Historia scholastica, etcPetrus, Comestor, active 12th century1229.latManuscript on parchment (trimmed) of Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica. Text missing at beginning of 2 Kings (one folio following f. 85), and at end of 2 Kings and beginning of 3 Kings (one bifolium following f. 90). With a paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles attributed to Petrus Pictaviensis. Written for Abbey of Mont-Saint-Quentin in Northeastern FranceIn Latin.Script: Written in bold, early gothic bookhand by one scribe. Writing above top line, with tall ascenders in upper margin. Various corrections in a different hand (13th century). Guide-letters for illuminator throughout. Scattered short marginal glosses (brown ink) in a similar but smaller hand (13th century). Transcriptions of rubrics in a 15th-century hand.Richly illuminated in early gothic style. The uncial presentation text is set inside a double frame of orange and blue strips, the latter decorated with orange dots; the entire page crowned by an elaborate architectural canopy above four trilobe arches supported at the side of the frame by columns, in blue. There are twenty-three historiated initials orange or blue, decorated with stylized foliage in white, occasionally with biting dragon and curling vine serifs, set in or above orange frames, on gold grounds.Six large foliate initials, in a style dependent on Channel-School models: tight pink and blue vine scrolls with dragon terminals, in some cases on a green trellis, set in light orange frames, edged in black, against gold grounds; on f. 2v an I running the full length of the page (Preface); f. 66r (Joshua); f. 77r (Prologue, 1 Kings); f. 127r (Story of Susannah), f. 134r (Esther) and f. 144r (2 Maccabees), blue capitals with white highlights, filled with vine scrolls and framed as above, against gold grounds. 6- and 3-line initials, red and blue, with blue or red penwork respectively; a few (e.g., f. 98v) in a more elaborate manner with penwork in both colors. On some pages a single column of text is further divided by a vertical guilloche pattern in orange ink. Rubrics in orange throughout.Some pages sewn; some bleeding of orange ink; upper right corner of f. 190 cut out. Text not damaged.Binding: 19th-20th centuries. Gilt, gauffered edges. Brown goatskin blind-tooled, with elaborate bosses and fastenings, by Lortic.