Original leaf from a medieval manuscript pocket Bible with illuminations from the Johannes Grusch Atelier. Red-ruled Latin gothic minuscule script written in brown ink on animal vellum. (150 x 100 mm - 6 x 4").
Rubricated chapter numbers, initials & marginalia in red & blue. 44 lines of text in double columns (12 lines per inch!).
France: Paris, c. 1240-50 A.D.
This leaf contains text from Leviticus 26:31 – Numbers 1:26: ''In tantum ut urbes…'' (Insomuch that I will bring your cities to be a wilderness…).
The five+line historiated initial, which extends into the margin becoming a dragon-like creature portrays Moses (left) addressing a seated man. It opens The Book of Numbers: ''Locutusque est Dominus…'' (And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert…).
Verso contains a scribal omission added in the lower right margin – this omission was to be inserted in Leviticus 27, verse 33 and is surrounded by a red box indicating that the ''transcription had been systematically checked for accuracy'' (De Hamel, Scribes and Illuminators, p. 43).
The book from which this leaf came was a very high-quality production, scribed in the Johannes Grusch Workshop in Paris. The calligraphy is excellent, and the vellum is of the finest style, extremely thin and very white. Other leaves from this same book were exhibited in the Jeanne Blackburn Collection at the Cleveland Art Museum (pl. 7 & 8).
Shipped in archival 14x11'' mat.
