Lot 39: The Etymologiae of St. Isidore in early manuscript

ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE

Etymologiae. Possibly French: likely first or second quarter of the 14th century. Retaining the rear wooden board (traces of the leather covering at the edges), else disbound, housed in a cloth clamshell case. 8 1/8 x 5 1/2 inches (21 x 14 cm); 187 ff. written in Latin in a gothic bookhand, 41 lines to the page on heavy vellum in brown-black ink; headings, paragraph marks, rubrics and initials in red and blue throughout, some of the initials with elaborate penwork ornament extending into the margins, occasionally with grotesque finials (see book 18). As noted, lacking the front board and spine. The manuscript lacks the first signature of the first chapter De Grammatica (only one separated leaf remains), and several other leaves are detached from the binding, with leaves 73, 135, and 136 lacking substantial portions of text and at least one other leaf substantially defective. There is some soiling, staining and minor cockling, and the vellum used was not of the highest quality, so there are occasional holes that the scribe has avoided. Two pieces of manuscript binders's waste are retained in the case.

The Etymologiae is one of the earliest attempts to compile an encyclopedia of universal knowledge, based on the writers of classical antiquity. Isidore died in 636, and his work (copied after his death) circulated widely in manuscript for the next thousand years. The work is divided into twenty books, all present here, though several are defective (the first most notably). These are as follows: