Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library
JACOBUS DE VORAGINE, LEGENDA AUREAff. 1-163v: [Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea] De sancto andrea apostolo, Andreas et quidam alii discipuli…et alienum hunc vultum a te conffugabo et proprium coram omnibus reddam [catchword:] hoc tamen nullo//; [f. 164r-v:] //animal stare poterit. Sed ad solum omnia prosternentur. Nona equabitur…sicut oculis suis viderant conscripserunt.
France, s. XIIIex
Th. Graesse, ed., Jacobi a Voragine Legenda Aurea (Bratislava 1890) p. 7, line 13 to p. 783, line 17; the last folio was misbound in its present position, and should be the first. According to the roman-numbered Lives in the Graesse edition, this manuscript is arranged: 1-18; text missing between ff. 21-22: end of De Sancto Felice, De Sancto Marcello and beginning of De Sancto Antonio; 22-30; text missing between ff. 29-30: De Septuagesima and beginning of De Quinquagesima; 34; text missing between ff. 30-31: end of De Ieiuniis, De Sancto Ignatio and the beginning of De Purificatione BVM; 38; text missing between ff. 33-34: end of De Sancto Agatha, De Sancto Vedasto, De Sancto Amando and the beginning of De Sancto Valentino; 43-45; text missing between ff. 38-39: end of De Sancto Gregorio, De Sancto Longino, De Sancto Sophia and beginning of De Sancto Benedicto; 50-51; De Sancto Timotheo, 52, not copied in this manuscript; 53-54; text missing between ff. 46-47: end of De Sancto Secundo and beginning of De Sancta Maria Aegyptiaca; 57-58; text missing between ff. 50-51: end of De Sancto Marco Evangelista, De Sancto Marcellino, De Sancto Vitali and beginning of De Sancto Petro Martire; De Sancto Fabiano, 64, not copied in this manuscript; 65; De Sancta Apollonia, 66, not copied in this manuscript; 67-70; De Sancto Bonifacio, 71, not copied in this manuscript; 72-82; text missing between ff. 66-67: end of De Sancto Quirico, De Sancta Maria and beginning of De Sanctis Gervasio et Prothasio; 86-89; text missing between ff. 75-76: end of De Sancto Paulo, De Septem Fratribus, and beginning of De Sancta Theodora; 93-101; text missing between ff. 86-87: end of De Sanctis Nazario et Celso, De Sancto Felice Papa, De Sanctis Simplicio et Faustino, De Sancta Martha, De Sanctis Abdon et Sennen and beginning of De Sancto Germano; 108-131; 134; text missing between ff. 122-123: end of De Sanctis Gorgonio et Dorotheo and beginning of De Sanctis Protho et Jacincto; 137-138; 62 (De Virgine Anthiochena); 132 (De Sanctis Cornelio et Cypriano); 139; 133 (De Sancto Lamberto), 140-170. Kaeppeli, SOPMA 2154. Parchment, ff. i (late medieval parchment) + 164 + ii (late medieval parchment); 350 × 247 (245 × 145) mm. 112(-1, 2, 3; this last now f. 164) 212 312(-1, 10, 11) 412(-1, 5, 11) 512(-8) 612(-1; note that the 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 10th leaves—ff. 52, 53, 58, 59—are singletons, their conjuncts having evidently been cancelled, since the text runs continuously) 712(-6) 812(-4) 912(-4, 5) 1012 1112(-2, no text missing) 1212(-7) 13-1512 + one leaf (the third leaf of the first quire, misbound). Catchwords in simple yellow-washed frames through quire 5, that of quire 6 noted in a cursive hand, thereafter decorated with elaborate mouse-designs touched in red. Leaf signatures in a variety of methods: letters of the alphabet, a-h; an individual letter repeated, d, dd, ddd, dddd, vd (on quire 6); a series of horizontal slashes; letters of the alphabet surmounted by diacritical marks; a series of tangent circles. 