Leaf from a miniature Bible, manuscript in Latin on vellum, [France, 13th century]

Property from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Leaf from a miniature Bible

Manuscript in Latin on vellum. [France (Paris?), 13th century (c. 1220–1240)]

Single leaf, c.195×130mm; written above top line in 2 columns of 56 lines (c.130×80mm); the text comprising Psalms 38:8–45:10; initials in red and blue; the psalms numbered in the margins in 13th/14th-century Arabic numerals; foliation in late-medieval Arabic numerals ‘.182.’

With coloured initials for every verse, and flourished initials for every psalm, the Book of Psalms is usually the most densely decorated section of a medieval Bible.

LITERATURE:

Judith Oliver, Manuscripts Sacred and Secular from the Collections of the Endowment for Biblical Research and Boston University (Boston, 1985), nos. 28–29

Scott Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts (Cayce, SC, 2013), Handlist no. 60, citing leaves at six American institutions.

PROVENANCE:

From the same manuscript as lot 6

Otto Ege/Philip Duschnes

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; purchased in 1940 (1940:355.2)