The Historia scholastica is a universal history completed around 1173 by Petrus Comestor (c. 1148–78), a Latin name meaning ‘Peter the Devourer’ (of knowledge). Sometimes referred to as a ‘Biblical paraphrase’, the text tells the story of the Bible as a chronological narrative. In addition to the Bible, Petrus drew from multiple sources, including the writings of classical scholars and the Fathers of the Church. He wrote the text for his students at the cathedral school of Notre Dame in Paris and dedicated it to the Bishop of Sens, Guillaume aux Blanches Mains (1169–76). Made in the 1170s, this manuscript is one of the earliest surviving copies of the text.

This copy of the Historia scholastica is one of two in Winchester’s collection (see MS14A) with very different styles of decoration. Following an index at the beginning of the manuscript is a genealogy: a timeline that shows how the key figures of the universal history are related. It begins with the creation of humankind in paradise (with Adam and Eva) and ends with Christ, who features alongside his twelve disciples. The genealogy runs vertically down each page and separates into different coloured branches.

After the genealogy, the opening page of Petrus’ text is finely illuminated with gilded initials. Later in the manuscript, some initials are decorated with small white lions characteristic of English and French illumination of this period. While the manuscript was most likely written in France, it contains annotations in an English hand from the late 13^th or early 14^th century.

 

Literature: Montague Rhodes James, The ancient libraries of Canterbury and Dover: The catalogues of the libraries of Christ Church priory and St. Augustine’s abbey at Canterbury and of St. Martin’s priory at Dover (Cambridge, 1903), p. lxxxix; Walter Oakeshott, ‘Winchester College Library Before 1750’, The Library, vol. IX. no. 1 (1954), pp. 1–16, 15, no. 1; Neil R. Ker and Alan J. Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, Volume IV: Paisley–York (Oxford, 1969), pp. 612–13; Paul Yeats-Edwards, Winchester College (Warden and Fellows’ Library) Medieval Manuscript Collection: Brief History and Catalogue (London, 1978), p. 5; James Willoughby, The Libraries of Collegiate Churches (London, 2013), pp. 613, 688–89.

Provenance: Unknown, at Winchester College by 1634.

Location: Fellows’ Library