Bible, in Latin, with the Prologues and Interpretation of Hebrew Names, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

543 leaves (3 blank), 142mm. by 94mm., complete, collation: i-xx^{24, xxi^{16 [last 2 blank], xxii^{24, xxiii^{23 [last blank, a further blank cancelled at end], with some alphabetical leaf signatures, double column, 46 lines, ruled in plummet, bounding-lines re-ruled in red (probably in the sixteenth century), written-space 100mm. by 64mm., written in dark brown ink in an extremely small gothic bookhand, headings in red, capitals touched in red, running-titles and chapter numbers in alternately red and blue letters, versal initials in psalms and the Interpretations in alternately red and blue letters, 2-line chapter initials throughout in red or blue with contrasting penwork often extending the full height of the margin,}}}} a hundred and twenty-six large illuminated initials from 2 to 31 lines high (mostly 6- or 7-line), the initials in designs of twisting and spiralling foliage and animals and dragons in colours with heightening in white and gold, nine historiated initials from 5 to 46 lines high (mostly 6- or 7-line), a few early sidenotes, extremities of some marginal extensions slightly cropped, some minor stains and marks, the white pigment sometimes a bit oxidised (reversible), generally sound, late sixteenth-century binding (perhaps Roman) of dark olive-brown morocco gilt, panelled in blind, gilt tooled with double foliate borders, central compartments stamped with corner fleurons around oval medallions within sunbursts of the Crucifixion and the Virgin and Child on a crescent moon, spine in compartments gilt, vellum endleaves and flyleaves, painted edges, stubs (only) of catches once on edge of lower cover, binding rather loose but generally sound, in a quarter brown morocco fitted case, title gilt

Provenance

provenance

(1) Presented to Martín de Córdova y Mendoza, O.P., bishop of Tortosa 1560-74, during the Council of Trent, with a long presentation inscription on the flyleaf in a fine italic hand, in which Magister Giovanni Marssano gives the book to the bishop, saying that all who have seen it have admired its script, its smallness and antiquity, proposing that, in these troublesome times, it should be in the hands of one who works daily for Religion and the Catholic Church during the present Council (“in Sacro isto Concilio”), dated from Rome, 15 July 1563. That was the opening day of the twenty-third and final session of the Council, probably the most important religious conference since the early Christian period. The fact that the present manuscript was evidently passed around and admired among the delegates of the Council is of some significance, since one of the Council’s most enduring legacies was the ratification of the medieval Latin Vulgate as the authentic Christian Bible, distancing Catholicism from the new-fangled Protestant translations from Hebrew and Greek and culminating in the Vulgate editions of Sixtus V (1590) and Clement VIII (1592).

The Spanish Dominican prelate, Martín de Córdova y Mendoza (1512-1581), was successively bishop of Tortosa in north-east Spain, bishop of Plasencia 1574-78, and finally bishop of Córdoba, 1578-81, where he died on 5 June 1581.

(2) Sale in these rooms, 11 July 1960, lot 103.

(3) Arthur Haddaway (d.1981), with his leather booklabel, gilt; exhibited, Gothic and Renaissance Manuscripts from Texas Collections, University of Texas, Austin, 1971, no.2; his sale, Christie’s, New York, 25 September 1981, lot 3.

(4) Boehlen Collection, MS.1201 ES, the present owners, bought in our rooms, 6 December 1983, lot 52.

Catalogue Note

text

The text follows the standard Parisian sequence as in Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, I, 1969, pp.96-7, including Psalms, with all the prologues listed there, followed by the Interpretation of Hebrew Names in the version beginning, ‘Aas apprehendens’.

illumination

The illumination is attributable securely to the Mathurin workshop, as defined by R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, 1977, pp.76-7 and 214-5. Another Bible from the same workshop is illustrated in J.J.G. Alexander, J.H., Marrow and L.F. Sandler, The Splendor of the Word, Medieval and Illuminated Manuscripts at the New York Public Library, 2005, pp.63-5, no.11. There are over 130 fine illuminated initials here, including nine with miniatures. They are: (1) Ambrosius writing, 22mm. by 17mm., plus long marginal extensions, the monk seated at a sloping desk, fol.1r; (2) the six days of Creation with God blessing the world on the seventh, 127mm. by 10mm., with the Crucifixion at the foot, fol.5r; (3) Tobit and the swallow, 15mm. by 14mm., Tobit in bed with the bird flying above, fol.204v; (4) Job comforted by his wife, 15mm. by 16mm., Job seated, a woman standing and reasoning with him, fol.219r; (5) David playing his harp, 18mm. by 18mm., fol.229r; (6) King Solomon instructing a youth, 17mm. by 15mm., plus long marginal extensions, the king holding a birch and about to chastise the boy who is stripped to the waist, fol.253v; (7) the stoning of Jeremiah, 14mm. by 15mm., the prophet kneeling, a man holding his shoulder and raising a stone, fol.306r; (8) Jeremiah bewailing the fall of Jerusalem, 10mm. by 13mm., fol.326v; and (9) a Jesse tree, 37mm. by 12mm., Jesse asleep in bed, a king and a queen in the branches above him, fol.398r.