Beschreibung:

BIBLE with the Prologues attributed to St Jerome and the Interpretation of Hebrew names, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Paris, 1260s] 235 x 165 mm, 454 leaves: 1-4 20 , 5 22 , 6-18 20 , 19-20 2 4 , 21 20 , 22 22 , 23 2 , COMPLETE, signature marks with a symbol and the letters a-k survive in the first half of several gatherings, modern pencil foliation 1-457 omitting the numbers 87, 233, 383 and 404, and repeating the number 350, followed here, two columns of 55 lines written in black ink in a gothic bookhand between four verticals and 56 horizontals ruled in plummet, justification: 155 x 120mm, an additional pair of horizontals for running titles, guide letters for chapter numbers and initials survive at lower edge of many folios, rubrics in red, versal initials touched red, versal initials in the Psalter, letters of running headings and chapter numbers alternately of red or blue, two-line chapter initials alternately of red or blue with flourishing of the contrasting colour, SEVENTY-EIGHT HISTORIATED INITIALS with backgrounds of burnished gold and extended ascenders and descenders against patterned grounds of pink and blue and with terminals forming sprays into the margins opening Books of the Bible and SIXTY-SIX ILLUMINATED INITIALS opening Prologues (opening leaf darkened, stained, repaired in margin and initial rubbed, stains on ff.223 and 224 spreading through ff.215-248, slight dampstaining to edge of outer margin of first 50 leaves). Brown morocco gilt by Katherine Adams, panelled and bordered with triple fillets with a spray of acorns at each corner, the arms of C.H. St John Hornby in a wreath of acorns in the centre of the upper cover, spine gilt in six compartments with sprays of acorns around an initial H (very slight rubbing of extremities). PROVENANCE: 1. Although the Bible was written and illuminated in Paris, footnotes summarising the content of the column above survive, albeit cropped, at the edge of many lower margins; these are written in a less formal English hand of the later 13th-century. Other marginal annotations were added in a variety of medieval hands. 2. Whether or not the manuscript was in England by the 13th cenury it was certainly there by the 16th century; a note recording the grant of a farm, tenement and pasture by Philip Leman of Lincoln to John Bedall of Mendham in Suffolk occupies the lower margin of f. 253: 'Thys byll made the second daye of maye in the fyrst yere of Kynge Edward the Syxt' (1547). 3. Another two 16th-century notes in English appear in the margins of ff.255v and 256: 'In the nam of the Father of the Sone and of the Holie gost. Be it Amen. 1584' and 'William Gettline A man wthoute mercie of mercie shall misse'. 4. Charles Harry St John Hornby (1867-1946): bookplate 'From the Library of C.H. St John Hornby, Shelley House, Chelsea' inside upper cover, and his note recording his purchase of the manuscript in October 1911 from L. Olschki, Florence for add/-/- (£200), and the cost of Katharine Adams' binding of the book as y/-/- (£6). It appears in Katherine Adams' records for 1912. 5. Library of William Foyle: sale in these rooms 11 July 2000, lot 18, Beeleigh Abbey bookplate inside upper cover. CONTENT: Vulgate Bible with the customary Prologues ff.1-411; Prologues to the Song of Songs, the Psalter and Pauline Epistles in a different hand ff.411v-413v; Interpretation of Hebrew names ff.414-455v; Prologues and summaries of the Pauline Epistles, a continuation of the added Prologues written in the same hand ff.455v-157v. The added paragraphs entitled 'Prologus' or 'Argumentum' are not repetitions of the Prologues attributed to St Jerome but rather provide the context of the Biblical Book. ILLUMINATION: This Bible, with its polished and elegant initials, is a fine example of the achievements of the book-trade in Paris during the 13th century, and demonstrates the cause for Parisian Bibles being sought by patrons from across Europe. The illuminators of this