This Latin Bible contains the Books of the Old Testament
(Octateuch, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Job and
Maccabees). They are preceded by Jerome’s prologue to the whole
of the Bible (in logical order: ff. 11, then 13-14r; the beginning
is incomplete), by an excerpt from De doctrina christiana 2, 8-9 by
Saint Augustine (f. 14) and by Jerome’s prologue to the
Pentateuch (in the order: f. 14v then f. 9). Several leaves at the
beginning have been lost or were not bound correctly; the
manuscript currently begins with Genesis 19.26. The incomplete text
of Genesis should be read in this order: ff. 9v-10, 15-16, 12 (Gn
10.30-19.26 are missing), 1-8 (Gn 31.28-36.19 are missing), 17-26r.
Similarly there are defects at the end of the manuscript: the text
is interrupted on f. 379v at 2 Maccabees 14.6. There are several
errors in the modern foliation: 3 leaves between ff. 161 and 162
were not counted; the foliation jumps from f. 188 to f. 190, and
there is a f. 256a. RIKB 8 has a blue initial with red pen
flourishes (f. 9v), as well as several simple initials in red, in
part with geometrical motifs (e.g. on ff. 69r or 112r). As we learn
from the explicit on f. 227v, this manuscript was transcribed in
1433. It belonged to the Swiss entrepreneur Kurt Bösch (*1907 in
Augsburg - † 2000 in Augsburg), bibliophile, collector and patron
of the arts, who notably founded l‘Institut Universitaire Kurt
Bösch (IUKB) in Brämis/Sion (VS). In 2012, the UIKB donated
several valuable books, including this manuscript, to the
Médiathèque Valais.
Rights
e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
