Exhibit of the Month: February 2024

February 14 - March 12, 2024 Ante-room to the General reading Room (gate A), open Monday to Saturday 9 am - 7 pm (see opening hours of the NL)
Admission 20 CZK (free for the NL readers)

Petrus Comestor (ca 1110 – ca1180). Historia scholastica
France, 1st half of the 14th century století
NL Prague X.A.19

The manuscript marked with catalogue number NK X A 19, dated to the first half of the 14th century, contains Historia Scolastica by Peter Comestor. In this work, Comestor paraphrases and interprets biblical stories, from the creation of the world to the lives of the apostles. The folio 4v shown here contains a part of the exegesis of Genesis. An interesting feature is a passage on biblical translators in the form of a philological note in a red box that introduces the various translations and lists biblical translators and their works, providing a chronological overview of ancient translators of the biblical text important to the Western Church, with a focus on translations into Greek and Latin. The note is based on the account by Isidore of Seville and his 'Etymologiae', as well as Augustine's 'De civitate Dei'. This specific note also appears in manuscripts of the Historia Scolastica of Bohemian production, e.g. in the early 15th century NC I C 9 and in Rajhrad R 351 of the same period, where, unlike the French version, the text is already integrated directly into the text of the Historia Scolastica itself.

NL Prague X.A.19, fol. 4v