Binding from a Collection of Works by Augustine, Didymus the Blind, and Quodvultdeus

This late nineteenth or early twentieth century red velvet binding added by León Gruel, Paris. The cover was embellished by Gruel with an eighteenth-century silver and gilded plaque of Christ, originally from a Serbian flabellum, and which contains a Slavonic inscription. The front and back pastedowns were taken from an early eleventh-century Central Italian Sacramentary. A description of an earlier cover was recorded in the library catalog of the monastery of Saint-André Villeneuve-lès-Avignon in 1640 by Dom Odon de la Mothe, who described it as "postibus copertum et basana alba a parte putrida".

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Created in Champagne, France (?). The monastery of Saint-André de Villeneuve-lés-Avignon, 17th century [1]; Acquired by Bénigne-Charles Févret de St. Mesmin [1739-1792], Dijon [2]. Acquired by Léon Gruel, 19th-20th century, Paris [3]; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

[1] ownership inscription added in 17th century in upper margin of fol. 2r: 'Iste liber est monasterii sancti Andree dyocesis auinionensis / .aab. /; and in another slightly later hand, added after 1635: Monasterii Sancti Andreae congregationis S. Mauri: /; in lower margin, added after 1640: 'Catalogus inscriptus', reference to 36-line description of W. 2 in Saint-André library catalogue begun 29 September 1640 by Dom Odon de la Mothe (d. 1643), binding described as 'postibus copertam et basana alba a parte putrida'
[2] facsimile (?) of bookplate of Bénigne-Charles Févret de St. Mesmin (here spelled 'Memin') of Dijon (1739-1792), affixed in all likelihood by Gruel at time of rebinding, 19th/20th century (?)
[3] binding added at this time