Commentaries on Luke, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [France/Low Countries, 13th or 14th century]

Ɵ Commentaries on Luke 24:15-24 by various writers including Bede, Theophilius, Gregory the Great, Augustine and John Chrysostom, with a rhyming scribal colophon expressing relief at having finished and asking for a drink and a fair wage, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[France or Low Countries, late thirteenth or early fourteenth century] Two leaves, with single or double column of main Gospel text in up to 23 lines of a professional and squat early gothic bookhand (textualis libraria), with pronounced lateral compression, commentary set in sister columns of 45 lines in same hand but smaller, accompanying a column of main text, capitals touched in red and some with ornate flourishes to their extending penstrokes, running titles at head of pages in alternate red or blue capitals, red rubrics, the scribal colophon marked with a well executed manicula mark, slight darkening at edges, one small erased and corrected section, last leaf cut down slightly smaller than first, last leaf once folded and two small holes on blank reverse (perhaps marks from bosses once on binding of original manuscript), else outstanding condition, 330 by 240mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. Written in either France or the adjacent Low Countries in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century by the scribe who wrote the elaborate colophon on the last leaf here (see below).2. Charlie Stocker, Cambridge (d. 1978). 2. Dr. George Salt (1903-2003), entymologist and fellow of King's College, Cambridge.3. Sotheby's, 17 December 1991, lot 7 (part).4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1546, acquired from Sotheby's. Text: The most striking feature here of these charming leaves is the scribal colophon declaring the parent codex finished, and asking for a drink and payment:"Explicit hic totum pro xpo da mihi potum Donum sit gratum largi cordis quae paratum [with end from previous line after paraph]Mercedem quaero meriti vexamine vero"It opens with a common scribal statement, that the whole has been completed and a request for a drink, but from the second line onwards the scribe here is clearly composing, with occasional errors in his Latin. Here he develops his theme, asking that this gift of a book be appreciated. His last line comes to the point, requesting payment for those who are burdened and truly deserving (i.e. him). While individual voices of medieval scribes such as this one are among the most fascinating and enthralling additions to medieval books, they survive in relatively small numbers. Moreover, these numbers dwindle even further when one looks for compositions by the actual scribe involved, rather than stock phrases repeated again and again by multiple scribes.