Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Bible du XIIIe siècle

Other related names

• Moulins, Guyart des, approximately 1251-approximately 1297, translator (http://viaf.org/viaf/305410971)
• Workshop of the Master of the Échevinage de Rouen, artist
• Royal family of Liechtenstein, former owner
• Thomas, George C. (George Clifford), 1839-1909, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/9714548)
• Widener, Joseph E. (Joseph Early), 1872-1943, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/21158694)
• Wichfield, Josephine Widener, former owner
• Widener, Peter Arrell Brown, 1895-1948, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/68881955)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Widener 2
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, Widener Collection)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1457695
• deRicci: 2
• Leaves-of-gold: 7

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Middle French (ca. 1400-1600); Latin

Origin

Place

Rouen, France

Summary

This large manuscript is a fifteenth-century copy on parchment of the first volume of the Bible historiale complétée (Genesis-Esther), which was taken from the Bible historiale of Guyart des Moulins, together with Job, Psalms, the Gospels from the second volume of the Bible historiale complétée and an otherwise unknown French translation of Revelation. The text of the French translation of the Vulgate Bible originated in the thirteenth century, and there are few extant manuscripts; this manuscript was produced in Rouen in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. It has text in two columns of bâtarde script, two large miniatures with full page borders at the Old and New Testament divisions, and thirty-three column miniatures with column borders at book divisions and divisions within the book of Psalms. The miniatures are the work of two different artists from the Workshop of the Master of the Échevinage de Rouen. In the early eighteenth-century, the manuscript was rebound by French bookbinder Jacques-Antoine Derome.

Notes

• Each Psalm of the French translation is preceded by the first verse of the Psalm in Latin. Latin inscriptions also appear on some miniatures.
   
• Paper flyleaves
   
• Some water stains on fols. 30-41; red ink stains on fol. 283v from miniature on facing page
   

Extent

Ii+383+ii; 453 x 315 mm bound to 475 x 330 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto

Collation

1-38 (8), 39 (7, +1), 40-48 (8)

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Horizontal catchwords in ink, lower right last verso; a few missing or trimmed away; catchword at the end of Quire 26 does not match following text, but no text is missing (fols. 208v-209r)

Binding

Early eighteenth-century French, gilt-tooled red morocco with gilt tooling on spine, gilt edges, marbled pastedowns and flyleaves, by Jacques-Antoine Derome (1696-1760)

Layout

Two columns of fifty-two lines; frame-ruled in red ink; written area: 295 x 197 mm

Decoration

Two half-page miniatures with full borders (the first border inhabited) at the Old and New Testament divisions (fols. 1r, 312r); thirty-one arched column miniatures with foliate (rinceaux-type) borders framing the text column at book divisions and sections of Psalms (fols. 51r, 68r, 79v, 98v, 115v, 127r, 139r, 141r, 157r, 170r, 185r, 199v, 212v, 229v, 234v, 242r, 249v, 254r, 260v, 266v, 279v, 284r, 287r, 290r, 293r, 294v, 300r, 303v, 329r, 359v, 374v); the miniatures are by two different artists of the Workshop of the Master of the Échevinage de Rouen, according to Roger Wieck (Leaves of gold, p. 40); thirty-three large decorated foliate initials, ranging from three to six lines; small (from one line to two lines) decorated initials (dentelle-type), some with foliate sprays, throughout; running titles of small decorated initials for Genesis in the first two openings (fols. 1v-3r) and then G and S only to the end of the book (fols. 3v-50v); decorated line-endings throughout; rubrication in red

Script

Bâtarde

Provenance

• Ambroise Firmin-Didot (bookseller), Paris; sale, l'Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs, Paris, May 26-31, 1879, no. 3; Fontaine (dealer?), 1879; library of Prince Liechtenstein; placed by Édouard Rahir (Paris bookseller) in a sale at Sotheby's, London, June 20, 1092, lot 32; Bernard Quaritch (bookseller), London, 1902; George C. Thomas, Philadelphia, before 1907; A.S.W. Rosenbach, Philadelphia, c. 1910; Joseph E. Widener, Philadelphia (through Rosenbach, cat. 24, 1916, no. 15); given by Widener's children, Josephine Widener Wichfeld and Peter A.B. Widener, to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1944 in memory of their father
   

