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Making the Renaissance Manuscript

Title

Initial M cutting from Florus of Lyon, Expositio in epistolas beati Pauli (Commentary on the Letters of Saint Paul)

Description

This initial has been excised from an eleventh-century copy of Florus of Lyon’s commentary on the Epistles of Paul: the fragmentary text visible on the reverse side includes the conclusion of the commentary on Philemon and the beginning of the section on Hebrews. Florus (ca. 810–60) was a theologian, canonist, and liturgist educated in the spirit of the Carolingian Renaissance. His work on the Pauline Epistles was widely copied in the following centuries. The white-vine scroll decoration seen in this fragment—known in Italian as bianchi girari—is typical of manuscript illumination associated with the Romanesque period. It was later borrowed by humanist scribes and illuminators who thought the texts they were copying were ancient, or at least reliable copies of lost originals.

Date

ca. 1100–1125

Format

Manuscript cutting on parchment

Identifier

The Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E M 46:1b

Coverage

Switzerland or Southern Germany (?)

Tags

No tags recorded for this item.

Citation

“Initial M cutting from Florus of Lyon, Expositio in epistolas beati Pauli (Commentary on the Letters of Saint Paul),” Making the Renaissance Manuscript, accessed November 21, 2024, http://makingrenmanuscripts.exhibits.library.upenn.edu/items/show/10.

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