Object Description
A beautifully illuminated leaf from a Latin Bible of the Old and New Testament, carefully calligraphed and ornamented in Paris, France, at the beginning of the 13th Century. The leaf is composed of two columns of 44 lines, ruled in dark ink. The text is a fine example of the popular Medieval and Renaissance gothic book-hand script, used extensively for French vernacular books, known as lettre bâtarde. The leaf is executed in red, white, green and blue tempera, gold and liquid gold on both sides. The recto features a finely illuminated initial, forming graceful scrolls which twist into sprays of foliage within its body.
This particular leaf came from a Bible belonging to a Dominican monk, known as Jacques de Bevagna, the founder of the Dominican convent of Bevagna, near Spoleto, Italy. This leaf is of an extraordinary interest considering also the annotations and comments added to the margin of the text, probably by Jacques de Bevagna himself. These comments are known as glosses, from the Greek word glossa, meaning language. The use of commenting, by explanatory notes, difficult and antiquated words, spread during the Middle Ages: of this period there are numerous manuscripts tbearing annotations, both above the word to be explained (interlinear glosses) and in the marginal space (marginal glosses).
Paris, France, circa early 13th century AD