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[JEROME, St].
'Aaz apprehendens…', Interpretation of Hebrew Names in Latin,
£7500.00
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Manuscript on vellum (168 x 121 mm), in a neat gothic miniscule hand in dark brown ink, c.1280, no place [but ?France]. 32 unnumbered leaves, collation: A10, B12, C10 (apparently complete). Double column, 44-59 lines per page, comprising an alphabetical list of words, mostly names, with their definitions and clarifications, running alphabetically from a to z. A little general age-discolouration, a few minor vellum flaws not affecting text, small stain to upper blank corner. A clean, attractive and well-margined ms. in recent reversed calf. Provenance: Sammlung Adam, sale Dr Helmut Tenner, 6 May 1980, lot 5. An interesting survival of mediaeval Biblical scholarship. This ms. of the Interpretation of Hebrew Names was probably intended for use with or may have accompanied a "Paris" (or standardised) manuscript Bible and is attributed to St Jerome.
The work gives a long list of latinised Hebrew words, followed by their meanings or clarifications. Mostly they are names - of characters in the Old Testament (e.g.: 'David…manu fortis', 'Jethro…honorabilis', Ruth, Obadiah, Noam etc.), as well as places, but include such words as 'amen' ('…sum fiat…'). St Jerome, who prepared a Book of Hebrew Names, says: "Philo, the most erudite man among the Jews, is declared by Origen to have done what I am now doing; he set forth a book of Hebrew Names, classing them under their initial letters, and placing the etymology of each at the side. This work I originally proposed to translate into Latin. It is well known in the Greek world, and is to be found in all libraries".
This glossary was frequently appended to Biblical manuscripts in the Middle Ages. It is for scholarly use (as evidenced by the frequency of extreme contractions of the words), and its small quarto size suggest it was made to accompany a portable Bible. The format of Bible mss began to be standardised in the early 13th-C, largely due to the academic needs of the University of Paris; by the time this ms was produced, this standard form had been adopted in France, England and Italy. The vellum is very fresh and surprisingly clean, with few flaws, and still retains not only its rulings, but the pricking marks in the outer margins, which ensured the ruling was regular. The ms. has thus preserved its full original margins. L635
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