TEXT FROM BOOK I, CHAPTERS XXIX-XXXII.

MOST OF A MEDIEVAL VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAF, FROM GREGORY THE GREAT'S "MORALIA IN JOB."

(Germany: 12th century). 272 x 185 mm. (10 3/4 x 7 1/4"). Single column, 28 lines, in a late Caroline hand.

◆Leaf trimmed irregularly along one side (about 18 lines lacking a letter or two), vellum a bit wrinkled and worn, text a little faded in places, but still very presentable, and the text almost entirely legible.

Penned in a pleasing and very legible late Caroline hand, this leaf has sustained very little loss and is remarkably well preserved for having been previously reused as binding scrap. Although the text includes several abbreviations that are commonly found in proto-gothic scripts, the hand also shares a number of similarities with the Caroline minuscule that dominated Western Europe scribal hands in earlier periods, including a long "s" with the shaft on the line, and the use of the ampersand as a general abbreviation for the letters "et" occurring anywhere in a word. The text here comes from Pope Gregory the Great's "Moralia," conceived as a commentary on the book of Job and begun when Gregory was just a young papal envoy to Constantinople. It is a guide to the Christian life, written in simple, direct language which transforms the thought of Augustine into a practical manual of behavior. (ST19350-006)

Price: $1,250.00