c 1275 Bible Leaf - Exceptionally Large Lectern Bible - Genesis

$2,400.00

Original leaf from an exceptionally large medieval manuscript Lectern Bible on animal vellum.  (448 x 320mm - 17 5/8 x 12 1/2''; text block: 320 x 220 mm - 12 1/2 x 8 3/4'')

Two columns of thirty-nine lines, written in attractive gothic book hand. Rubricated chapter numbers, initials & marginalia in red & blue. Two multi-line illuminated initials alternating in red and blue with delicate & elaborate penwork in red & blue & extending into the margin; numerous initials highlighted in red.        

Northeastern France, (possibly Flanders), c. 1275.

Important Provenance:  formerly in collection of Otto Ege, referenced in Gwara Handlist as #96 (S. Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts, 2013), and in the De Ricci Census as Ege #5. De Ricci noted that Ege had 60 leaves from the parent manuscript that he obtained from Adler in Munich. Sister leaves are in several University collections, and notably, a leaf in the Cleveland Museum (1924) and one in the Toledo Museum (1923) were early acquisitions from Ege.

The red-highlighted “V” (line one) begins Genesis 41: 45 – 43:11 (Story of Jacob, Joseph and his brothers): “Vertitque…” (And he [Pharao] turned his name & called him [Joseph] in the Egyptian tongue, The savior of the world….And he called the name of the first-born Manasses saying: God hath made me to forget all my labors, & my father’s house. And he named the second Ephraim, saying: God hath made me to grow in the land of my poverty…The seven years of scarcity, which Joseph had foretold, began to come: & the famine prevailed in the whole world …The ten brethren of Joseph went down, to buy corn in Egypt…Jacob said: You have made me to be without children: Joseph is not living, Simeon is kept in bonds, & Benjamin you will take away…).

Shipped unmatted

  • Inventory# im-11823