{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin", "value": "Second quarter of the 14th century, Italy.

Decoration completed in England, possibly London. E.G. Millar described the historiated initials as being in the style of the Queen Mary Psalter (British Library, Royal MS 2 B.vii) (Millar (1928), no. 228), which Margaret Rickert considered to be London work (Rickert (1965), pp. 127-28). <\/p>" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Italy" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "

Recorded as being in the treasury of St Paul's Cathedral, London St. Paul's Cathedral London, England, in 1458 (see Dugdale, History of St Paul's<\/i> (1818)), p. 397).<\/p>

405r<\/a> largely erased inscription, ending 'Londonyensis', perhaps also relating to St Paul's Cathedral The same hand has also noted the titles of two other books, 'Hugo de Venna postulata >-<\/i><\/i>-<<\/i>' (i.e. Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postillae in Bibliam<\/i>) and 'petrus comestor historiarum' (i.e. Petrus Comestor, Historia scholastica<\/i>), as well as adding other mottoes: 'spes mea in deo est' and 'God spede all gode men'. The latter may refer to MS Gg.4.7, a copy of the 'Historia scholastica', which also from St Paul's and also came to the University Library as a gift from George I (see Williman, (1999), p. 443).<\/p>

John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely: no. 1 (f. [a] recto<\/a>) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ<\/i> (c. 1697).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex i + 1 + 403 + i Leaf height: 430 mm, width: 260 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "Second quarter of the 14th century" }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "MS Dd.1.14" }, { "label": "Donor(s)", "value": "George I, King of Great Britain, 1660-1727" }, { "label": "Additions", "value": "

Sketches in ink of a crowned head, in profile, added in the 14th/15th century and drawn in ink (ff. 170r<\/a>, 170v<\/a>).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Bible" }, { "label": "Associated Name(s)", "value": "Moore, John, 1646-1714; Pine, John, 1690-1756" }, { "label": "Format", "value": "Codex" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "This record draws on Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library<\/i> (Cambridge, 2011), by kind permission of Cambridge University Press." }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "Latin" }, { "label": "Author(s)", "value": "Hugh, of Saint-Cher, Cardinal, approximately 1200-1263; Petrus, Comestor, active 12th century" }, { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Full red morocco over pasteboards with elaborate gold tooling (17th/18th century).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Condition", "value": "

The lower edge and corner of the manuscript has been gnawed by rodents; the damage is particularly noticeable on the opening leaves (ff. 2r-72v<\/a>). Thereafter, while damage continues to the lower corner, the lower edge has been largely unaffected.<\/p>

The opening leaf of text has been dirtied and a pronounced crease runs along the length of the left-hand column on the recto side, affecting the legibility of the text on both sides of the leaf (f. 2r-2v<\/a>).<\/p>

The manuscript has been affected by damp, with staining running along the upper edge of the opening leaves (ff. 2r-50r<\/a>). The text and decoration is largely unaffected, however in several places there is further evidence of rodent damage (ff. 14r-15v<\/a>, 20r-28v<\/a>).<\/p>

Otherwise, the manuscript is in good condition, with the decorative initials and text well preserved.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Script", "value": "

Written in littera textualis<\/i> by a single scribe.<\/p><\/div><\/div>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

This manuscript contains the complete text of the Bible in a single volume. The text was copied by an Italian scribe, with the decoration being completed in England during the second quarter of the fourteenth century. It exemplifies important developments in how the Scriptures were copied, read, transmitted and mediated during the late medieval period, changes that continued to exert a guiding influence upon the production and reproduction of the Bible text beyond the medieval period and into the era of the printed book. Nothing is yet known of the circumstances in which it was made, or for whom; by the mid-fifteenth century, however, it appears to have been in the possession of St Paul's Cathedral in London.<\/p>

The association of its decoration with later products of the Queen Mary Psalter workshop suggests either London or East Anglia as a possible locus of production for that part of the manuscript (see Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts<\/i> (1986), no. 75). The female personifications of Synagoga and Ecclesia (5r<\/a>) have been painted in semi-grisaille; as Deidre Jackson and Nigel Morgan have noted, 'The purple colour in particular...resembles grisaille in contemporary Parisian manuscripts by Jean Pucelle, even to the extent of the use of linear and dot stippling, a particular characteristic of Pucelle's technique. It is possible,' they conclude, 'that the English artists working in semi-grisaille had seen French manuscripts painted in the Pucellian technique' (see Panayotova (2016), no. 66).<\/p>

The dissemination of the Bible in one volume has a long history. The earliest complete extant single-volume bible, Codex Amiatinus (now at the Bibliotheca Laurenziana in Florence), was produced around 700 C.E. in the north-east of England, at the Benedictine monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. Such bibles are commonly referred to as 'pandects': a Greek term of originally legal application meaning 'cover all', it was used to describe Byzantine legal texts, in particular a single volume that contained a comprehensive legal code. Single-volume bibles came in and out of fashion. Books of the Bible were, for centuries, circulated as distinct and discrete books or groups of books, even alongside their single-volume equivalents. The physical unwieldiness of the complete Bible text, the lack of a set order for the constituent books, and the status of some books as canonical and others as apocryphal are factors that made the separation of the books of the Bible practicable, even desirable. The development from the mid-twelfth century onwards of glossed books of the Bible, in which the text was heavily annotated with theological interpretation and commentary, lent further weight - literally - to keeping them as separate entities.<\/p>

Nevertheless, there were marked intervals in which single-volume bibles enjoyed a revival. The twelfth century, in particular, saw the production across Europe of very large, so-called 'giant' bibles. Written in large script and often exquisitely decorated with miniatures and ornamental initials, these prestige items were used in institutional settings - primarily wealthy monasteries and cathedrals - as lectern bibles for the cycle of communal readings, as part of the liturgy but also in the refectory.<\/p>

Single volumes continued to be produced after the heyday of the 'giant' bible had passed. CUL MS Dd.1.14, likely produced for institutional use, included features that had been developed in smaller, portable scholastic bibles. The constituent books follow a historical sequence and are often preceded by a specific prologue (drawing on the writings of Jerome or later exegetes). Accompaniments to earlier bibles, such as the canon tables of Eusebius, have been dispensed with; instead, clearer textual articulation has been introduced in the form of chapter divisions, and guides to the deciphering of the meaning of the text have been incorporated (the Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum<\/i>, for example).<\/p>

Such changes were part of a larger transformation in the way that the Bible was disseminated, read and mediated. As research by Eyal Poleg has shown (Approaching the Bible in medieval England<\/i> (2009)), there was a 'staggering paratextual uniformity in script and addenda, mise-en-page and textual division' in bibles produced between c. 1230 and c. 1450. The Bible became a 'highly efficient reference book', its narrative qualities taking second place to its use a source-book for preaching and teaching. The articulation of the text through capitular numbering - and their exploitation by theological treatises, biblical aids and concordances - enabled discrete reading strategies dependent upon the reader's priorities and the integration of such manuscripts into other forms of Biblical mediation, such as preaching and the performance of the liturgy.<\/p>

The manuscript was on display in the exhibition Colour: The art and science of illuminated manuscripts<\/a> at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge from 30 July-30 December 2016.<\/p>

Dr James Freeman
Medieval Manuscripts Specialist
Cambridge University Library<\/p>" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Bible" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Dr James Freeman, Medieval Manuscripts Specialist, Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Parchment (FHHF<\/i>)" }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "

The manuscript consists of 34 quires, of 12 leaves each, except for Quire 10, which comprises 10 leaves. Catchwords are occasionally visible, inserted within the ruling for the central margin at the foot of the page (e.g. 394v<\/a>).