Two fragmentary bifolia from Évrard de Béthune (d. c.1212), Graecismus, Germany, C14th

Two fragmentary bifolia from Évrard de Béthune (d. c.1212), Graecismus, in Latin verse, with commentary, decorated manuscript on vellum [Germany, 14th century (first half)] 

4 consecutive leaves, each c. 210 × 170 mm, written in a central column of 29 lines in gothic script, with a continuous commentary in the upper, outer, and sometimes also lower margins in a smaller and less formal script, the wide inner margin originally left blank but now with added glosses in a variety of cursive hands, the main text comprising chapter 8, line 311, to chapter 9, line 208 (“Dic lapidem esse taphos … sitque domesticus iste”; Corpus grammaticorum medii aevi, I: Eberhardi Bethuniensis Graecismus, ed. I. Wrobel, Bratislava, 1887), pp. 51–65), decorated with initials alternately red or blue, with simple ornament; recovered from use as flyleaves in a binding, with consequent wear and damage, the margins cropped, with some loss of text.

Provenance
1. Gudran née Bergh (1882–1976) and Sigurd Wandel (1875–1947), painter and Director of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts: from a series of volumes with their bookplate, a collection of 118 fragments, sold in Copenhagen, 6 February 1923, bought by:
2. Max Nielsen, who sold 68 volumes (most with only one or two fragments each) to Miss Shirley Farr for the University of Chicago (de Ricci, Census, I, 1935, p. 592), and another 18 to:
3. Karl Alexander Jacobsen (1885–1956); by descent to his son:
4. Ole Lars Jacobsen (1915–1996); the present leaves from a volume of fragments from five manuscripts, with their bookplates; sold at Sotheby’s, 17 June 1997, part of lot 12.