Ma: Stemma in the San Juan Bible

Notes

Spain, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Ms. lat. 2 (A.2), fols. 1-3.

Online: Digitized.

Three folios; text in a rounded Visigothic script, illumination in Mozarabic style; parchment, 56 x 38 cm.

A brightly colored diagrammatic drawing in which the unidentified 11th-century Iberian artist appears to have aimed to squeeze all the material onto just eight pages, of which the final two are missing. This manuscript is the source of the transcription PROL gen M in Fischer’s partial collation of the Great Stemma.

This version is of especial interest because of affinities with Plutei: in both, Japheth retains only his wife Ruth and his eight sons, but no grandsons; Filum A makes a dog-leg. In addition, the arrangement of the final folio of the closely related Urgell manuscript has pronounced similarities with the Florence finale, suggesting San Juan followed that model as well.

Given siglum Ma by Załuska (Liminaires).

The codex

194 folios, written three columns to a page and 60 lines to a column.

Attributed to the Monastery of San Juan de la Peña, Spain, dated to the 11th century

Ownership: not researched.

The rest of the codex contains: Bible with the books of laws, history and wisdom of Old Testament, supplemented by introductions by Jerome of Stridon and others: polychrome initials.

Related (Gamma Recension)

U: Spain, La Seu d'Urgell, Archivo de la Catedral, Inv. 501 (The Urgell Beatus)

Bibliography

Fischer, Bonifatius, ed. Genesis. Vetus Latina: Die Reste Der AltlateinischenBibel 2. Freiburg-im-Breisgau [Germany]: Herder, 1951.

Domínguez Bordona, Mss. con pinturas, I, p. 227, n. 401

Załuska, Yolanta. “Les Feuillets Liminaires.” In El Beato de Saint-Sever, Ms. Lat. 8878 de La Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, edited by Xavier Barral i Altet. Madrid [Spain]: Edílan, 1984.

Next: Facundus

Back to Table of Contents

Creative Commons License The Great Stemma: A Graphic History in the Fifth Century by Jean-Baptiste Piggin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.