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 illuminator of the Oxford Bible). Written with brown ink in Latin gothic script on animal vellum. (185x135mm)
Rubricated chapter numbers, initials & marginalia in red & blue. 54 lines of text in double columns (10 lines per inch!). For sister leaf see Blackburn Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, pl. 4.
Produced in Oxford, c. 1240 A.D.
This leaf contains Luke 22:53 - 24:22: ''fuerim in templo...'' (With you in the temple, you did not stretch forth your hands against me...Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice...Pilate again spoke to them, desiring to release Jesus. But they cried again, saying: Crucify him, crucify him...Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do...This is the King of the Jews...Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. And saying this, he gave up the ghost...He is not here, but is risen...).
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 14 x 11'' mat
