Accession number
MS M.639
Object title
Hamilton lectionary.
Created
Constantinople, end of 11th century.
Binding
By Charles Lewis; purple velvet with 4 gilt hinges and gauffered edges; wide leather brown label on back lettered: Evangelistarium Graecum Codex Membranaceus Seculi Forsan XI Mirifice Illuminatus; in purple morocco box.
Credit line
Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) in 1919.
Description
378 leaves (2 columns, 21-22 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 332 x 255 mm
Provenance
John Dent sale (London, R.H. Evans, Mar. 29 and Apr. 25, 1827) to Clarke for William Beckford (father-in-law of the Duke of Hamilton, who bequeathed his library to his son-in-law Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton); Duke of Hamilton Collection, inv. no. 495 (Hamilton Palace Library, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland); sold privately in 1883 with the Hamilton Collection to the Royal Museum of Berlin (The Hamilton Palace Libraries, Catalogue of the Hamilton Collection of Manuscripts, 1882, no. 245); resold with a portion of the Hamilton Collection by the Royal Museum of Berlin (London, Sotheby's, May 23, 1889, lot 3) to Trübner for Ellis and Elory; sold by Leighton June 21, 1898 to Henry Yates Thompson (written on Yates Thompson bookplate on front pastedown; catalogue, 1902, no. 99); his sale (London, Sotheby's, June 3, 1919, lot 22) to Quaritch for J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) in 1919.
Notes
Ms. Gospel lectionary; written and illuminated in Constantinople at the end of the 11th century.
Decoration: 5 half-page and 8 small miniatures; 3 marginal vignettes, 10 historiated initials, 8 portrait initials, 15 headpieces, and numerous ornamental initials.
Decoration: 5 half-page and 8 small miniatures; 3 marginal vignettes, 10 historiated initials, 8 portrait initials, 15 headpieces, and numerous ornamental initials.
Script
cursive minuscule script with ecphonetic musical notation
Language
Greek
Resources
Century
Catalog link
Classification
Department