2 columns of 59 lines, ruled in scratchy brown lead; pricking visible in the 3 outer margins. Written by 2 scribes in a gothic book hand: i, ff. 1-50 and 164; ii, ff. 51-163. Extensively illuminated with 135 miniatures, usually 16 lines in height and width of 1 column (approximately 67 × 67 mm.). Written instructions to the illuminator are present for approximately one third of the miniatures; they tend to be more complex and closer to the text than the resulting miniature. Rudimentary sketches, or evidence of sketches, for the miniatures occur in about one quarter of the cases; a number of miniatures have both the written directions and the preliminary sketch. The illuminations are: f. 1, Andrew being tied to a Latin cross; f. 3, Nicholas before the children in the tub and the repentant butcher; f. 4v, Lucia standing in the fire with boiling oil thrown on her and a sword being run through her stomach; f. 5, Thomas the Apostle commanding the idol to destroy itself as the high priest smites him with a sword; f. 6v, Nativity: the Virgin lies on a bed looking away into the distance while Joseph stands to the right and the Christ Child lies in a manger in the background; f. 8, Anastasia being burned at the stake at a king’s orders; f. 8v, Stephen being stoned; f. 10, John the Evangelist in the pot of boiling oil; f. 11v, Massacre of the Innocents; f. 12v, Thomas of Canterbury; f. 13v, Silvester tying a cord around the dragon’s neck; f. 16, Circumcision; f. 17v, Adoration of the Magi; f. 19v, Paul the Hermit, his body still kneeling in prayer, while angels carry away his soul; f. 20, Remigius baptizing the king with oil brought by an angel from heaven; f. 20v, Hilary seated among the other bishops; f. 21, Macarius carrying a sack of sand on his shoulders; f. 21v, Felix being stabbed by his students with their styluses; f. 22, Fabianus chosen pope by the white dove; f. 22v, Sebastian; f. 23v, Agnes being burned, and with a sword through her neck; f. 24v, Vincent tied to a St. Andrew’s cross, being lacerated with metal combs; f. 25, Basil rising from his deathbed to baptize his Jewish doctor; f. 26v, John the Almoner giving money to the poor; f. 27, Conversion of Paul; f. 27v, Paula and Eustochium in a boat leaving for the Holy Land; f. 28v, Julianus and Julius asking passers-by to help build the church, even though one of them pretends to be dead; f. 30, for Lent, a man confessing; f. 30v, for the Ember days, 2 groups of monks praying or singing from books; f. 32v, Blasius being decapitated at a king’s orders; f. 33, Agatha, her breasts being cut off; f. 34, Juliana in prison binding the demon’s hands and, later, being beheaded; f. 34v, Peter on his throne in Antioch; f. 35v, Matthias and Joseph Barsabas casting lots to take Judas’ place; f. 36v, Gregory giving his silver bowl to a beggar; f. 40v, Patrick accidentally piercing the king’s foot with his staff; f. 41v, Annunciation, with both Gabriel and Mary standing; f. 42v, Crucifixion between Mary and John; f. 45, Resurrection; f. 47, Ambrose protecting the church from the emperor; f. 49, George bound to the wheel of swords; f. 50, Mark writing; f. 53v, Philip tied to the cross; f. 54, James the Less felled by a blow of a club; f. 56, Finding of the Holy Cross; f. 57v, John the Evangelist in the pot of oil before the Latin Gate; f. 58, Procession with cross and banners; f. 59, Ascension; f. 61, Pentecost; f. 63, Gordianus being beheaded at a king’s orders; f. 63v, Nereus and Achilleus being decapitated; f. 64, Pancratius being decapitated; f. 64, Urbanus with 5 companions being decapitated; f. 64v, Petronilla in bed receiving communion before dying, and Felicula being tortured; f. 64v, Peter the Exorcist and Marcellinus being beheaded in the forest; f. 65, Primus and Felicianus being decapitated at a king’s orders; f. 65v, Barnabas held by ropes about his neck and kneeling in the flames; f. 66v, Vitus, tonsured, on a St. Andrew’s cross with 2 sleeping (?) people at his feet, presumably Modestus and Crescentia; f. 67, Birth of John the Baptist, while Elizabeth in bed gazes off into the distance; f. 69, John and Paul being decapitated; f. 69v, Leo, his hand being kissed, and, later, cutting off the offending hand; f. 70, Peter crucified upside down; f. 72v, Paul being beheaded at a king’s orders; f. 