Ɵ Leaf from a Bible, with Proverbs 29:15-30:20, manuscript in fine Montecassino Beneventan minuscule

Ɵ Leaf from a Bible, with Proverbs 29:15-30:20, manuscript in fine Montecassino Beneventan minuscule, in Latin, on parchment[central Italy, c. 1200] Single leaf, with single column of 27 lines in a mature Beneventan minuscule of Montecassino type, initials in larger calligraphic letters, reused in seventeenth century on accounts for years "1611 al 1619" (inscription with those dates where spine would have been on later binding and on backboard, and "C Fc" at head of what would have been the front board), other scrawls with numbers and sums, some folds and small stains, a few small holes, else good condition, 320 by 220mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Copied as part of an impressive Bible manuscript, c. 1200, in Montecassino in central Italy, the grand foundation abbey of the entire Benedictine Order. Later reused as the binding of accounts dated 1611-1619.2. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California; sold to Mark Lansburgh (1925-2013) of Santa Barbara, California, the department store magnate, art historian and manuscript leaf collector: his inkstamp on verso enclosing a penwork 'xii', and then later bought back by Rosenthal in June 1966. Then Rosenthal's 'I/200'.3. Quaritch of London, their cat. 1128, Bookhands of the Middle Ages, IV: Beneventan Script (1990), no. 19.4. Schøyen Collection of London and Oslo, their MS. 57. Script:Much about the script on this handsome leaf suggests the second half of the twelfth century, but the pronounced angularity indicates that it was written in the opening years of the thirteenth century. An origin in Montecassino itself is indicated by the interrogative zigzag sign like a '2' placed in the last lines of the verso and answered with a similar symbol over two points at the end of each clause. Published: V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (II)', Mediaeval Studies, 50 (1988), p. 615.Répertoire des catalogues de manuscrits en ecriture latine anterieurs a 1600, list no. 10, 1990, p. 8 no 42. BMB. Bibliografia dei manuscritti in scrittura beneventana, 1993-1995, 2000-2001, 2007, 2014, 2018, no. SPS 57 (but reported in error there as in Norway).