Ezekiel beholding his vision, and Solomon instructing a scribe to write, historiated initials on two leaves from illuminated manuscript Bibles, in Latin with single word of Greek, on vellum [France (Paris), thirteenth century]

two leaves: (a) leaf with the end of the apocryphal book of Baruch, Jerome’s prologue to Ezekiel, and the opening of Ezekiel, 190mm. by 134mm., large historiated initial (10-line) in pink scalloped with white penwork on tessellated blue and pounced gold grounds, enclosing the prophet seated in a hilly landscape gesturing to the four heavenly creatures of his vision (with the faces of a man, an eagle, a lion and an ox), 57 lines of black ink in a fine gothic bookhand, running titles in blue and red, rubrics in red, 8-line initial in blue on red and gold grounds enclosing scrolling foliage, 7-line initial in same with extension in border for most of page, enclosing two lacertine winged creatures in the body and tail of the initial, leaf trimmed to edge of text on one side and at base, else fine condition, c.1230; (b) leaf with Jerome’s preface to Proverbs and the opening of Proverbs, 212mm. by 150mm., two historiated initials, one 13-line, in soft brown with white geometric penwork on blue ground with gold fruit enclosing Solomon seated and holding a palm before a writing scribe, the other 9-line enclosing a portrait of Jerome, double column, 55 lines, numerous marginal annotations, initial once partly cut away and now fixed in place with two small strips of adhesive tape (each only a few mm. high, but partly obscuring upper- and lower-most edges of initial), else good condition, c.1260-70; both in card mounts

Item (a) is of very fine quality, from the period of the great Bible Moralisée manuscripts. Item (b) is from a Bible which belonged to the Carthusian abbey of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, and is marked with the Carthusian punctus flexus notation (cf. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, I, 1969, p.xii, n.2, recording other leaves from the same parent volume as Bodleian, MS.Lat. bibl.e.6). It was broken up in London c.1961 by Louis Bondy (1910-93: see Manion, Vines and de Hamel, Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, pp.89-90 for a list of other leaves).