
John Chrysostom, Twenty-One Homilies to the People
of Antioch. Translated from Greek into Latin in the sixth century,
this Greek father’s works were widely read in Western Europe
in the later Middle Ages. The present manuscript was probably
written at a religious house associated with the Modern Devotion
in or near Utrecht, to judge from the long bibliographic rubrics,
the decoration (red dragons in relief in the letters), and the
hybrida script, sometime in the middle of the fifteenth
century. The lengthy rubrics that introduce and conclude each
homily reflect the renewed interest by the Modern Devotion in
the works of the Latin and Greek Church Fathers.
By the eighteenth century, if not before, this manuscript
had been brought to England. It belonged to John Punchard in 1707.
His name and the names of his children or relatives Mary, Rachelle,
and Francis appear on fol. 1, with a receipt from James Lackwit
on fol. 10. From the library of Thomas Martin of Palgrave, Suffolk
(1697-1771).
R.H. & M.A. Rouse MS 34
|