Huge C12th bifolium of St Augustine’s Tractate 94 on St. John’s gospel.

[St Augustine] A monumental bifolium containing Augustine’s Tractate 94 on St. John’s Gospel.

560mm x 400mm in total each leaf with remains of a double column, 41 lines in a fine rounded early Gothic hand; verso of first leaf much scuffed with remains of a large initial ‘C’

Italy, C12th

Provenance: Sotheby’s 7 December, 2010, Lot 3.

The text contains part of Tractate 94 on John’s Gospel:

and when Christ departed bodily, not only the Holy Spirit, but also the Father and the Son, was present to them spiritually. for if Christ departed from them in such a way that instead of him, the Holy Spirit would not be with him in them, where is his promise saying: behold, I am with you until the end of the age; and: Shall I and the Father come to him, and make our abode with him, since he also promised to send the Holy Spirit so that he would be with them for eternity? and because of this, since they were of carnal or animal origin, they were to become spiritual, surely they would have been more capable of having father and son and the holy spirit. But in no one is it to be believed that the Father is without the Son and the Holy Spirit, or the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit, or the Son without the Father and the Holy Spirit, or the Father and the Holy Spirit without the Son, or the Father and the Holy Spirit without the Son. but where each of them is one, there the trinity is one God. It was necessary, however, to insinuate the trinity in such a way that, although there was no diversity of substances, yet the distinction of persons was emphasized in detail. where to those who understand rightly, the separation of natures can never be seen.