c 1240 Bible leaf - Complete book of Obadiah with Miniature

$4,500.00

Original leaf from an English manuscript pocket Bible. From a Bible illuminated at the workshop of William de Brailes - one of the few 13th century English illuminators known by name! (De Brailes maintained an active workshop at Oxford c. 1238-52.  He was the illuminator of the Oxford Bible). Written in Latin gothic script, in brown ink on animal vellum. (185 x 135 mm - 7.4 x 5.4") 

For sister leaf see Blackburn Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, pl. 4.

Rubricated chapter numbers, initials and marginalia in red and blue. 54 lines of text in double columns (10 lines per inch!).             

England: Oxford, c. 1240 A.D.

One six-line historiated initial of the Prophet Abdiah; it extends into the margin and is in gold, orange, blue, pink and white; Two highly illuminated initials – both extending downward into the margin in the same gold & temperas.

This leaf contains text from Amos 8:1 – 9:14 & the entire Book of Abdiah (Obadiah): ''Hec ostendit…'' (These things the Lord showed to me…).

Abdiah begins: ''Visio…'' (The vision of Abdias…For the day of the Lord is at hand upon all nations: as thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee…).

This leaf, from a ''portable'' Bible during the Crusades period, would have been used in the abstract study of theology or preaching of the Gospel around the medieval countryside.

Presented in an archival 14x11'' mat.

  • Inventory# IM-3626