Archive details:

The Bible of Brother Gervase of Bangor

British Library

Ref: BL MS Add 54232

Type: Document

Date: c. 1240

This is a typical mid-13th-century 'pocket' Bible - it is written in small script in two columns on very fine parchment. This style of Bible was developed in Paris, most likely for the use of Dominicans who needed to have a portable copy of a standardised text. An inscription c. 1300 states that this Bible belonged to Brother Gervase of Bangor who was presumably a member of the Dominican house there; and that following his death it should be bequeathed to the Franciscan house at Llanfaes, Anglesey.
By the middle of the 13th century it was normal for the text of the Bible to be followed by the Interpretations of Hebrew Names, namely an alphabetical list of the Hebrew names found in the Bible, with their Latin meanings. Here the run-over signs at the bottom of the page have been elaborated with foliate and human-headed terminals.

Contents:
1. ff. 1-289v. Vulgate text. Imperfect , lacking the end of Numbers and the beginning of Deuteronomy between ff. 42-43, the beginning of St Matthew's Gospel between ff. 234-235, and the end of St John's Gospel and the beginning of Romans between ff. 259-260. Esdras III in 27 chapters is inserted between Esdras II and Tobias. The Acts of the Apostles follow the Pauline Epistles. Baruch is omitted after Jeremiah and is supplied as a separate item at the end of the volume.
2. ff. 290-308v. Dictionary of Hebrew names beg. 'Az apprehendens'.
3. ff. 309-310. Book of Baruch.
4. 311-315v. Miscellanea; 14th-15th cent. (a) Theological memoranda; 14th cent. ff. 311-311v, 314;- (b) Hymns, beg.(f. 312) 'Salve cultor supere patrie'; 15th cent. ff. 312-313v, 314v, 315v;- (c) List of Books of the Bible in the order in which they occur in the present MS.; 14th cent. f. 315.

Sites linked to this archive

Llanfaes Friary, Anglesey