GKS 1347 4°: Evangelia IV

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GKS 1347 4°: Evangelia IV

Parchment, 62 ff., ca. 27,5 × 18,5 cm; England, 12th century

To judge from palaeographical as well as other details the manuscript was most likely produced in England, but found its way to Norway during the Middle Ages. On the last page there are records of property that link it to the monastery of St. Michael’s, known also as Munkeliv, in Bergen

The manuscript is not illuminated. Minor sections are marked by initials in varying colours, whereas the beginning of a Gospel is marked by an enlarged, coloured initial, except for the Q in Luke which has been drawn but not completed by colouring. The text has been copied by a trained scribe

The manuscript has been subject to damage. In its present form it consists of 5 quires, each of 6 bifolia, followed by 1 bifolium (perhaps two singletons). Text is missing between quire 1 and 2, between quire 3 and 4, and between 4 and 5. Much of the text on f. 2 has been severely damaged and is now hardly legible. It contained the preface ”Plures fuisse …” and the two first capitula of the summary of the Gospel of Matthew. The parts still present in the manuscript contain the following passages of texts (according to the modern division):

quire 1, f. 1-12: præliminaria + Matthæus 1.1–13.28

quire 2, f. 13-24: Matthæus 26.68–28.20 + præliminaria + Marcus 1.1–10.44

quire 3, f. 25-36: Marcus 10.44–16.20 + præliminaria + Lucas 1.1–5.30

quire 4, f. 37-48: Lucas 17.7–24.53 + præliminaria + Johannes 1.1–4.46

quire 5, f. 49-60: Johannes 18.2–21.25 + capitula per annum (natalis Domini > Dominica II ante natalis Domini)

f. 61-62: capitula per annum (ad finem) + 2 blank pages + page with records of property

It occurs from marginal glosses that the scribe has had access to other textual sources than his exemplar, amongst them a book referred to as ”vetustus codex”. In the glosses there are also references to ecclesiastical authors such as Jerome and Bede

With great probability GKS 1347 4° can be identified with a codex listed in Willum Worm’s Catalogus and thus must have found its way into king Frederik III’s royal library no later than 1670

Bibl.: Diplomatarium Norvegicum 16, 1, Oslo 1901 [ad f. 62v]. - Ellen Jørgensen, Catalogus codicum Latinorum medii ævi Bibliothecæ Regiæ Hafniensis, Hafniæ 1926, p. 12. - Didrik Arup Seip, Palæografi: Norge og Island (= Nordisk Kultur 28 B), Stockholm etc. 1954, p. 6 & passim [on f. 62v]. - Lilli Gjerløw in: Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder, 4, København 1959, col. 63 (s.v. Evangeliarium I). - Erik Petersen, Wulfstans kodex og Schumachers liste. Om den ældste fortegnelse over håndskrifter i Det Kongelige Bibliotek, in: Fund og Forskning 48, København 2009, p. 7-56 (Summary p. 54-56: Wulfstan’s Codex and Schumacher’s List. On the Oldest Record of Manuscripts in the Royal Library)

Erik Petersen