Shelfmark
MS 177, part 2
Main entry--uniform title
Bible. Revelation.
Title
Illuminated Apocalypse [manuscript]
Publication, distribution, etc.
England, 1250-1300.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 273 x 187 mm.
Language
Written in Anglo Norman.
Note
Secundo folio: ici vent.
Note
Material: membrane.
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Number of leaves: 50.
Note
Collation: 1-6⁸ 7².
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: none.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in ink almost completely faded; no pricking visible.
Note
Mise-en-page: miniatures occupy two-thirds of each page; the text is placed directly below the illuminations. One column (2-9 lines) written in a set script below the top ruled line. Paginated 1-100.
Note
Decoration: 98 miniatures measuring c.150x160 mm, including the frames, portraying scenes from the Book of Revelations; a list of each image is provided in James. The colour palette includes blue, green, red, brown, orange and gold. Minor initials in red or blue (one line).
Note
Handwriting: northern littera textualis; one hand.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: the 17th-century hand of Stuart Bickerstaffe added English translations to some of the Anglo-Norman text, usually just below it. On f.1r, the Anglo-Norman text is accompanied by an English and Latin translation in two different hands, possibly from the 16th century.
With note
Bound with 8 leaves now known as "the Eton Roundels", a 13th-century typological picture series, likely during the 17th century.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 772-773
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), pp. 95-108
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Lambeth Palace: The mediaeval manuscripts (Cambridge, 1932)
Citation/references note
L. Delisle and P. Meyer, L'Apocalypse en français au XIIIe siècle (1901), p. lxxxvi
Citation/references note
M.R. James, The Apocalypse in art. The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy (1927), pp. 4-5, 55
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 177, part 2
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 5999.03
Provenance
Origin: England. M.R. James states that this manuscripts closely resembles London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 434: "The text seems identical and the subjects of the pictures correspond very accurately" and also mentioned that MS 177 "also belonged to a nunnery, the name of which is not recoverable" (James, 1932). This latter reference to a nunnery does not give further explanation and it is unclear how the hypothesis was formulated.
Provenance
Provenance: it is unclear whether the Apocalypse was meant to accompany the "Eton Roundels" (the first two quires of the volume) from the outset. Thanks to notes in both the Roundels and Apocalypse dating to the 17th century, we know that they were bound in a single volume at least by 1690. The note in the Roundels read: "The Gift of Sr John Sherard of Lobthrop in Lincolnshire. Stuart Bickerstaffe 1690"; this same hand contributes some English translations of the Anglo-Norman Apocalypse. 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
Bible Revelation Illustrations.
Subject
Bible Picture Bibles Manuscripts.
Subject
Apocalypse in art.
Added entry--name
Bickerstaffe, Stuart former owner.
Added entry--name
Pitt, George Henry, 1793 - ? former owner.
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
roa lat
Identifier
B50137