Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [north east Italy (probably Padua or Venice), c.1250-75]

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

332 leaves, 235mm. by 154mm., wanting a single leaf before fol.143 (the opening of the Psalter) and perhaps another leaf from the fourteenth quire, else complete, collation: i-ix^{12, x-xii^{14, xiii^{8, xiv^{7, xv^{8, xvi^{10, xvii-xxviii^{12, xxix^{8, xxx^{9 (last blank and cancelled), double column, 59 lines in brown ink in a small gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, chapter numbers and running titles in red and blue, tall and thin 2-line initials in same with contrasting penwork, one text panel with white letters on pale pink ground,}}}}}}}}}seventy floral initials (mostly 10-line) formed of fleshy coloured acanthus-leaves with white penwork picking out bands and circles on their bodies, some on vivid black grounds, seven initials with portly dragons (those on fols.1r and 3r three-quarter or full page in height, the latter with a large decorated panel of coloured foliage on burnished gold ground; two other similar borders as well), three initials with human headed drollery-creatures with grumpy bearded faces, one initial with a bird holding a worm in its beak, three small initials in burnished gold on coloured grounds, sixteenth-century additions of index and tables of pericopes on fols.324r-32v, upper corners of fols.119-284 repaired, blank borders of fols.230-31 cut away and restored with modern vellum, first and last few leaves discoloured, else good and presentable condition, early binding structures and in early wooden boards, bosses and clasps, spine covered with more modern leather, fitted cloth-covered case

Provenance

provenance

1. Written and illuminated in the third quarter of the thirteenth century, probably in Padua or Venice.

2. J. Kemp Waldie, of Toronto, Canada: his bookplate inside front cover; sold in our rooms, 2 December 2003, lot 81.

Catalogue Note

text

The Parisian Bible swept across thirteenth-century Europe and remained the dominant model for much of the Middle Ages. This large and appealing volume is a product of north eastern Italy, but follows the standard Paris sequence of books, lacking only the Interpretation of Hebrew Names usually found at the end of Paris Bibles.

illumination

There are two distinct styles of decoration here. The first is found in the floral initials with fleshy leaves in muted colours which are typical of Paduan-Venetian illumination, and find numerous parallels in a group of contemporary single-volume Bibles produced there (see Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E.36, reproduced in Leaves of Gold, 2001, no.4; BnF. mss.latin 232 and 216, in Avril and Gousset, Manuscrits enluminés de la bibliothèque nationale, 1984, nos.4 and 6, pls.A and ii). The second style is much finer with a richer palette and angular twisting shapes of colours and gold, and is that associated with the Conradin Master (see the series of cuttings sold in our rooms, 14 July 1981, lots 12-16, and now reunited with their parent manuscript in the Walters Art Museum; and the Bible sold by Christie's, 11 July 2000, lot 17, identified there as Neapolitan; see M. Bollati, Dizionario Biografico dei Miniatori Italiani, 2004, pl.4, for a correct attribution). This second style is responsible for the stunning three-quarter page initial on fol.184r, the animal and semi-human drolleries and perhaps also the delicate initial 'I' with scrolling foliage on fol.241v.