The Prophet Habakkuk, a historiated initial on a leaf from a monumental Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Germany, late fifteenth century]

a single leaf, 392mm. by 298mm., historiated initial ‘O’ in light pink formed of fleshy acanthus with vividly coloured acanthus leaves and flowers in red, blue and green extending into the margin on a gold ground within a blue profile frame, enclosing the figure of the prophet Habakkuk, accompanied by a large blank scroll, standing in a landscape and arguing with God the Father who emerges from the clouds (opening the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth book of the Minor Prophets), double column, 50 lines, written space 275mm. by 200mm., in a fine and flowing gothic bookhand, capitals stroked in red, rubrics in red, running titles alternately in red and blue, 2-line initials in red or blue, vellum stained and cockled, a long crease in the middle from the leaf once being folded, the illumination rubbed and smudged in part and pigment loss from the prophet’s robes, in fair condition, framed within glass

This leaf is from a notably large German manuscript Bible. Habakkuk is unique among the prophets in that he openly questions the wisdom of God, and seeing the injustice among his people he demands “Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you ‘Violence!’ and will you not save?” The stocky figures and the hilly landscape are indebted to German woodcut illustrations, in particular the woodcuts in Anton Koberger’s German Bible, which was published in Nuremberg in 1483.