Price: €275.00 (Marge regeling)

Manufacturer:( - Unknown manufacturer )

Size: 18.0 x 12.5 cm (7.1 x 4.9 inch)

Manuscript Bible leaf on vellum, more than 700 years old!! Probably from France, Paris.

The Bible has, of course, always been the center of Christianity from the beginning; but as a book it was always in parts : to be read at certain times. The priests and monks studied the Psalms, or the Gospels, or the Minor Prophets, for instance. In Paris the birth of the Bible as one book took place, around 1200. There the Bible was put in a single volume; the order and names of the biblical books  were standardized, and the text was checked for accuracy. For the first time the text was divided up into numbered chapters. The name that is attached to this is Stephen Langton, he of the Magna Carta!

More important for us : the physical appearance of the book changed! The pages became very small; the scribes employed headings at the top of the page and used blue and red initials to mark the beginning of each chapter. ( There was not yet a division into verses; this happened in the 15th century.)

It is thought that the Franciscan and Dominican friars, when they travelled preaching through Europe, spread the use of the Bible in one volume; and the Bibles were produced in such quantities that two centuries later they were still in use. ( For more on this subject see : A history of illuminated manuscripts, by Christopher De Hamel, whose work was used for this information.)

The text, in a very regular hand!, is in two columns,  46 lines, with 1 initial with  penwork in red and blue. The name of the book is in red and blue letters at the top of the page. [ NU M(ER)I ]. The number of the chapter [XVI] is in red and blue as well.

To give you an idea of the writing here is the transcription of some lines of the

recto, beginning with chapter 16:

Ecce autem Core filius Isaar filii Caath filii Levi et Dathan atque Abiram filii Heliab Hon quoque filius Pheleth de filiis Ruben

2  surrexerunt contra Mosen aliique filiorum Israhel ducenti quinquaginta viri proceres synagogae et qui tempore concilii per nomina vocabantur

3  cumque stetissent adversum Mosen et Aaron dixerunt sufficiat vobis quia omnis multitudo sanctorum est et in ipsis est Dominus cur elevamini super populum Domini

4  quod cum audisset Moses cecidit pronus in faciem

5  locutusque ad Core et ad omnem multitudinem mane inquit notum faciet Dominus qui ad se pertineant et sanctos adplicabit sibi et quos elegerit adpropinquabunt ei

6  hoc igitur facite tollat unusquisque turibula sua tu Core et omne concilium tuum

7  et hausto cras igne ponite desuper thymiama coram Domino et quemcumque elegerit ipse erit sanctus multum erigimini filii Levi

8  dixitque rursum ad Core audite filii Levi

9  num parum vobis est quod separavit vos Deus Israhel ab omni populo et iunxit sibi ut serviretis ei in cultu tabernaculi et staretis coram frequentia populi et ministraretis ei

10  idcirco ad se fecit accedere te et omnes fratres tuos filios Levi ut vobis etiam sacerdotium vindicetis

11  et omnis globus tuus stet contra Dominum quid est enim Aaron ut murmuretis contra eum

The translation you can find in any bible !

On the verso is a catchword*.etiam.

*Catchword

To make sure that the binder put all quires in the right order, the scribe wrote the first word of the next quire in the lower inner margin of the gathering. A binder simply has to match up each catchword with its twin at the top of the next gathering to assemble the book in the right sequence.

[ see Scribes and illuminators, by Christopher de Hamel.]

Condition : very good, clean, ivory white; but: at the top a half moon is missing.