A fine example of Parisian scholastic book trade production
in the mid-13th century.
Peter Lombard's Magna glossatura (Great Gloss) is a collection of commentaries on the Psalms and the Pauline Epistles written between 1139 and 1141 during his teaching career and before he became the bishop of Paris (1159–1160).
His works were among the most commercially significant texts in the entire Parisian book trade. Every student of theology at Paris was required to study Paul's epistles through the Lombard commentary — creating sustained demand for copies throughout the 13th century.
The commercial Parisian book trade in the 13th century was centred on two medieval neighbourhoods: the rue Neuve Notre-Dame on the Île de la Cité and the warren of streets adjoining the church of Saint-Séverin on the Left Bank. These were not monastic scriptoria but busy commercial streets where book production was an urban trade like any other.
This leaf is a professionally produced, carefully decorated copy on good quality vellum with flourished Lombard initials and running titles. It represents the upper end of the commercial market: not a student's hastily copied working text but a high-quality copy made for a master, canon, or wealthy ecclesiastic who could afford the best the Parisian book trade could produce.
Condition: Very good/near fine. Clean vellum with just light edge browning and a few marks on the bottom margin of Recto. Full original margins. Text and decorations in fine condition with no ink loss and bright colours.
Size: 353x255 mm.
Item No: MOT106
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