ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
The Property of
THE LORD'S NEW CHURCH, PENNSYLVANIA
BIBLE, Latin, with the prologues attributed to St. Jerome and the interpretation of Hebrew names. [Paris, c. 1250].
Details
BIBLE, Latin, with the prologues attributed to St. Jerome and the interpretation of Hebrew names. [Paris, c. 1250].
Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 728 leaves, 1-3024 318, 155 x 103mm. (6 1/8 x 4 1/8in.), written in a very small gothic hand in black ink, double columns of 46 lines, justification (107 x 70mm.), with 82 historiated intials (6-8 lines) in blue, pink, gray, green, orange and touches of liquid gold, many with marginal extensions, including a full-page Creation initial (Gen. 1) and a large Tree of Jesse (Mt.1), 66 illuminated initials (4-6 lines) incorporating scrollwork and grotesques, 2-line chapter initials on almost every page in alternating red and blue, each with pen flourishing in red and blue extending the height of the page, versal initials and paragraph marks in Psalms and interpretation of Hebrew names in alternate red and blue, chapter numbers and running titles in alternating red and blue capitals, the capitals touched in red, rubrics in red. Early textual corrections in margins, traces of contemporary quiring in extreme lower margins. Complete and generally in very fresh condition, 2 leaves lack lower margin (no loss of text), tiny original holes or slits in the margins of some leaves owing to the thinness to which the vellum was scraped, minute original holes in the text area of ca. 10 leaves not affecting text, 1 tear in text (III Kings 2) with no loss of text, early repairs to margins of several leaves, two touching marginal corrections (Judith 8; Eccl. 12), unrepaired notches in margins of 2 leaves (calendar; Rom. 1), one leaf cropped touching marginal correction (Joshua 11), a few leaves lack lower corners due to natural defects in the vellum, (some restored), 1st leaf soiled with frayed corner, last 5 leaves with holes and rust stains in margins, faint damp-stain in extreme upper margins, occasional light spotting or soiling in lower margins. Added in the fifteenth century were seven preliminary leaves with calendar and list of books of the Bible; at the end were added nine leaves listing the epistles and gospels to be read on Sundays and feast days.
Binding
Fifteenth-century calf over wooden boards, BY LIVINUS STUVAERT AT GHENT, each cover blind-stamped with two impressions of his plaque, a frame of vines surrounding two rows of five grotesque animals flanking the inscription livinus stuuaert me ligauit. Also signed on the front pastedown in elegant bastarda script with an elaborate cadel initial: Liuinus stuuaert me ligauit in gandauo. Traces of fore-edge painting. Covers scuffed and wormed, clasps missing, rebacked.
Livinus Stuvaert was active at Ghent and Bruges 1446-1458. In addition to his plaque (Luc Indestege, "Schmuckformen auf flämischen Einbänden im ausgehenden Mittelalter: Beschriftete Rankenplatten," Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 1958, pp. 271-287, no. 104), he signed the pastedowns of his bindings in Latin, Flemish, or French. It is from these inscriptions that his work is mostly known, since many of his volumes have been rebound, including those he executed for Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (W.H.J. Weale, Bookbindings and Rubbings of Bindings in the National Art Library, South Kensington Museum, London, 1898, pp. lvii, lvix; Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, Boekbanden uit vijf eeuwen, Ghent, 1961, no. 5-6). Bindings by Stuvaert are quite rare.
Texts and Decoration
Calendar (fols. 1-6v). List of books of the Bible, with the number of chapters in each (fol. 7). Bible (fols. 8-678). Interpretation of Hebrew names (fols. 678-735). Table of epistle and gospel readings de tempore and de sanctis (fols. 736-744v). Calendar includes Amand and Vedast (black, Feb. 6), Translation of St. Eligius (red, June 25), Translation of St. Bertin (black, July 16), Bertin (black, Sept. 5), Remigius, Vedast and Bavo (red, Oct. 1), Donation (black, Oct. 14), Translation of St. Amand (black, Oct. 19), Eligius (red, Dec. 1).
A fine example of the small "pearl script" Vulgate Bibles produced in Paris in the thirteenth century. It was in thirteenth-century Paris that the theology masters of the university established what was to become the standard form of the Latin Bible: the selection and fixed order of the books, their division into the numbered chapters established by Stephen Langton and still universally employed, the insertion of a fixed set of explanatory prologues ascribed to St. Jerome, and the whole followed by an alphabetical glossary also by St. Jerome, the interpretation of Hebrew names. All these features are reflected in this small elegant pocket Bible on very fine vellum.
The decoration, employing a standard set of iconographical motifs, is typical of the Parisian workshop production of its period. The illumination was probably carried out at the Mathurin atelier, which was active c. 1240-1255 and to which at least twenty small Bibles, many with less elaborate illumination, have been ascribed (Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint Louis, Berkeley, 1977, pp. 75-78 and fig. 163-173).
The calendar, which points to Picardy and Flanders, and the table of readings were undoubtedly added when the volume was rebound at Ghent in the fifteenth century.
