A Collection of Early Manuscript Leaves

Introduction

In 2010 I became aware of the existence of a box containing 38 single manuscript leaves, all in Latin except for one in Arabic, and written in different periods ranging from the ninth to the eighteenth century. They were stored in their old original folders, many of them contaning catalogue descriptions that were clearly  the result  of the bookdealers' marketing techniques rather than of serious scholarship.

Originally, there was not record widely accessible for this collection. The leaves were merely assigned individual numbers, from 1 to 38, to allow librarians to page them for those patrons that somehow learnt about their existence. Recently, these leaves have been mounted and digitized, and in the near future we will be creating entries for these leaves to create a digital collection properly cataloged.

The Leaves

Mich. Ms. Leaf 1. Latin Vulgate Bible.  Parchment Leaf, 120 x 85mm. Thirteenth Century. Gothic Script.

Mich. Ms. Leaf 2. Breviary. It contains passages from the Gospels and some of the readings traditionally included for the feast of the most Holy Trinity. Parchment Leaf, 320 x 230mm. Fourteenth Century. Italian Gothic Rotunda.

Mich. Ms. Leaf 6. Book of Hours. Parchment leaf. 166 x 118mm. Fifteenth Century. Gothic Script.

Mich. Ms. Leaf 14. Rabanus Maurus (c. 780-856). De universo. Parchment leaf, 210 x 150mm. Fourteenth Century. Gothic Script.

Mich. Ms. Leaf 26. Fragment of a Maghribī Qur'ān. European laid paper, single leaf, 230 x 215 mm. Likely 18th century. Maghribī script.

Mich. Ms. Leaf 29. Rabanus Maurus (c. 780-856). Expositio in Matthaeum. Parchment Leaf,  255 x 125mm. Ninth Century. Carolingian Minuscule.

Mich. Ms. Leaf 32. Fragment from Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum added at the end of a Vulgate Bible. Parchment Leaf,164 x 245mm. Thirteenth Century. Gothic Script.

Mich. Ms. Leaf 33. Fragment from Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum added at the end of a Vulgate Bible. Parchment Leaf,160 x 242mm. Thirteenth Century. Gothic Script.

Pablo Alvarez

Evyn Kropf