St Barnabas(?), full-page miniature from the Knyvett Hours, in Latin [England, East Anglia?, late 14th century]

single leaf, c.200x135mm, vellum, with a miniature for the suffrage of St Barnabas(?), the recto ruled for up to 23 lines, written with 19 lines, consisting of the text of the suffrage to St John the Evangelist (which would have faced the preceding miniature), with two illuminated initials, a border, and a heraldic shield, slight cracking of the gold and slights stains to the extremities of the margins, framed

PROVENANCE OF THIS LEAF

(5) Bruce Ferrini, Catalogue 3, 1995, no.19 (col.ill.). (6) Berger Collection Educational Trust, on deposit at the Denver Art Museum.

ILLUMINATION

The identity of the present saint is uncertain. He is dressed in the vestments of a deacon and holding in one hand an object that appears to be a rock: this suggests that he is St Stephen. Considerable doubt is cast on this identification, however, by various features, including the facts that Stephen is usually shown with a stone at his head, not in his hand (the present saint does not even have a wound on his head); and the 1931 Quaritch cataloguer, who had access to the texts accompanying each miniature, did not identify any of the miniatures as Stephen. The 1995 Ferrini cataloguer therefore suggested that the present saint is St Barnabas (a rarely-depicted saint who is included in the Quaritch description), holding in his left hand the original copy of the Gospel of Matthew, which is said to have been found with his body in his tomb, and the stones in his right hand allude to a tradition that he was stoned to death.

From the same manuscript as the previous lot.