Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

Once owned by Chester Beatty, the Mailhac-Faber Bible was a grand and majestic example of a late thirteenth-century Bible.

331 x 229 mm. Single leaf, paginated ‘437’ in a nineteenth- or twentieth-century hand in pencil in the lower margin of the recto, ruled in plummet for two columns of 40 lines (written space: 225 x 140 mm), written below top line in brown ink in a formal gothic bookhand, notes to the rubricator at the lower edge of both recto and verso, versal initials touched with red, rubrics in red, running titles and chapter numbers alternately in red and blue, penwork bar border of alternately red and blue running the height of the column and extending into the upper and lower margins, two two-lines initials alternately in red and blue on contrasting penwork, TWO SEVEN-LINE HISTORIATED INITIALS in blue on blue and light red ground, with white tracery and gold disks, extending into a full-height bar border alternately in blue and light red, with hybrids and flowers (minor browning at the edges, minor dampstains on the recto affecting the text and ground of the historiated initial, else in very good condition).

This leaf comes from the second volume of a very large two-volume Bible written in Southern France that belonged to Alfred Chester Beatty (his W.173, see below). It contains parts of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians and of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians, reading from Philippians 3:13 on the recto, “comprehendisse. Unum autem…,” to Colossians 2:1 on the verso, “…quicumque non viderunt.” The Epistle to the Colossians opens with a prologue introduced on the recto by a large historiated initial C for “Colosenses,” which depicts a half-length man under a gold trefoil, whose absence of halo suggests his identity as a Colossian (an inhabitant of Colosse in Asia Minor), to whom Paul addressed his Epistle. The prologue is followed on the verso with the beginning of St. Paul’s Epistle, introduced with a large historiated initial P for “Paulus”. St. Paul appears standing on a blue checkered ground, gazing toward the sky as he holds his sword.

As suggested by its sixteenth-century provenance, this manuscript was most likely written and illuminated in Southern France. This is supported by the parchment, script, and rather brown ink. A common feature that recurs among the identified historiated initials of this manuscript is the inclusion of two columns on each side of the figures, as is the case here with St. Paul, which in some other initials support a cusped arch. Further peculiarities that demonstrate the original approach of the artist include the single gold disk isolated on the ground of the initial.

Provenance
Kenneth W. Rendell, Massachusetts.

Parent manuscript
1. This leaf comes from the second volume of a two-volume Bible that would have been written and illuminated in Southern France in the late-thirteenth or early-fourteenth century. In 1969, the volume consisted of 286 leaves, with one large Tree of Jesse at the start of Matthew and 107 illuminated initials, of which 76 were historiated.
2. It remained in the area in the sixteenth century, when two monks, “Frere Jehan Mailhac,” north-west of Narbonne, and “Frater Renatus Faber Bourdelois,” of Bordeaux, added their names at the beginning and end.
3. It was owned in Spain by either Juan de Iriate (1702-1771), Carlos Antonio de Laserna de Santander (1752-1813), or the Marquess of Astorga, all of whom sold manuscripts to:
4. Thomas Thorpe (1791-1851) purchased it from one of these owners; bought from him by:
5. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), his MS 2506, bound for him in 1849; by descent to his grandson:
6. Thomas Fitzroy Fenwick (1856-1938); purchased from him by:
7. Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), his W. MS IX, re-numbered W. 173, exhibited in 1955 in Dublin; given to:
8. Edith Chester Beatty (1886-1952) and returned to Alfred’s ownership after her death; sold at his posthumous sale:
9. Sotheby’s, London, 24 June 1969, lot 57 acquired by:
10. Alan G. Thomas (1911-1992), his Catalogue 23, 1969, no 5, and sold to:
11. Philip C. Duschnes (1897-1970), who dismantled it and offered leaves as early as 1975.

Sister leaves
Sister leaves with and without historiated initials are to be found in several public collections, including Dublin, Chester Beatty Library (W.173.1; W.173.2; W.173.3); Eagle Rock, CA, Occidental College; Dunedin, New Zeeland (Reed fragment 41); and Notre-Dame, IN, Snite Museum of Art (Acc. 1975.43; Acc. 1975.57). For a recent list of thirty-one sister leaves with historiated initials, see Kidd 2021, no. 61, p. 203-205 (the present leaf unknown to him).

Two sister leaves are also included in this sale as lots 18 and 24.

LITERATURE
On the parent manuscript and sister leaves, published: Thomas Phillipps, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum in Bibliotheca D. Thomæ Philipps, Bart., A.D. 1837, reprinted by A.N.L. Munby, London, 2001, no. 2506; R.O. Dougan, A Loan Collection of Western Illuminated Manuscripts from the Library of Sir Chester Beatty, Dublin, 1955, no. 9; Sotheby’s, London, 24 June 1969, lot 57; Alan G. Thomas, Catalogue 23, Fine Books, London, 1969, no.5; Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection. French Miniatures, London, 2021, no. 61, pp. 203-211 (with further literature).

Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.