Bede’s commentary on Luke, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [most probably Germany, 9th century]

Bede's commentary on Luke 8:4-12, with an unidentified commentary on 2 Corinthians 11:32-12:9, in Latin, manuscript on parchment[most probably Germany, third quarter of the ninth century] Substantial parts of a large bifolium, cut through the middle horizontally to use on a later binding as board supports, with sections cut out of the two halves for the thongs at the spine, manuscript with remains of double column of 27 lines in a good rounded Carolingian minuscule with integral et-ligature within words, a notably long capital 'S' which sits with its midpoint on the baseline, and a distinctive 'r' with a long and undulating horizontal stroke, capitals in same pen, some offset, scuffs, splits and areas of discolouration, trimmed at base and outermost vertical edges with loss of a line or so or a few letters there, overall fair and presentable, overall 215 by 400mm.; set in glass in a large black fitted case, with copy of Quaritch cataloguing and letter from Prof. Bischoff concerning these fragments Provenance: 1. In 1991 Prof. Bernhard Bischoff identified these fragments as from the third quarter of the ninth century, but could not identify the scriptorium from which they came. The hand is refined and the parent codex was certainly of some size, and so we might conclude it was a foundation of some importance.2. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1380, acquired from Quaritch, London, in June 1991. Text: Despite its obvious losses due to reuse in a later binding, this is a large and handsome Carolingian fragment. The fact that both texts here offer readings for Sexagesima Sunday, strongly suggest that these fragments originate from a homiliary or similar service book arranged according to the church year.Bede's commentary on Luke was commissioned by Bishop Acca of Hexham and composed between 706 and 716. While the twelfth-century book list of Whitby Abbey shows that copies once did exist in England, and a possible English fragment of c. 800 survives in Yale University, Beinecke Library, MS 441, like many of Bede's works the earliest extant witnesses are Continental: with twenty-three of the late eighth or ninth century (eight of those most probably German or Swiss in origin). With English missionary activity on the Continent in the eighth and ninth century (see also lot 1), the text was carried there, and following Alcuin's appointment to the head of the Carolingian intellectual revival it became a textual mainstay in Europe. A fine manuscript of it was produced at Tours in the first half of that century (now Oxford, Bodl. MS 218; interestingly Anglo-Saxon hands in that codex showing it travelled back to England soon after it was made), and fifty-four readings of the homilary of Paul the Deacon, compiled within the Carolingian court itself, are drawn from Bede's commentaries on Luke and Mark.