Details

Standardized Title:

Speculum historiale. Selections.

Subjects:

World history -- Early works to 1800.
World history.
Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- Early works to 1600.
Encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Form/Genre:

Chronicles.
Encyclopedias.
Manuscripts, Latin -- 14th century.
Manuscripts, Latin -- 15th century.
Manuscripts, Medieval.

Language:

Latin.

Summary:

A volume, probably the third from a set of three, comprising Books 25 to 28 of the Speculum historiale of Vincent of Beauvais. The volume is incomplete, breaking off at the beginning of Chapter 80 of Book 28, although the table of contents for Book 28 lists 102 chapters (f. 148r-148v) and the Speculum historiale when complete runs to 32 books.

Contents:

1. f.1r-43r: Liber XXV [Charlemagne to Otho]
2. f.43r-101v: Liber XXVI [Henry II to disputatio of Petrus Alfonsus]
3. f.101v-148r: Liber XXVII [Henry V to selections from Hugh of Saint-Victor]
4. f.148r-178v: Liber XXVIII [Lotharius II to selections from Hugh de Foliet]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Parchment, i (modern parchment) + 176 + i (modern parchment); 1² 2-13⁸ 14⁸(-1) 15-19⁸ 20⁸(-1) 21-223⁸; [1-102, 104-148, 150-178]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto, with 2 pages cut out (f. 103, f. 149) included in count. Signatures sometimes visible or partly visible in red ink, lower right recto. Catchwords on the last leaf of each gathering, lower left verso.
Layout: Written in 2 columns of 47 lines; frame-ruled in ink with double bounding lines on each side.
Script: Written in Gothic semi-cursive book script.
Decoration: 4 6- to 8-line puzzle initials in blue and burnished gold with elaborate penwork infill and surround in dark blue and red and with full-length bar borders decorated with half fleurs-de-lis in blue and gold and with penwork (f. 1v, 3r, 45r, 148r); 2-line chapter initials in blue or red with contrasting penwork in bright red or blue-black throughout; line-fillers in red and blue; rubrics and running headings in red; capitals following some decorated initials touched in yellow. Some catchwords enclosed in decorative cartouches with flowers (for example f. 170v, 178v).
Binding: 20th-century morocco, title gilt, by Douglas Cockerell & Son, 1980.
Origin: Written in France, probably Paris, circa 1400.
A detached leaf from Book 29 and two bifolia detached from Book 30 (LJS 124.1 and LJS 124.2) are in a folder housed with the manuscript.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Guillaume Libri; sold at auction at Sotheby's in a sale of part of the Libri collection, 1 June 1864, lot 71, to Boone (Thomas and William Boone or Thomas Boone & Son or a related firm, all London).
Formerly owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (ms. 24654); appeared at auction at Sotheby's in a sale of part of the Phillipps collection, 6 June 1899, lot 367, but presumably not sold; sold at auction at Sotheby's in a sale of part of the Phillipps collection, 24 June 1935, lot 74.
Formerly owned by H. R. Creswick, Bodley's Librarian and Cambridge University Librarian.
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 7 Dec. 1982, lot 53.
Appears in Laurence Witten's cat. 18 (1983), no. 17.
Formerly owned by a private German collector (ms. 24, sticker inside upper cover).
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 20 June 1995, lot 87, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2010.

Related Collections:

Another leaf from the same manuscript is Ms. F.4.14, Special Collections & Archives, Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 137-138 (LJS 16).

Cited as:

Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, Books 25-28 (Oversize LJS 16). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Contributor:

Libri, Guillaume, 1803-1869, former owner.
Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872, former owner.
Creswick, H. R., 1902-1988, former owner.
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

697535794

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page