IM-4023: Original leaf from an exceptional folio size medieval manuscript Bible. Three columns of forty-seven lines, written in attractive rounded gothic hand. Line extenders and marginalia are in red and blue on animal vellum
Size: 330 x 230 mm - 13.2 x 9.2 inches
The exceptional seven-line historiated initial "S" contains a miniature painting of a saint (possibly St. Stephen with his right hand clenched around a stone) and extends into the margin with deep blue, orange, burnished gold, taupe, pink and white.
Four two-line initials alternate in deep blue with red penwork and red with violet penwork.
Southwestern France, c. 1300.
The illumination is in an unusual Provincial style – with the script showing Italian influences.
This leaf contains a lexicon, or Interpretation of Hebrew Names, beginning with ''R''. The historiated initial begins names starting with ''S''.
Provenance: The parent book of this leaf is sometimes known as the "Mailhac-Faber Bible" - formerly in the collection of Sir Thomas Phillips and Sir Chester A. Beatty. The manuscript was sold at Sotheby’s in the Beatty Sale (24 June 1969) lot 57 and subsequently dissembled. Sister leaves appeared in Quaritch catalog 1036 and 1056 (1985). A detailed discussion and list of sister leaves is found in Peter Kidd, The Mccarthy Collection, III - French Miniatures (London, 2021), no. 6.
Shipped unmatted.
