Tractatus in Evangelarium Johannis [fragment]

ST AUGUSTINE, Tractatus in Iohannem, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Dalmatia, late 11th century] A testament to the eastwards spread of Beneventan minuscule: a fine monastic production from a Dalmatian scriptorium of an important patristic text. A bifolium, 335 x 231mm and 333 x 176mm, blind-ruled for 2 columns of 33 lines written in brown ink in a fine Bari-type Beneventan minuscule, ruled space 245 x 160mm (outer margin of the second leaf cropped close to the text, creased and stained from use in a binding, some fading to a few lines, a few wormholes, otherwise in excellent condition). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery. Provenance: (1) On palaeographical grounds the present fragment comes from a manuscript that was produced in one of the monastic foundations on the Dalmatian coastline (modern Croatia) in the late 11th century. (2) Bernard Rosenthal, his 'I/204'. (3) Quaritch, Bookhands IV, cat.1128 (1990), no 6. (4) Schøyen Collection, MS 62. Sister-leaves: Five sister-leaves from the parent codex survive, three of which are in Dubrovnik, thus providing additional confirmation of the Dalmatian origin of the manuscript. These are: Dubrovnik, Dominikanski samostan Sv. Dominika, fragments e (Tract. 11:4-5, 1 leaf) and f (Tract. 42:2-5, 43:12-16, 2 leaves, now apparently missing); Parma, Archivio di Stat, Frammenti di codici 3 (Tract. 50:11-12, 2 leaves). Text: The text of the fragment is St Augustine's Tractatus in Iohannem 19:18 – 20:2 and 21:3-4. St Augustine wrote 124 Tractates on the Gospel of John, a text steeped in Trinitarian and Christological theology. He defends the orthodox position established at the councils of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), and reveals much about the various 'heresies' to which his audience was exposed: Manichaeism, with its dualistic logic; Donatism, a schismatic, puritanical movement; and Pelagianism, with its doctrines of original sin, grace and free will. The Tractatus in Iohannem was the most popular of Augustine's works in the areas of southern Italy and Dalmatia where Beneventan script was practised: the entire text or remains of approximately 15 separate copies in Beneventan survive. Script: This example of Beneventan script (recognizable by the typical formation of the 'a's [oc] and 't's [oc], the various ligatures and non-standardized abbreviations etc.) has all the features of the 'Bari type': that is to say, among other things, a softer, rounder appearance occasioned by the absence of lozenges constituting the beginning and end of minims, a short final 'r', medial 'r' with straight shoulder, the rather large form of the 'e' with two almost equal curves, and the ligature fi with the stem almost resting on the line. But it lacks the distinctive slanting aspect of the script from Puglia, and may on this basis be attributed to Dalmatia. Bibliography: V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts, I', Mediaeval Studies, 40, 1978, p.71, no iii. E. A. Lowe, The Beneventan Script. A History of the South Italian Minuscule, 2 vols., 1980. V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts, V', Mediaeval Studies, 70, 2008, pp.275-355. Rozana Vojvoda, 'Dalmatian illuminated manuscripts written in Beneventan Script and Benedictine Scriptoria in Zadar, Dubrovnik and Trogir', PhD dissertation, Budapest, 2011, pp.105-6.,Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A443146/datastream/PDF/view