Beschreibung:

BIBLE with the Prologues attributed to St Jerome and the Interpretation of Hebrew names, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [northern France, 1220s] 242 x 163mm. 395 leaves: 1 16 (i now mounted on a guard), 2-11 16 , 12 1 8 , 13-22 16 , 23 1 2 , 24 10 , 25 4 , 26 1 2 , 27 3 (of 4, final blank cancelled, iii now mounted on a guard), COMPLETE, two columns of 52 lines written in black ink in a small gothic bookhand on 52 horizontals and bounded by pairs of verticals ruled in plummet, justification: 162 x 103mm, additional paired rulings in upper, lower and outer margins, rubrics in red, versal initials in the Book of Job touched red, versal initials in Psalms and letters of running headings and chapter numbers alternately of red and blue, two- to six-line initials alternately of red or blue with flourishing of the contrasting colour, FORTY-EIGHT ILLUMINATED INITIALS with staves of dark pink or blue with white decoration on grounds of burnished gold and the contrasting colour, or of burnished gold on divided grounds of pink and blue, some infills with tendrils with foliate or animal-head terminals in orange-red, EIGHTY-TWO HISTORIATED INITIALS, most with extensions with scrolling foliate terminals or dragons, some the height of the text, including large Genesis and Tree of Jesse initials, sewing holes to one side from protective silk curtains, three surviving, ff.375v-380 in a 14th-century gothic bookhand with three-line puzzle initials of blue and burnished gold flourished with red or blue (repaired tear in lower corner of first folio into 11 lines of one column of text, many running titles cropped, two wormholes to first few leaves, small loss in margin of f.3 and slight smudging of initial, small marginal tears to very few leaves). Old blue velvet (restored by Douglas Cockerell), armorial blue cloth box gilt. A FINE AND EARLY SINGLE-VOLUME BIBLE WITH A DISTINGUISHED PROVENANCE PROVENANCE: 1. This has all the characteristic organisation and sequence of a 13th-century 'Paris Bible' and several features point to its having been produced at an early stage in the evolution of the single-volume Vulgate: the position of the chapter numbers in margins, the deviation from the series of Prologues that became standard from around 1230, and the relatively large format of the volume compared to those produced in the second half of the century. An early date is confirmed by the fact that the text is written above-top-line. It is an excellent example of the type of Bible that the early Paris book trade was supplying to 'canons, bishops, cardinals and other men of substance' in the first third of the 13th century: C. de Hamel The Book. A History of the Bible , 2001, p.130. 2. Ste Trinité, monastery of the Celestines at Limay near Mantes: erased inscription on final verso and cancelled inscription on opening folio '..iste liber est celestinorum prope meduntam - die signa....'. The monastery was founded in 1376 by Charles V of France and continued to attract patronage from the king and court. It was consequently richly endowed and the apparent shelfmark '593' may well relate to this ownership. Limay's was one of the libraries catalogued by Père Daire (d.1792) (BnF, fr.15290). 3. Sir John Hayford Thorold, 10th Baronet (d.1831) of Syston Park, Grantham, Lincolnshire: the Syston Park armorial bookplate and his monogram JHT label inside upper cover. A portion of the library put together by Sir John Thorold, 9th Baronet (d.1815) and his son Sir John Hayford Thorold was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on 12 December 1884. The sale took place over eight days and was remarkable for the high prices achieved for the most splendid books. 4. Sotheby's 12 July 1939, lot 11. 5. Lord Kennet of the Dene (1879-1960): his armorial bookplate on front endleaf. As well as Lord Kennet's notes researching the manuscript and its provenance, the box contains a sheet of Sir Sydney Cockerell's letterhead with a copy of Seymour de Ricci's account of th