BIBLE -- THREE LEAVES FROM A BIBLE, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
BIBLE -- THREE LEAVES FROM A BIBLE, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [England or northern France, mid-13th century] 224 x 161mm. 3 leaves, two columns of 60 lines written below top line in a typical minute gothic book-hand in dark brown ink ruled in plummet, rubrics in red, the first two leaves consecutive and containing Job 40:13-42:16 and Psalms 1:1-21:20, the other containing Psalms 117:2-118:169, decorated with one nine-line 'puzzle' initial in red and blue, with red and blue penwork flourishing, psalms and biblical chapters with two-line initials alternately red or blue with flourishing in the other color, sometimes extending well into the margins, psalms verses with one-line initials and paraphs alternately red or blue, chapter numbers in the margin in characters alternately red or blue, the margins with near-contemporary scholarly annotations and apparently uncropped (very minor losses at the edges). 20th-century blind-tooled full leather. Provenance : With the bookplate of George H. Yenowine of Milwaukee and clippings from two Wisconsin newspapers recording that he found a Bible (from which the present leaves presumably come), estimated to be of the 8th or 9th century, 'in a Madison junkshop'; acquired from Tisza, 1984. English and French 13th-century Bibles can be very difficult to tell apart (see J.J.G. Alexander, 'English or French? Thirteenth-Century Bibles', in Manuscripts at Oxford , 1980), pp.69-71), especially when they lack figural decoration. The penwork and script here looks more English than French. The annotations in the margins suggest that it was owned by a university student, perhaps at Paris or Oxford.
BIBLE -- THREE LEAVES FROM A BIBLE, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
BIBLE -- THREE LEAVES FROM A BIBLE, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [England or northern France, mid-13th century] 224 x 161mm. 3 leaves, two columns of 60 lines written below top line in a typical minute gothic book-hand in dark brown ink ruled in plummet, rubrics in red, the first two leaves consecutive and containing Job 40:13-42:16 and Psalms 1:1-21:20, the other containing Psalms 117:2-118:169, decorated with one nine-line 'puzzle' initial in red and blue, with red and blue penwork flourishing, psalms and biblical chapters with two-line initials alternately red or blue with flourishing in the other color, sometimes extending well into the margins, psalms verses with one-line initials and paraphs alternately red or blue, chapter numbers in the margin in characters alternately red or blue, the margins with near-contemporary scholarly annotations and apparently uncropped (very minor losses at the edges). 20th-century blind-tooled full leather. Provenance : With the bookplate of George H. Yenowine of Milwaukee and clippings from two Wisconsin newspapers recording that he found a Bible (from which the present leaves presumably come), estimated to be of the 8th or 9th century, 'in a Madison junkshop'; acquired from Tisza, 1984. English and French 13th-century Bibles can be very difficult to tell apart (see J.J.G. Alexander, 'English or French? Thirteenth-Century Bibles', in Manuscripts at Oxford , 1980), pp.69-71), especially when they lack figural decoration. The penwork and script here looks more English than French. The annotations in the margins suggest that it was owned by a university student, perhaps at Paris or Oxford.
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