 342mm. Provenance: 1. From a monumental codex of this important encyclopedic text, most probably produced for a large ecclesiastical centre. 2. Acquired from a private European collector in 2013. Text: Little can now be known with certainty about this 'Papias' (almost certainly a pseudonym, with the word meaning 'guide'). He may have been a theologian in Pavia, and most probably produced this work in the 1040s. However, while he has been almost forgotten, his Elementarium Doctrinae Rudimentum has not, with the late Richard Sharpe calling it 'the first fully recognizable dictionary', and noting that it is the first lexigraphical work to cite its sources (in Medieval Latin, An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, 1996, p. 96). Papias arranges his entries by their first three letters, and here cites his Classical sources as 'hyg' (Hyginus), 'Vir' (Vergil) and 'P's' (Priscian). Bruno of Würzburg (d. 1045) saw an early draft of the work, and it was complete by 1053 when the chronicler Alberic of Trois-Fontaines noted that copies had been distributed. G.L. Bursill-Hall records 110 extant manuscripts (Census of Medieval Latin Grammatical Manuscripts, 1981), but the only study of the manuscript stemma is that of B. Zonta who lists none there older than the twelfth century (in Studi Classici e orientali, 9, 1960, pp. 76-99). The text is rare in manuscript in private hands, with the Schoenberg database recording only two on the market in the last century: (i) a copy dated 1410, ex Thomas Phillipps, his MS. 21039, offered by Sotheby's, 27 April 1903, lot 500 (and now Berlin, Staatsbliothek); and (ii) that of the late thirteenth century, sold in Bonham's, New York, 2 December 2012, lot 1006. To these should be added the fragment of 63 leaves from a twelfth-century French manuscript offered by Erik von Scherling in Rotulus V (1949), no. 2089.

Auction archive: Lot number 24
Auction:
Datum:
6 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
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