Medieval Bible Leaf - Matthew - What God hath joined together...

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 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. (150 x 100 mm - 6 x 4").

Rubricated chapter numbers, three multi-lined illuminated Lombard style initials &elegant marginalia red & blue. The gothic text is written in extremely tiny & very well formed letters, so small that there are twelve lines of text to the inch! Recto contains two pointing hands (indicating text of particular importance).

Text is Matthew 18:26 - 21:5: ''Procidens...'' (But that servant falling down, besought him, saying:  Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.  And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt...For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one fleshTherefore now they are not two, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder...Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me: for the kingdom of heaven is for such...It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven...Many are called, but few chosen...The Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption 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.

Shipped in archival 14x11'' mat.

  • Inventory# IM-10841
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