A lovely original leaf from a medieval manuscript pocket Bible, written in Paris c. 1240-50. Leaf size: 150x100 mm – 6 x 4 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, two multi-line illuminated Lombard style initials 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!
This leaf continues Exodus 24:16 – 26:33 “Et habitavit…” (And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days: and the seventh day he called him out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: and he was there forty days, and forty nights… And thou shalt make the tabernacle in this manner…)
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. It is from a “portable” Bible during the period of the Crusades, and would have been used in the abstract study of theology or the preaching of the Gospel around the medieval countryside.
Other leaves from this same book were exhibited in the Jeanne Blackburn Collection at the Cleveland Art Museum (pl. 7 & 8).
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