Related resources

• Lacrois, Paul, Sciences et lettres au Moyen Âge et l'époque de la Renaissance (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1877), p. 361, fig. 280 (reproduces fol. 290; incorrectly listed as fig. 80 in De Ricci).
• Thomas, George Clifford, Catalogue of the More Important Books, Autographs, and Manuscripts in the Library of George C. Thomas, comp. A.H.R. (Philadelphia, 1907), p. 3.
• De Ricci, Seymour, with the assistance of W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. 2 (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), p. 2115, no. 2.
• Berkowitz, David Sandler, In Remembrance of Creation: Evolution of Art and Scholarship in the Medieval and Renaissance Bible (Waltham, Massachusetts: The Brandeis University Press, 1968), pp. 47-48, no. 81 (reproduces fol. 1).
• Sneddon, Clive R., "A Critical Edition of the Four Gospels in the Thirteenth Century Old French Translation of the Bible" (Ph.D. diss., University of Oxford, 1979).
• Sneddon, Clive R., "The 'Bible du XIIIe siècle': Its Medieval Public in Light of Its Manuscript Tradition," in The Bible and Medieval Culture, ed. W. Lourdaux and D. Verhelst, Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, ser. 1, no. 7 (Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 1979), p. 133, note 20, p. 139, note 39.
• Quereuil, Michael, ed., La Bible française du XIIIe siècle: Édition critique de la Genèse (Geneva: Droz, 1988), p. 37.
• Bogaert, Pierre-Maurice, review of La Bible française du XIIIe siècle, by Michael Quereuil, in Scriptorium, vol. 44, no. 1 (1990), pp. 76-77.
• Tanis, James R., ed., Leaves of Gold: Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001), pp. 40-43, no. 7.
• Sneddon, Clive R., "The Old French Bible," in The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production, Reception, and Performance in Western Christianity, eds. Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), p. 310, note 27 (chapter pp. 296-312).

Keywords

• Bible
• 15th century
• French
• Illumination
• France
• Notable binding

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia Widener 2: Bible du XIIIe siècle are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Free Library of Philadelphia Widener 2: Bible du XIIIe siècle. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Decorations

• Flyleaf 1 verso — Bookplate, Joseph E. Widener
• fol. 1r — Large miniature, Creation of the World
• fol. 1r — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 51r — Column miniature, Moses and the Israelites
• fol. 51r — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 68r — Column miniature, Moses with Aaron offering a sacrifice
• fol. 68r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 79v — Miniature, Moses and the burning bush
• fol. 79v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 98v — Column miniature, Moses and the Israelites
• fol. 98v — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 115v — Column miniature, Joshua kneeling before God
• fol. 115v — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 127r — Column miniature, Defeat of the Canaanites and Perizzites by the Tribes of Judah and Simeon
• fol. 127r — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 139r — Column miniature, Ruth and Boaz
• fol. 139r — Illuminated initial E
• fol. 141r — Column miniature, Elkanah, Penninah and two children, and Hannah
• fol. 141r — Illuminated initial U
• fol. 157r — Column miniature, David and the Amalekite
• fol. 157r — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 170r — Column miniature, King David and Abishag
• fol. 170r — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 185r — Column miniature, Fall of King Ahaziah
• fol. 185r — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 199v — Column miniature, Teaching scene
• fol. 199v — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 212v — Column miniature, King Solomon in prayer and the building of the Temple
• fol. 212v — Illuminated initial S
• fol. 229v — Column miniature, King Cyrus and courtiers
• fol. 229v — Illuminated initial O
• fol. 234v — Column miniature, Nehemiah and King Artaxerxes
• fol. 234v — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 242r — Column miniature, Nebuchadnezzar in battle with Joachim and Josiah celebrating the Passover
• fol. 242r — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 249v — Column miniature, Marriage of Tobias and Sarah
• fol. 249v — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 254r — Column miniature, Judith with Holofernes beheaded
• fol. 254r — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 260v — Column miniature, Esther crowned by King Ahasueras
• fol. 260v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 266v — Column miniature, Job on dungheap, wife and friends
• fol. 266v — Illuminated letter U
• fol. 279v — Column miniature, King David in prayer
• fol. 279v — Illuminated letter B
• fol. 284r — Column miniature, King David in prayer
• fol. 284r — Illuminated letter D
• fol. 287r — Column miniature, King David walking with courtiers
• fol. 287r — Illuminated letter D
• fol. 290r — Column miniature, King David and the fool
• fol. 290r — Illuminated letter D
• fol. 293r — Column miniature, King David praying from the depths
• fol. 293r — Illuminated initial S
• fol. 294v — Column miniature, King David playing bells
• fol. 294v — Illuminated initial E
• fol. 300r — Column miniature, Monks singing before King David
• fol. 300r — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 303v — Column miniature, The Trinity
• fol. 303v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 312r — Large miniature, Saint Matthew and the Genealogy of Christ
• fol. 312r — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 329r — Column miniature, Saint John the Baptist baptizing and preaching
• fol. 329r — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 359v — Column miniature, The Resurrected Christ and Saint John the Evangelist
• fol. 359v — Illuminated initial P
• fol. 374v — Miniature, Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos and two beasts of the Apocalypse
• fol. 374v — Illuminated initial E
• Flyleaf 1 verso — Bookplate, Joseph E. Widener