Shelfmark
MS 177, part 1
Title
The Eton Roundels [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL II: Figurae Bibliorum
Publication, distribution, etc.
England (Worcester?), 1260-1270.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 270-75 x 180-93 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Tertio folio: "Daniel Moyses"; there is no text on the second folio.
Note
Date of creation: the range 1260-1270 has been suggested on the basis of the decoration style (Morgan, p. 120 ; Henry, p. 23).
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (first quire: FHHF, second quire: HFFH).
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Number of leaves: 8.
Note
Collation: 1² 2⁶.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: none.
Note
Mise-en-page: grid measuring 204 x 148-152 mm, containing five roundels and two half roundels. The antitype is depicted in the larger, central roundel, while the types are pictured in the four, smaller surrounding roundels. Figures appear in the half-roundels, but remain anonymous. Each of the 10 typological pages bears one or two of the Ten Commandments written at the bottom of the page. Each roundel includes a legend. The Roundels were numbered I-XII in the 19th century.
Note
Decoration: 12 full-page pictures lined in black on red or blue background with white penwork details and floral motifs. Crowned personifications of virtues sit at the bottom of each illustrated page (charity at f.3r, humility at f.4r, patience at f.4v, obedience at f.5r, the others are unidentified). The style of drawing is English, although some feature point to a mature version of new French style (Henry, p. 23 quoting Morgan, p. 120). Pictures III-XII are closely related to the now lost glass paintings in the Chapter House of Worcester Cathedral (see James, 1904).
Note
Handwriting: northern littera textualis; one hand.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: brief signposts appear at the side of roundels, but itis not clear whether this was the same scribe of the roundel legends and the Commandments text (see Henry, p. 27-28).
With note
Bound with a 13th-century apocalypse, possibly in the late 17th century.
Formatted contents note
Contents: Illustration-bearing pages only. Folio 1r: blank ; f.1v -- centre: the creation of the world; clockwise from the top left corner: the creation of Adam, the creation of birds, the creation of beasts, the creation of Eve ; f.2r -- centre: God with Cain; clockwise from the top left corner: Adam and Eve with the snake on the Tree of Knowledge, the expulsion from Eden, Adam and Eve labouring, the murder of Abel ; f.2v: blank ; f.3r -- centre: Nativity; clockwise from the top left corner: Daniel's vision of the cornerstone, the burning bush, Aaron's rod, Balaam and Daniel ; f.3v -- centre: Christ's presentation at the temple; clockwise from the top left corner: Abraham tithes to Melchizedek who offers him bread and wine, presentation of Samuel, sacrifice of Cain and Abel, Malachi and Amos ; f.4r -- centre: Christ's baptism; clockwise from the top left corner: the Red Sea, law of circumcision, Noah's ark, Moses and Ezechiel ; f.4v -- centre: Christ carrying the cross; clockwise from the top left corner: widow of Sarepta, Isaac bears the wood, man in white linen makes tau, Isaiah and Jeremiah ; f.5r -- centre: the crucifixion; clockwise from the top left corner: the sacrifice of Isaac, Moses and the brazen serpent, ?Elijah raises the boy, Jacob and Nahum ; f.5v -- centre: three women at the tomb; clockwise from the top left corner: Jonah leaves the fish, a lion revives its young, Samson's escape from Gaza, Job and Jonah ; f.6r --centre: Christ opens limbo; clockwise from the top left corner: David saves the lamb from the bear, Samson kills the lion, Samson and the gates of Gaza, Osee and the sibyl ; f.6v -- centre: Christ's ascension; clockwise from the top left corner: Henoch, Elias' ascent, scapegoat, Habakkuk and David ; f.7r -- centre: synagogue unveiled; clockwise from the top left corner: Ezechiel's vision, John the Baptist, Solomon and Saba, Malachi and Sophonias ; f.7v -- centre: coronation of the bride; clockwise from the top left corner: Mercy and Truth, Justice and Peace, Judas and Edom, Zacharias and Solomon ; ff.8r-v: blank.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), p. 772
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), pp. 95-104
Citation/references note
N. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 1250-1285 (London, 1988), no. 137
Citation/references note
M. R. James, 'On two series of paintings formerly at Worcester Priory', Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, X (1904), pp. 99-110
Citation/references note
A. Henry, The Eton Roundels. Eton College MS 177, 'Figurae Bibliorum': a colour facsimile edited with a transcription, translation and commentary (Aldershot, 1990)
Summary, etc.
Summary: This is a typological picture series, called so because it uses Old Testament imagery to foresee the events narrated in the New Testament. Each series includes a larger roundel at the centre picturing a New Testament event, with four surrounding smaller roundels depicting episodes or people from the Old Testament.
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 177, part 1
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 5999.03
Provenance
Origin: England. Perhaps from the milieux of Worcester, as the roundel legends resemble the Worcester Verses (see Henry, pp. 29, 31-36, 43-45).
Provenance
Provenance: it is unclear whether the Roundels had been conceived as prefatory material for the Apocalypse that follows. Due to notes in both the Roundels and Apocalypse dating to the 17th century, they were already bound in a single volume by 1690. Such marginalia in the Roundels reads: "The Gift of Sr John Sherard of Lobthrop in Lincolnshire. Stuart Bickerstaffe 1690". The volume was donated to Eton in 1817 by George Henry Pitt (his bookplate on the front inner cover above that of Eton College). Former ECL shelfmark: Bl.5.7.
Binding
Late 17th- or 18th-century English binding, rebacked in 1894. Covers decorated with blind double fillets to form a border and panel with blind roll and blind tools at the outer corners. Spine with five raised bands, decorated with blind fillets and tools. Endpapers of modern undecorated paper; two flyleaves at both ends of the textblock.
Subject
Subject
Christian art and symbolism Manuscripts.
Subject
Illumination of books and manuscripts, English 13th century.
Added entry--name
Bickerstaffe, Stuart former owner.
Added entry--name
Sherard, John, 1662 - 1724 Sir, former owner.
Added entry--name
Pitt, George Henry, 1793 - ? former owner.
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50136