A lovely original leaf from a medieval manuscript pocket Bible, written in Paris c. 1240-50. Presented in a leather bound leaf book with a six-page essay by Bruce Ferrini. Limited edition number 37 of 1000; Published in Akron, Ohio, 1994. (Leaf: 150x100 mm – 6 x 4 inches – Book: 230x158mm – 9 x 6.25 inches).
The leaf is written in Latin gothic micro-minuscule script, ruled in red & written in brown ink in two columns of 44 lines on animal vellum. Rubricated chapter numbers, one multi-line illuminated Lombard style initial extending into the margin in red & blue. The text is written in extremely tiny & very well formed letters, so small that there are twelve lines of text to the inch!
Line two begins Mark 5:22-6:56: “Et venit quidam…” (And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue… Who touched my clothes?...And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole…When he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled……).
Both the front (recto) and back (verso) contain a scribal omission added in the left margin – this omission is surrounded by a red box indicating that the “transcription had been systematically checked for accuracy” (De Hamel, Scribes and Illuminators, p. 43).
The book from which this leaf came was a very high-quality production, scribed in the Johannes Grusch Workshop in Paris. The calligraphy is excellent, and the vellum is of the finest style, extremely thin and very white. Other leaves from this same book were exhibited in the Jeanne Blackburn Collection at the Cleveland Art Museum (pl. 7 & 8).
