Original leaf from a medieval manuscript pocket Bible. Latin gothic micro-minuscule script, hand-written in brown ink, on animal vellum. (160 x 110 mm - 6.4 x 4.4"). Rubricated chapter numbers in red and blue.
Three multi-line illuminated initials alternating in deep blue with elaborate red penwork and red with blue penwork - all into the margins. 59 lines of text in double columns (14 lines per inch!).
Produced in Italy, (Probably Bologna), c. AD 1250-75.
This leaf contains Matthew 19:21 - 22:21: ''Vade, vende...'' (Go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me...It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven...Many that are first, shall be last: and the last shall be first...Many are called, but few are chosen...The Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many...Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest...My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves...Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise...).
This leaf, from a “portable” Bible during the period of the Crusades, would have been used in the abstract study of theology or the preaching of the Gospel around the medieval countryside.
Presented in archival 14x11'' mat.