76v, Margaret coming out of the dragon’s back; f. 77, Alexius accepted as a beggar in his father’s house; f. 78, Praxedis and Pudentiana burying the bodies of martyrs; f. 78v, Mary Magdalene before the Risen Christ in the garden; f. 80v, Apollinaris being beaten by the mobs; f. 81, Christina being shot with arrows; f. 81v, James the Greater about to be decapitated; f. 84, Christopher holding the Christ Child in his arms; f. 85, the Seven Sleepers and the emperor Theodosius; f. 86, Nazarius and Celsius being beheaded; f. 87v, Eusebius being stoned by the heretics; f. 88, Maccabean Martyrs; f. 88v, Peter in chains talking with an angel, while the guards gather outside the prison; f. 90, Stephen the Pope being beheaded after mass; f. 90, Stephen protomartyr’s, and Gamaliel’s, Nicodemus’ and Abibas’ open coffins lie before the wondering bishop; f. 91v, Dominic and his brethern kneeling before the pope (?); f. 96, Sixtus and 2 companions being beheaded; f. 96v, Donatus being beheaded; f. 97, Cyriacus and 2 companions being beheaded; f. 97v, Lawrence on the gridiron; f. 100v, Hippolytus drawn between 2 horses; f. 101, Dormition of the Virgin, while Jesus holds her soul, as a small child, in his arms; f. 106, Bernard and Malachy in prayer; f. 108, Timothy and a companion decapitated at a king’s orders; f. 108, Symphorianus being decapitated; f. 108, Bartholomew being flayed; f. 110v, Augustine, disputing; f. 114v, Decollation of John the Baptist, while Herod and Herodias watch from their banquet; f. 116v, Felix and Adauctus being decapitated at a king’s orders; f. 117, Sabinianus of Troyes being decapitated by soldiers; f. 117v, Lupus receiving Clotaire who is returning the church bell to Sens; f. 118, (for the feast of Mamertinus, although the rubric reads “De sancto martino”) Marinus, a monk of Mamertinus’ monastery, releasing the bear from the trap; f. 118v, Aegidius wounded by the huntsman’s arrow, while protecting the tame deer; f. 119v, Birth of the Virgin, who is being washed by a midwife, while Anne, lying in bed, props her head up on her elbow; f. 122, Adrianus’ hands being severed from his body and his wife Nathalia carefully holding one of them; f. 123, Heraclius approaching Jerusalem with the Holy Cross; f. 124v, John Chrysostom, dying, his soul being received by an angel; f. 126v, the Antiochene Virgin, kneeling before a man, with a group of people in the background; f. 127v, Cornelius and 2 other martyrs being decapitated; f. 128, Euphemia being pierced by the executioner’s sword as he himself is attacked by a lion; f. 128v, Lambert killed by 2 soldiers as a king watches; f. 129, Matthew being beheaded beside the altar; f. 130, Maurice and his companions being beheaded by soldiers; f. 131, Justina and Cyprian in the pot of pitch, while the flames jump out on to the priest of the idols; f. 132, Cosmas and Damian, attaching the black leg to the sick man; f. 133, Fursey in bed, as his soul is received by 2 angels, while a third protects it from devils shooting arrows; f. 133v, Michael helping a saint in his fight against devils; f. 136, Jerome commands the lion to guard the donkey bearing wood, while another monk watches; f. 137v, Translation of Remigius by angels carrying his coffin to the crypt; f. 138, Leodegarius being decapitated; f. 138v, Francis about to receive the stigmata from the crucified seraph; f. 141, Pelagia repenting before Veronus; f. 141v, Margaret leaving her marriage feast; f. 142, Thais burning her goods; f. 142v, Denis holding his severed head and standing between Rusticus and Eleutherius as they are being decapitated; f. 143v, Callistus being thrown from a window into the well; f. 144, Leonard releasing the man who had been in the pit below the tower; f. 145, Luke writing; f. 147, Chrysanthus and Daria in the pit being crushed by the stones and earth thrown in upon them; f. 147, Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins