Ɵ Passio sanctorum Petri et Pauli, manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Bobbio), 10th century]

Ɵ Pseudo-Marcellus, Passio sanctorum Petri et Pauli, an apocryphal text based on the Acts of St. Peter, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy (probably Bobbio), tenth century] Single leaf, with single column of 27 lines in local variant of an angular Carolingian minuscule which leans to right and has noted lateral compression, with et-ligature used integrally within words, ligature for 'ri' formed from an 'r' with a final flick of the pen descending far below the line, the hand also preserving Insular-derived features in long 'r' and a flourished 'g', very faded red rubric at head of recto, one large acanthus-leaf initial in Insular-style penwork with pale orange-red wash, formed of elaborate scrolling leafy and petal designs, reused on a later binding of a later printed book and hence with torn edges, holes, scuffs and folds, trimmed at outer vertical edge with loss of a few letters there, much of text rubbed away on reverse with later inscription "Verrati / Contra / Luther", overall presentable condition, 290 by 200mm; in cloth-covered binding A fine tenth-century witness to a rare and strange early medieval text; and probably the last surviving relic of a book recorded in the library of Bobbio Provenance: 1. Probably produced for use in the celebrated Benedictine Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, Bobbio, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The abbey was founded by St. Columban in 614, and by the tenth century housed one of the finest libraries in the West. While the form of the initial and other Insular influences in script here can be found in pre-Carolingian books produced in Irish foundations throughout Europe (see St. Gall, MS 51: J. Duft and P. Meyer, Irish Miniatures in the Abbey Library of St. Gall, 1954, pl. IX), the present leaf is north Italian, and in 1993 Prof. Rosamund McKitterick noted the parallels between this initial and those in tenth-century books produced at Bobbio (see for example: Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana, E. 20 inf., a Homiliary of the tenth century: A.L. Gabriel, The Decorated Initials of the IXth-Xth Century Manuscripts from Bobbio in the Ambrosiana Library, Milano, 1982, pp. 180-1). The text is an unusual one to find in a volume on its own, and we can be certain that Bobbio did indeed have a copy as it was recorded in their tenth-century library catalogue as "libros de passione apostolorum Petri & Pauli I" (G. Becker, Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui, 1885, p. 69, no. 319; note, this is the only apparent copy of this work in the whole of Becker's survey). It may well have been of particular interest to the community at Bobbio as their house was dedicated to these two saints. Thus, that may well be a contemporary record of the parent manuscript of the present leaf. Bobbio was suppressed during the Secularisation during the period of French occupation, and its books and chattels scattered.2. Sotheby's, 23 June 1993, lot 3, sold for £6900.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1679, acquired in Sotheby's. Text: This is a strange late fifth- or early sixth-century narrative, apparently intended to project Paul into the events of the Acts of St. Peter, in which it describes his journey from the island of Gaudomeleta to Rome and erroneously states that Peter was Paul's brother. It claims to have been written in part by one Marcellus; intended to be the namesake disciple of Simon Magus, whose confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts 8:9-24. It was known to Jacobus de Voragine, and widely disseminated in the West in the Middle Ages, appearing in two Anglo-Saxon translations (Ælfric's Passio Apostolorum Petri et Pauli and Blickling homily no. 15, Spel Be Petrus & Paulus).