Monastic Rules, c, 1380

Rules of Saints Benedict and Augustine, in Latin,illuminated manuscript on vellum, 79 ff., 21 lines, written in dark brown ink, in a neat gothic cursive hand, chapter headings and initials in red, two full-page miniatures (?added later), three-quarter figures of Saints Benedict and Augustine, the former in a black habit, holding a book and a bunch of twigs, the latter in green, white and black robes, with a white mitre, holding a bishop's staff and a book, both on blue backgrounds decorated with white tracery, within, respectively, green and purple borders, 3 ff. of 'Tabule Regule..' which should be at the start, misbound after f. 5, title added in later hand to head of Prologus, with 14 line note in the same hand on blank verso at end of Tabula, few marginalia, including biblical references on 4 pp., 3 lines in Prologue crossed out in red, lower margins of ff. 8 & 65 (miniature of St Augustine) repaired with vellum strips, first f. of Tabule soiled and with small (burn?) holes in outer margin, slight worming at start, with single wormhole to first c.20 ff., but not the miniature of St Benedict, little marking, later red velvet, blind-stamped panel on covers, spine gilt-lettered, little faded and rubbed, rebacked, fragment of vellum liturgical manuscript f. used as rear paste-down, 145 x 110 mm., North Italy, [late fourteenth - fifteenth century].

***A handsome manuscript of the fundamental code of Western monasticism, written in North Italy in the late 14th century, with 2 vividly painted and extremely well-preserved large miniatures added, perhaps in the 15th century, on a blank f. at the beginning of the manuscript, and on the blank verso of the last page of The Rule of St Benedict..