Two fragments of a single leaf from Bede, Homiliae, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [England, c.1150]

Two fragments of a leaf, each c.160 x 220mm, 30 lines in two columns, the text from Bede, Homiliae, XXVII, beginning '[Dominus possedit me ab initio] viarum suarum' and ending 'erit ligatum [et in coelis]'. 

A rare English fragment of Bede's Homiliae. Bede wrote fifty homilies on the gospels, divided into two books. They are arranged liturgically, and most are concerned with the two major cycles of the church year. The present homily deals with verses of Matthew XVI, 13-18, and is a reading on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29th June). This was an especially important festival for Bede, because Saints Peter and Paul were the patron saints of his twin monasteries of Wearmouth-Jarrow.

The fragments are English; one clue is the abbreviation-sign for "est", in the shape " ÷ ", which is distinctly insular. It appears that a later non-English(?) reader had trouble with it, and thus clarified it by writing an alternate abbreviation " ? " next to it. 

Lacking one line of text in the middle, a few holes and tears, edges frayed, soiled and creased from use as a binding fragment..

Stock Code: 245045