IM-9871: A lovely original leaf from a medieval manuscript pocket Bible, written in Paris c. 1240-50. In Latin gothic micro-minuscule script, ruled in red and written in brown ink in two columns of 44 lines on animal vellum. Rubricated chapter numbers, two multi-lined illuminated Lombard style initials &elegant marginalia red & blue The leaf measure 150 x 100mm.. Included with the leaf is an original authenticated Biblical coin known as a Widow's Mite.
The gothic text is written in extremely tiny & very well formed letters, so small that there are twelve lines of text to the inch! Each side contains scribal omissions added in margins – these omissions are surrounded by a red box indicating that the “transcription had been systematically checked for accuracy” (De Hamel, Scribes and Illuminators, p. 43).
This leaf contains important text including the story of the Widow's Mite, and of the Last Supper. Line two begins Mark 12:27 - 14:25: “Non est Deus…” (He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living...the first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God....and the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself...And there came a certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites. .Amen I say to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast into the treasury...Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my work shall not pass away. Jesus took bread; and blessing broke, and gave to them, and said: Take ye. This is my body...This is my blood of the new testament which shall be shed for many...).
The book from which this leaf came was a very high-quality production, scribed in the Johannes Grusch Workshop in Paris. Calligraphy is excellent, & the vellum is of the finest style, extremely thin & very white. Other leaves from this same book were exhibited in the Jeanne Blackburn Collection, Cleveland Art Museum (pl. 7 & 8). This leaf is from a “portable” Bible of the Crusades period & would have been used in abstract study of theology or preaching of the Gospel around medieval countryside.
An attractive and historical medieval Bible leaf in nice condition. The last two images show the Widow's Mite coin included with purchase of this leaf.
Shipped unmatted
