Bible

Description: 

Bible

Italian, late 13th century

Images:
fols. 4v-5r
fols. 78v-79r with initial P
fols. 171v-172r with initial E
fols. 188r-189v
fols. 294v-295r

height 17.5 cm
width 12 cm

301 leaves (17.5 x 12 cm). Small square Gothic script. 61 lines in 2 columns. Gatherings mostly of 10. Text in Latin: Vulgate edition with St. Jerome's prologue. 5 historiated initials and many decorated in colors with animal grotesques along the borders. Binding: brown morocco over wooden boards with clasps, modern. In a folding case. Inset inside front board: panel from an early brown calf binding with stamped decoration, 15th-16th c.

Provenance: Albert Natural (ex libris); Scribner's, N.Y. Mr. and Mrs. S. Eberly Thompson collection (Ms. 8)

Mount Angel Abbey Library, Ms 68

 

Wilma Fitzgerald, PhD, SP - Quoted with permission from an unpublished study

Biblia. Saec. XIII ex. Italy. FF ii + 300 + i. (Foliation renumbered 1989.) 175 x 120 (117 x 74) mm., Vulgate text commonly in two columns of 67 lines, Gothic script. Numerous initial miniatures at headings. Five historiated initials, each one containing a painting of an "author" are found on folios 1, 3. 130, 134v, 229. At the beginning of a biblical book (or preface) are initials of 7 to 12-lines painted with vegetal designs and animal heads often a yellow dog head. Chapter headings are red or blue often of a size of the other letters. Occasional pen flourishes. Chapter numbers for biblical books are indicated in the margins by Roman numbers in blue and red alternatively.

The Bible is now in a modern binding of brown morocco raised and stamped with fragment of an earlier [15/16th? century] binding bound in as doublure. Two metal clasps closing at front of codex. Ex libris of Albert Natural [front added fly leaf]; Scribner's, New York. On fol. 297v there is an ownership inscription which under ultraviolet light seems to read: iste liber est domus ....de Duggumarh (?) prope Wthcam (?). Gift of Mrs. S. Eberly Thompson. See P. Parshall, Illuminated Manuscripts, #3. Vulgate Bible, prefaces, with scattered annotations.

Alphabetical glossary of Hebrew words (transliterated into Latin), Concordance of Biblical terms, List of Books of the Old Testament by author. There are some sporadic annotations.