An Apocalypse Manuscript in Paris: B.N. MS Lat. 10474

Abstract

In December, 1927, Dr. M. R. James delivered his Schweich lectures on Apocalypse illustration. Eleven months later, his unrivaled knowledge of the English thirteenth-century Apocalypse tradition was further enriched by the arrival at Eton of a boxful of photographs of an Apocalypse manuscript, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale ms lat. 10474, hitherto unknown to him in detail and manifestly close to Oxford, Bodleian Douce ms 180 in text and style. The ninety-four photographs had been sent to James by Mr. C. H. St. John Hornby, who in 1922 had presented the facsimile of Douce, with James's introduction, to the Roxburghe Club.¹ In a letter² to Hornby warmly thanking him for the new material, James sets down his immediate impression of the relationship of Par to Douce.