Alulfus of Tournai, “De expositione Novi Testamenti,” and John Chrysostom, “De compunctione cordis”
Alulfus of Tournai, “De expositione Novi Testamenti,” and John Chrysostom, “De compunctione cordis”
By: Alulfus of Tournai
MS.000353
Manuscript
ca. 1200
Piacenza (Italy)
Latin
Ink on Vellum
168 folios; 12.6 × 8.7 in. (32 × 22 cm)
Not on View
This copy of the commentary on the New Testament by Alulfus of Tournai (ca. 1075–1144) comes from the Cistercian monastery of Chiaravalle della Columba in Piacenza. The text comprises two columns in a neat, early Gothic hand. Rubrics appear at the beginning and ending of each chapter. Elaborate initials in blue and red ink with delicate traceries extend as far as 15 to 20 lines. Many pages contain repairs to the vellum that predate the text, as can be seen from the way in which the scribe wrote neatly up to the edge of each stitched hole. John Chrysostom’s work begins on folio 157v with a scribal error, “Dum” instead of “Cum.”
Created around 1200 at the Cistercian monastery of Chiaravalle della Columba in Piacenza, Italy.[1] Acquired between 1810 and 1873 by Count Francesco Giovio of Como, Italy (1796–1873);[2] By descent in the family to 1977; Purchased at auction in 1977 by H. P. Kraus;[3] Purchased in 1983 by Joseph Pope (Bergendal Collection, Toronto, Canada, (MS 36);[4] Purchased at auction in 2011 by Green Collection, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma;[5] Donated in 2020 to The Signatry, Overland Park, Kansas, under the curatorial care of Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.
Notes: [1] The colophon on folio 168v says, “Liber Sanct(a)e Mari(a)e de Columba” (Book of Saint Mary of Columba). The scribal error at the beginning of folio 157v can be confirmed here: https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0004/bsb00041662/images/index.html?id=00041662&groesser=&fip=xdsydenqrseayaqrswxdsydewqxseayaxsen&no=&seite=2 [2] The monastery of Chiaravalle della Columba was suppressed in 1810, and its library was dispersed. The antiquarian book seller Joseph Martini of Lugano, Switzerland, often sold many of Giovio’s manuscripts after 1880 but changed the provenance to Bishop Paolo Giovio (1483–1552), the famous Renaissance humanist, to increase their sale value and desirability. See Mirella Ferrari, “Dopo Bernardo: biblioteche e 'scriptoria' cisterciensi dell'Italia settentrionale nel XII secolo,” in San Bernardo e l'Italia. Atti del Convegno di studi, Milano, 24–26 maggio 1990, ed. Pietro Zerbi (Scriptorium Claravallense, Fondazione di Studi Cistercensi: Milan, 1993), 290–291. [3] Christie’s, June 1, 1977, Lot 172. [4] Ferrari, “Dopo Bernardo,” 298. [5] Sotheby’s, London, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, July 5, 2011, Lot 59.
Published References
Mirella Ferrari, “Dopo Bernardo: biblioteche e 'scriptoria' cisterciensi dell'Italia settentrionale nel XII secolo,” in San Bernardo e l'Italia. Atti del Convegno di studi, Milano, 24–26 maggio 1990, ed. Pietro Zerbi (Scriptorium Claravallense, Fondazione di Studi Cistercensi: Milan, 1993), 253–306, especially 274, n. 84, and 275.
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