A VERY ATTRACTIVE EARLY ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAF, FROM A BIBLE IN LATIN.

TEXT FROM THE BEGINNING OF TOBIAS.

(1280). 302 x 200 mm (11 7/8 x 7 7/8"). Double column, 61 lines of text, in a very pleasing, very regular small gothic book hand.

Attractively matted. Rubrics in red, headlines and chapter numbers in red and blue, four four-line initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, and TWO LARGE AND VERY PLEASING PUZZLE INITIALS WITH FLAMBOYANT PENWORK ELABORATION, one a six-line "C," the other a 10-line "T." Mounting traces at corners, slight yellowing at edges, otherwise fine, the text without any fading, the initials in perfect condition, and the margins extremely ample.

This is a most attractive leaf from a large-format 13th century Bible, distinguished by two so-called "puzzle" initials, so named because their red and blue elements fit together like pieces of a puzzle. In the 13th century, the production of Bibles became an important commercial enterprise, and they were produced with varying degrees of grandeur to match various pocket books. Those manuscripts with historiated initials were provided to clients of very considerable means, and codices with gold but without inhabited initials were made available to customers at the next lower level of financial commitment. The present leaf comes from the third rank, Bibles that would have been made for important clients with discretionary money to spend, but unable to pay princely sums. These three groups made up perhaps the 15 or 20 percent of splendid volumes at the top of the biblical food chain, with a great many small format Bibles being produced for the general consumers--the parish priests, students, and others possessed of significant piety but lesser means. (ST10962c)