TWO 13TH CENTURY ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT BIBLE LEAVES BY A FRENCH ILLUMINATOR
Two original leaves from a 13th century Bible by an anonymous French illuminator, with an historiated initial ‘U’ of Amos and an historiated initial ‘O’ of Malachi, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France, Paris (?), c. 1225-1250].
A remarkable pair of leaves, from the same early portable pocket Bible, with two historiated initials in a matching and fresh palette of lapis blue, white and red colours, c. 146 x 105 mm. Two columns of 52 lines (written space: c. 100 x 70 mm), with an extra rule in the top margin for the running titles, vertical bounding lines ruled full across, written below top line in light brown ink in a formal gothic book hand, two marginal corrections framed in red, versal initials touched with red, rubrics in red, running titles and chapter numbers alternately in red and blue, five two-line initials alternatively in red and blue with contrasting penwork extending into the margins, two nine-line historiated initials, one in dark blue with beige highlights on light pink ground, framed by lapis blue border decorated with white dots, another in light pink with white highlights on lapis blue ground, framed by light pink border. Condition: Both leaves with slight cockling, some modern foliation in pencil in the margins, old tape stains at the corners, short slice of paper still taped to a corner, remnant of an ancient bookmark in the outer edge, else in good condition.
Notes: These two leaves come from a well-documented thirteenth-century portable pocket Bible, a remarkable example of the type which began in the thirteenth century and quickly gained popularity partly among mendicant friars for their portability. The first leaf contains the end of Joel and the beginning of Amos, reading on the recto from Joel 1:17, “[Computruerunt jumenta in stercore] suo, demolita sunt horrea…,” to Amos 1:5 on the verso, “et disperdam habitatorem…” The beginning of Amos is introduced with a historiated initial ‘U’, for “Verba,” with Amos in full length holding a scroll and standing on light pink ground. The second leaf contains the end of Zachariah and the beginning of Malachi, reading on the recto from Zachariah 11:15, “Et præcidi virgam meam secundam…,” to Malachi 1:4 on the verso, “et vocabuntur termini impietatis…” The beginning of Malachi is introduced with a historiated initial ‘O’, for “Onus,” with Malachi in full length holding a scroll and standing on blue ground.
This is one of those Bibles that reveal some of the working methods of illuminators in the early generations of Paris as a major book-making centre. During the early thirteenth century, production increased so dramatically that various techniques were developed and employed in order to make the process run more smoothly, often to ensure coordination between scribes on the one hand and illuminators on the other. On the present leaves and their sister leaves, many guide-letters are provided by the scribe for the rubricator to indicate chapter numbers and sometimes also initials. In this case the scribe draws ink lines to the left of the text block to mark off spaces for the two initials. In the margin to the right of the initials, the scribe also wrote a large plummet ‘V’ and ‘O’, indicating the initials to be painted. Near most of the initials, someone, perhaps the scribe or stationer, drew simple sketches in the margins (too faint to be visible in reproductions), to indicate the intended iconography of the initials. A typical example is in the margin below Malachi: it shows a figure holding a book or scroll.
The parent manuscript was described in 1948 before its dismantlement as containing a calendar, finely written in red, blue, and black, with the full text and 44 pages of indices, in a total of 632 leaves with about 250 historiated and ornamented initials and calligraphic decorations. It was probably made for a Dominican, as most pocket Bibles with calendars seem to have been made for mendicant friars. There are about 135 sister leaves at Ohio State University, including eleven with historiated initials; four are at the University of Colorado, Boulder. On the present leaves as well as their parent manuscript and sister leaves, see: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 29-30 November 1948, lot 320; Phillip J. Pirages, Catalogue 12, no. 12; Bruce Ferrini Rare Books, Gothic Painting in Illuminated Manuscripts, Galleria Grafica, Tokyo, 1989, no. 3; Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Vol. III, French Miniatures, London, 2018, no. 19g, 19i, pp. 78-83.
