Bifolium from a Vita Sancti Stephani c.1100 from Schøyen Collection

Bifolium from a Vita Sancti Stephani, including an abridgement of Evodius, Miracula Facta Uzali, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Germany (perhaps Rhineland), c. 1100] Bifolium (consecutive leaves and hence innermost leaves of a gathering), each leaf with single column of 30 lines of a rounded proto-gothic minuscule,with slightly tremulous aspect, an ampersand whose loops sit high above the baseline and trailing undulating penstrokes at beginning of some capitals, one large initial ‘V’ in red, reused in binding and hence slightly trimmed at foot of both leaves (text wanting at beginning and end), overall good condition with marginal prickings for ruling present, 220 by 170mm.; in cloth-covered binding  Provenance: 1. Dr. Helmuth Wallach (1901-1989), of Munich and New York, the eminent antiquarian bookseller and art dealer. 2. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/211, acquired in 1970. 3. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 87.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 633, acquired June 1990. Text and script: While many of the letterforms here echo those of late Carolingian manuscripts, the script compares most closely to those of the late eleventh or early twelfth centuries (cf. the Augustine, Commentary on Genesis, of the first half of the twelfth century, now Cologne, Dom Hs. 61: reproduced Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, no. 27, especially the form of the ampersand).