Three fragments from a decorated manuscript of Augustine s Confessions and City of God in Latin on parchment. [Low Countries (probably Southern Netherlands) c. 1280].

Three fragments from a decorated manuscript of Augustine s Confessions and City of God in Latin on parchment. [Low Countries (probably Southern Netherlands) c. 1280].

Three fragments cut vertically from leaves from a single codex, two of which preserve the complete height of the original page (113mm high total and written height 87mm), remains of 18 lines (with parts of books 10 and 11 of the Confessions and book 22 of City of God in a fine angular early gothic book hand with pronounced fishtailing to ascenders and a hairline ct-ligature one red rubric, small red initials, recovered from reuse for spine supports in a binding and hence with stains, scuffs and folds overall fair condition, 114 x 57 mm., 110 x 42 mm., and 113 x 54 mm. These three fragments are most probably all that survives of a pocket volume of Augustine s of Hippo’s most important and influential works the Confessions written between 397 and 400AD and acclaimed as the first western biography ever written and the City of God written in the early 5th century. Between them the two works covered the fundamental questions about an individual s complex move towards Christian spirituality and the grand progress of human history along the same path they will come of commanding importance and were prescribed reading for almost every literate Christian in the Middle Ages.