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Ten illuminated initials on six leaves from a Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, Oxford, c.1250]
Details
Oxford workshop
Ten illuminated initials on six leaves from a Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, Oxford, c.1250]
Leaves from a 13th-century Oxford Bible with early provenance in a Dominican house in Italy.
6 leaves, 160 x 110mm, not sequential, two columns of 43-44 lines numbered ‘3’ or ‘4’ at the bottom of the text block, ruled space: 110 x 65mm, ten illuminated initials in red, pink and blue with white penwork outlined in green to open: (i) II Corinthians (ii) prologue to Galatians; (iii) Galatians; (iv) prologue to Ephesians; (v) Ephesians; (vi) prologue to I Timothy; (vii) I Timothy; (viii) II Timothy; (ix) Philemon; and (x) Hebrews, (arranged as bifolia out of order on archival hinges, a couple of marginal tears).
Provenance:
(1) Written and illuminated in Oxford around the middle of the 13th century: the leaves have numbering between the columns at every fifth line of text, an exclusively English feature deriving from Oxford, as described by M.A. and R.H. Rouse: ‘The purpose of the line-numbering was to enable the owner of a book to create his own index if he wished, or simply to be able to note down references to parts of books with precision. […] This reference system, still widely used today for classical texts and poetry, in the Middle Ages did not cross the Channel [...]’ (Authentic Witnesses, 1991, pp. 234-36).
(2) Giacomo Bianconi (1220 – 1301), founder and prior of the Dominican convent of Bevagna in Umbria: the parent manuscript from which these leaves derive had the ownership signature of ‘Jacobus de Mevania’ [i.e. Bevagna] and contained profuse marginal annotations in a contemporary hand. The removal of the Bible to Italy shortly after it was produced makes it an interesting witness to the 13th-century movement of books and students between Oxford and Italy, especially within the Dominican order.
(3) Piasa, Paris, 16 April 2007, lot 41: the near-complete parent manuscript was sold and subsequently dismembered. Sister leaves from this Bible can be identified on the basis of the unusual line-numbering, in which Arabic numerals are used with a more antique counting system (for a full account of this manuscript see: P. Kidd, ‘A Recently Dismembered Illuminated Bible, Probably from Oxford’, https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-recently-dismembered-illuminated.html).
Ten illuminated initials on six leaves from a Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, Oxford, c.1250]
Leaves from a 13th-century Oxford Bible with early provenance in a Dominican house in Italy.
6 leaves, 160 x 110mm, not sequential, two columns of 43-44 lines numbered ‘3’ or ‘4’ at the bottom of the text block, ruled space: 110 x 65mm, ten illuminated initials in red, pink and blue with white penwork outlined in green to open: (i) II Corinthians (ii) prologue to Galatians; (iii) Galatians; (iv) prologue to Ephesians; (v) Ephesians; (vi) prologue to I Timothy; (vii) I Timothy; (viii) II Timothy; (ix) Philemon; and (x) Hebrews, (arranged as bifolia out of order on archival hinges, a couple of marginal tears).
Provenance:
(1) Written and illuminated in Oxford around the middle of the 13th century: the leaves have numbering between the columns at every fifth line of text, an exclusively English feature deriving from Oxford, as described by M.A. and R.H. Rouse: ‘The purpose of the line-numbering was to enable the owner of a book to create his own index if he wished, or simply to be able to note down references to parts of books with precision. […] This reference system, still widely used today for classical texts and poetry, in the Middle Ages did not cross the Channel [...]’ (Authentic Witnesses, 1991, pp. 234-36).
(2) Giacomo Bianconi (1220 – 1301), founder and prior of the Dominican convent of Bevagna in Umbria: the parent manuscript from which these leaves derive had the ownership signature of ‘Jacobus de Mevania’ [i.e. Bevagna] and contained profuse marginal annotations in a contemporary hand. The removal of the Bible to Italy shortly after it was produced makes it an interesting witness to the 13th-century movement of books and students between Oxford and Italy, especially within the Dominican order.
(3) Piasa, Paris, 16 April 2007, lot 41: the near-complete parent manuscript was sold and subsequently dismembered. Sister leaves from this Bible can be identified on the basis of the unusual line-numbering, in which Arabic numerals are used with a more antique counting system (for a full account of this manuscript see: P. Kidd, ‘A Recently Dismembered Illuminated Bible, Probably from Oxford’, https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-recently-dismembered-illuminated.html).
Special notice
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
Brought to you by
Sophie Meadows
Senior Specialist