Provenance
Poblet Monastery
ca. 1300- ?
Catalonia, Spain
The first known owner of LJS 184 is a Cistercian monastery in Catalonia, Spain, the Monasterio de Poblet. Founded in the mid-twelfth century, the monastery was likely LJS 184's place of composition. Various aspects of the manuscript would seem to corroborate its Spanish Cistercian origins, including its goat-skin parchment, its simple design, its similarity to another near-contemporary Spanish manuscript of the Etymologiae, and now(!) the pastedown text.
Poblet was a major cultural center in the Middle Ages. As a hugely important text to monastic life, this manuscript of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae was likely one of the first and most important texts in Poblet's library, which, along with the scriptorium, church, and dormitories, was among the first buildings constructed on the site. LJS 184 is not a deluxe manuscript by any means, but its simplicity and wear suggest that it was a utilitarian text that was used frequently by the monks there. For instance, although the parchment is not of the highest quality, it has been stitched in many places where the page has torn, and the sheer number of resources needed to construct a manuscript of this size is impressive.
While Quandt had been able to state with some certainty that LJS 184 originated in Spain, not Southern France, through paleographical analysis and a potential clue in a readers' annotation of the text pertaining to geographical locations, we now have a place name (Aragon) that definitively links the pastedown document to Catalonia. Because the dates between the manuscript and the pastedown differ by 50-some years, it is impossible to rule out that the manuscript originated in Southern France, but the likelihood that it moved from France to Spain in the first couple of decades seems small, especially if it was not as securely bound in its early years.
A lingering question is: When and how did LJS 184 leave Poblet? My current (but completely unsubstantiated) theory is that the manuscript may have been one of the books stolen by Don Vincente from the monastery's library in the 1835 robbery, although it may be just as likely that it was removed during La Desamortization Eclesiastica de Mendizabal (1835-1837), which precipitated Poblet's decline into ruin and disuse. There is some evidence that LJS 184 left the monastery under suspicious means, as all marks of ownership have been intentionally removed: a label from the inside front cover has been cut out, and the colophon-like crest has been removed. We know from Quandt's conservation work that these alterations were made before 1990. While it is possible that a later owner wished to remove evidence of a previous owner simply to make the book more his own, neither of its known pre-Stanitz owners (Horblit and Kraus) fits the profile of one who would do this.
Harrison D. Horblit
b. 1912 - d. 1988
Ridgefield, Connecticut
A wealthy businessman, Horblit was also an avid book collector and member of the Grolier Club. He had a special interest in books which, like the Etymologiae, have played a key role in the history of knowledge. In the 1950s, Horblit managed an exhibition for the Grolier Club entitled "One Hundred Books Famous in Science," and he later published a book of the same title. Based on the book's index, however, it would appear that the Etymologiae, either in the form of this MS or an early printed edition, was not a part of this exhibit; further investigation is underway.
H. P. (Hans Peter) Kraus
b. 1907 - d. 1988
Ridgefield, Connecticut
A renowned bookseller, Kraus acquired LJS 184 in 1979 along with many others in Horblit's library. It appears in his 1980 catalog #155, along with illustrations; I am still trying to find a copy to examine.
John D. Stanitz
b. 1920 - d. 2011
Cleveland, Ohio
Stanitz sponsored the conservation of LJS 184 in 1990, enabling the most comprehensive look into the manuscript's composition, history, and importance, as well as preserving it for centuries to come. According to Quandt, Stanitz wanted to "stabilize" the MS in its current state, not restore it to some sort of ideal "original" form which modern conservators could not possibly discern; consequently, the work done to the binding, text, and covers was only to prevent further damage, or, in the case of the binding, to return it to a functional state to preserve the rest of the MS's integrity. Stanitz also ordered the removal of the pastedown on the inside back cover in the hope that it "might contain...important evidence that would help document the origin of the manuscript and its medieval binding," although they were unable to discern anything more than that it was a Latin "land grant or a charter, which was written by a notary." Twenty-five years later, some of the document has been deciphered and used to reexamine the historical construction of the manuscript! (See New Discoveries).
Lawrence J. Schoenberg
b. 1932 - d. 2014
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Schoenberg acquired LJS 184, along with many other historically significant scientific works, from Stanitz in 2011. He donated the manuscript to Penn's library in 2012 in honor of Will Noel's appointment as director of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. LJS 184 is detailed on p. 131 of Transformation of Knowledge: Early Manuscripts from the Collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg as one of the earliest models for the "Organization of Knowledge."
| Previous page on path | Introducing UPenn MS LJS 184, page 1 of 3 | Next page on path |
Discussion of "Provenance"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...