being decapitated; f. 148, Simon and Jude being decapitated; f. 149, Quentin being decapitated; f. 149, Eustachius kneeling before the stag with the image of Christ between its antlers; f. 150v, All Saints: Christ in majesty holds a sheet containing the souls of the saints in his hands, with the symbols of the Evangelists at the 4 corners of the miniature; f. 153, All Souls; f. 155v, the Four Crowned Martyrs being cast into the sea; f. 155v, Theodore standing in the flames and giving forth his soul to the angel above; f. 156, Martin cutting his cloak to share it with a beggar; f. 156v, Brictius commanding the infant to declare the falsity of the paternity charges brought against him; f. 157, Elizabeth kneeling, reading her prayers before Master Conrad who holds a whip; f. 161, Cecilia being beheaded as she burns in the flames; f. 162v, Clement being cast into the sea with a weight hung from his neck. Major initials, 9- to 7-line, in dull pink or blue, patterned in white against a cusped ground of the other color, infilling in a darker shade of the same color as the initial, with grotesque or leaf forms decorated with burnished gold, and marginal extensions. Initials, 4-line, to introduce the Etymologia of similar style; secondary initials, 2-line, alternating red and blue with flourishes of the other color. Running headlines across the opening alternate red and blue letters; rubrics in red throughout; line fillers in the shape of mice, the same as the decoration on the catchwords. Frequent notes to the rubricator. Carefully corrected throughout by the scribe of the text, corrections in yellow boxes. Some marginalia in various hands up to s. XVI. Bound in original (?) oak boards, quarter backed in modern mottled calf; remains of 2 fore edge straps of pink leather closing to pins on the center back; flyleaves, washed, contained a prose text in French in 2 columns, written in a bâtarde script, s. XV. Written in France, perhaps in Paris, during the next to the last decade of the thirteenth century, but in England by the third or certainly the last quarter of the fourteenth century, to judge by the script of the note added on f. 11v, correcting the king’s name from “Edmundus” to “Edwardus.” A modern note on f. i states that the manuscript came from Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire; rejected by Ker, MLGB, 89. Belonged to Sir Henry Ingilby, Bart., of Ripley Castle, Yorkshire and later to Lt. Col. Sir William Henry Ingilby, Bart. (1874-1950); his sale, Sotheby’s, 21 October 1920, lot 172 to Sabin; at this point the current f. 164 began the volume. Purchased by the Huntington Library from the G. D. Smith Book Company in January 1927. Bibliography: HMC, 6th Report, Appendix (1877) 352-95, especially 356; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1885-87) 179; De Ricci, 112; Aspects of Medieval England, n. 23 open at f. 161, Cecilia. For reproductions of the miniatures, see Sotheby’s, 21 October 1920, frontispiece, of ff. 118v, 138v and 117, respectively Aegidius, Francis and Sabinianus with the adjacent preliminary sketch; G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, trans., The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (London 1941) pl. 2 of f. 64, Pancratius and Urbanus; Princeton Index of Christian Art, of the full series of miniatures; New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Hagiography” of f. 8, Anastasia; R. Zuccaro, Gli affreschi nella Grotta di San Michele ad Olevano sul Tusciano. Studi sulla pittura medioevale campana 2 (Rome 1977) pl. 200 of f. 66v, Vitus; H. Friedman, A Bestiary for Saint Jerome (Smithsonian Institution 1980) fig. 156 of f. 136, Jerome.
C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Copyright 1989.
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.
Electronic version encoded by Sharon K, Goetz, 2003.
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