Volume / Number: 11 / 1640

• Madrid Spain Convento de la Encarnacion without number

Written in a centre with a distinct sense of calligraphy, probably in Italy, but Spain cannot be excluded. This precious leaf, which, oddly enough, happens to be the oldest extant witness of this famous work of St Augustine, turned up during the Spanish Civil War in a Madrid convent; it was Professor A. Millares Carlo, formerly of the University of Madrid, who was instrumental in providing the editor with the photograph on which our facsimile is based. The leaf could not be located in 1952, and its present whereabout is still unknown.

Script is a well-formed uncial, though not of the oldest type: the bow of A is pointed; the ligature UI occurs (verso, l.14). The first two lines, which originally may have been in red, were retraced apparently much later.