Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

Lovely example from the Ordinary Gloss on the Bible (or the Glossa Ordinaria) which was one of the twelfth century’s greatest achievements, creating a text that was used in the schools to the end of the Middle Ages.

301 x 200 mm. Single leaf, ruled in black for three columns of 43 lines (written space: 203 x 155 mm), eighteenth-century pagination “67/67” in brown ink in the upper margin, the main text written in a formal early gothic bookhand, glosses in smaller version of same in columns set in both outer margins, with further glosses added interlineally of the main text, rubrics of main text in red, one-line initials in red, rubrics of glosses in blue and light gold or yellow, ONE LARGE INITIAL in blue, with scalloping penwork in red (some flaking from ink, some browning at edges, traces from pasting, one parchment hole in inner margin, else in good condition).

This beautifully written and decorated leaf with wide margins comes from a glossed Psalter that was probably copied in Northern France in the late twelfth century. The style of the script, with an insistent use of the straight-backed ‘d’, may account for an English influence, while the decorative features are reminiscent of manuscripts illuminated in France. An elegant initial E, in-filled with scalloping penwork, introduces Psalm 67, “Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus; et fugiant qui oderunt eum a facie ejus” (God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us). The layout is unusual yet provides a clear distinction between the glosses – typically texts by patristic and other authorities – and the main biblical text, which here reads from Psalms 66:7-8 to Psalms 67:1-10 (beginning and ending imperfectly). The latter has been copied on every third line of the main column, thus accommodating glosses added interlineally, while further marginal glosses flank it on either side.

Glossed Bibles changed the nature of reading the Middle Ages, making it easier and faster to access information contained in related texts.

Provenance
Private collection, California, USA, MS 242.
 
Sister leaves
The unidentified parent manuscript was most likely broken before the years 2000, for one leaf with Psalm 77 was sold at Bonhams, San Francisco and Los Angeles, 25 June 2003, lot 3027. Two further leaves from the collection of Dr. Otto Oren Fischer (1881-1961) of Detroit, paginated 39 and 60-61, were sold by Bloomsbury, London, 6 July 2022, lot 28.

LITERATURE
Further reading: C. de Hamel, Glossed Books of the Bible and the Origins of the Paris Booktrade, Woodbridge, Suffolk, and Dover, New Hampshire, 1984; Lesley Smith, The Glossa Ordinaria: The Making of a Medieval Bible, Leiden and Boston, 2009.

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