# 47347
[SAINT JEROME, c.347-420]
A 10th-century manuscript fragment in Caroline (Carolingian) minuscule, with part of Jerome’s Preface to the Commentary on Matthew.
$10,000.00 AUD
[Holy Roman Empire, late tenth century]. Manuscript fragment on vellum, 312 x 216 mm (slightly irregular), recto with 32 complete lines of text in Caroline minuscule, comprising a portion of the last section of Jerome’s Preface to the Commentary on Matthew; on the right is the partially preserved text (the left third only) of the next column of 32 lines, which includes the beginning of the Commentary itself, and features rubricated majuscules (uncials, and an initial in Rustic Capitals); old stains, though these are light and do not affect the legibility of any part of the main column of text; verso blank.
This rare fragment contains part of the concluding section of the Preface to the Commentary on Matthew by St. Jerome (c.347-420). Written in 398, the Preface was addressed to Eusebius of Cremona; around this time, Eusebius was setting out for Rome, and it was expected that he would deliver a copy of Jerome’s Commentary to Principia, a monastic companion of Marcella.
Towards the end of his Preface, Jerome explains the symbols of the Four Evangelists. He links each of the Gospels to one of four symbolic figures that appeared to Ezekiel in his first vision: the Man is Matthew, since his gospel opens with the genealogy of Jesus; the Lion is Mark, the voice of a lion roaring in the wilderness; the Calf, Luke, whose gospel begins in the Temple and with a reference to sacrifice in the time of Zechariah; and the Eagle, John, who, having taken the wings of an eagle, seeks spiritual enlightenment.
The text is written in Caroline minuscule (or Carolingian minuscule), developed towards the end of the 8th century out of the need to create a uniform script that would make the Latin alphabet – in particular of Jerome’s Vulgate Bible – standardised throughout Charlemagne’s empire, which stretched from northern Germany to Central Italy and from Spain to Saxony. Its originators are believed to have been the Benedictine monks of Corbie Abbey, north of Paris. Caroline minuscule developed over the next three centuries in Northern France and Germany into a relatively consistent script, and it remained in use in the Holy Roman Empire – for both religious and secular codices and texts – up until about 1200. Its implementation had an enormous impact on the spread of literacy in Western Europe.
Transcription from the main column of text:
‘…et deus erat uerbum. Hæc igitur quattuor euangelia multo ante predicta ezechielis quoque uolumen probat, in quæ prima uisio ita contexitur: Et in medio sicut similitudo quattuor animalium, et uultus eorum facies hominis et facies leonis et facies uituli et facies aquile [cf. Ezek 1:5, 10]. Prima hominis facies matheum significat qui quasi de homine exorsus est scibere: Liber generationis ihesu christi filii dauid filii abraham [cf. Matt 1:1]; Secunda marcum in quo uox leonis in heremo rugientis auditur: Vox clamantis in deserto parate uiam domini, rectas facite semitas eius [cf. Mark 1:3]; Tertia uituli quae euangelistam lucam a zacharia sacerdote sumpsisse initium præfigurat [cf. Luke 1:5]; quarta iohannem euangelistam qui adsumptis pennis aquilæ. et ad altiora festinans et verbo dei disputat [cf. John 1:1]. Cetera quæ secuntur in eundem sensum proficiunt: crura eorum recta, et pennati pedes, et quocumque spiritus ibat, ibant et non reuertebantur, et dorsa eorum plena oculis, et scintillæ ac lampades in medio discurrentes, et rota in rotam, et in singulis quattuor facies. Vnde et apocalipsis iohannis post expositionem uiginti quattuor seniorum qui tenentes citharas et fialas adorant agnum dei, introducit fulgura et….’