A lovely original leaf from a medieval manuscript pocket Bible, written in Northern France (probably Paris), c. 1260. In Latin gothic micro-minuscule script, ruled in red & written in brown ink in two columns of 43 lines on animal vellum. (156x103 mm).
Rubricated chapter numbers, two multi-lined illuminated Lombard style initials &elegant marginal penwork in red & blue. Calligraphy is excellent, & the vellum is of the finest quality, extremely thin & smooth. The gothic text is written in remarkably tiny (ten lines of text to the inch!) & very well formed letters.
This leaf contains I Corinthians 12:12 – 14:40: ''Sicut…''' (For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas there are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentile…If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal…Charity is patient, is kind…When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child…There remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity…He that speaketh in a tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God…).
Provenance: parent book was a “portable” Bible of the Crusades period, used in study of theology or preaching of the Gospel. It was in England by 17th cent; ex coll. Lord Saltoun & later in the collection of Wm Foyle (1885-1963) at Beeligh Abbey. The Bible containing this leaf was very high-quality, illuminated in Paris & similar to work associated by Branner with the Dominican Painter (see R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis).
Shipped in archival 14x11'' mat.