Provenance: Written and illuminated in Paris, c. 1250 -- Rebound in Ghent c. 1450, by Livinus Stuvaert, using his plaque and signed on the front pastedown -- "Pertinet ad Conradum Sancti Don... Platien..." sixteenth-century inscription on front pastedown.
Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 728 leaves, 1-3024 318, 155 x 103mm. (6 1/8 x 4 1/8in.), written in a very small gothic hand in black ink, double columns of 46 lines, justification (107 x 70mm.), with 82 historiated intials (6-8 lines) in blue, pink, gray, green, orange and touches of liquid gold, many with marginal extensions, including a full-page Creation initial (Gen. 1) and a large Tree of Jesse (Mt.1), 66 illuminated initials (4-6 lines) incorporating scrollwork and grotesques, 2-line chapter initials on almost every page in alternating red and blue, each with pen flourishing in red and blue extending the height of the page, versal initials and paragraph marks in Psalms and interpretation of Hebrew names in alternate red and blue, chapter numbers and running titles in alternating red and blue capitals, the capitals touched in red, rubrics in red. Early textual corrections in margins, traces of contemporary quiring in extreme lower margins. Complete and generally in very fresh condition, 2 leaves lack lower margin (no loss of text), tiny original holes or slits in the margins of some leaves owing to the thinness to which the vellum was scraped, minute original holes in the text area of ca. 10 leaves not affecting text, 1 tear in text (III Kings 2) with no loss of text, early repairs to margins of several leaves, two touching marginal corrections (Judith 8; Eccl. 12), unrepaired notches in margins of 2 leaves (calendar; Rom. 1), one leaf cropped touching marginal correction (Joshua 11), a few leaves lack lower corners due to natural defects in the vellum, (some restored), 1st leaf soiled with frayed corner, last 5 leaves with holes and rust stains in margins, faint damp-stain in extreme upper margins, occasional light spotting or soiling in lower margins. Added in the fifteenth century were seven preliminary leaves with calendar and list of books of the Bible; at the end were added nine leaves listing the epistles and gospels to be read on Sundays and feast days.
Binding
Fifteenth-century calf over wooden boards, BY LIVINUS STUVAERT AT GHENT, each cover blind-stamped with two impressions of his plaque, a frame of vines surrounding two rows of five grotesque animals flanking the inscription livinus stuuaert me ligauit. Also signed on the front pastedown in elegant bastarda script with an elaborate cadel initial: Liuinus stuuaert me ligauit in gandauo. Traces of fore-edge painting. Covers scuffed and wormed, clasps missing, rebacked.
Livinus Stuvaert was active at Ghent and Bruges 1446-1458. In addition to his plaque (Luc Indestege, "Schmuckformen auf flämischen Einbänden im ausgehenden Mittelalter: Beschriftete Rankenplatten," Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 1958, pp. 271-287, no. 104), he signed the pastedowns of his bindings in Latin, Flemish, or French. It is from these inscriptions that his work is mostly known, since many of his volumes have been rebound, including those he executed for Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (W.H.J. Weale, Bookbindings and Rubbings of Bindings in the National Art Library, South Kensington Museum, London, 1898, pp. lvii, lvix; Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, Boekbanden uit vijf eeuwen, Ghent, 1961, no. 5-6). Bindings by Stuvaert are quite rare.
Texts and Decoration
Calendar (fols. 1-6v). List of books of the Bible, with the number of chapters in each (fol. 7). Bible (fols. 8-678). Interpretation of Hebrew names (fols. 678-735). Table of epistle and gospel readings de tempore and de sanctis (fols. 736-744v). Calendar includes Amand and Vedast (black, Feb. 6), Translation of St. Eligius (red, June 25), Translation of St. Bertin (black, July 16), Bertin (black, Sept. 5), Remigius, Vedast and Bavo (red, Oct. 1), Donation (black, Oct. 14), Translation of St. Amand (black, Oct. 19), Eligius (red, Dec. 1).
A fine example of the small "pearl script" Vulgate Bibles produced in Paris in the thirteenth century. It was in thirteenth-century Paris that the theology masters of the university established what was to become the standard form of the Latin Bible: the selection and fixed order of the books, their division into the numbered chapters established by Stephen Langton and still universally employed, the insertion of a fixed set of explanatory prologues ascribed to St. Jerome, and the whole followed by an alphabetical glossary also by St. Jerome, the interpretation of Hebrew names. All these features are reflected in this small elegant pocket Bible on very fine vellum.
The decoration, employing a standard set of iconographical motifs, is typical of the Parisian workshop production of its period. The illumination was probably carried out at the Mathurin atelier, which was active c. 1240-1255 and to which at least twenty small Bibles, many with less elaborate illumination, have been ascribed (Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint Louis, Berkeley, 1977, pp. 75-78 and fig. 163-173).
The calendar, which points to Picardy and Flanders, and the table of readings were undoubtedly added when the volume was rebound at Ghent in the fifteenth century.
Provenance: Written and illuminated in Paris, c. 1250 -- Rebound in Ghent c. 1450, by Livinus Stuvaert, using his plaque and signed on the front pastedown -- "Pertinet ad Conradum Sancti Don... Platien..." sixteenth-century inscription on front pastedown.