The Medieval Period

Vie de St. Denis Folio Bible

Illuminated Chaptered Latin Vulgate Bible

c.1240

Paris, France

Handwritten in Latin on vellum, this illuminated manuscript is believed to have been decorated in the Vie de St. Denis Workshop, which housed some of the premier illustrators in France during the thirteenth century. Due to its size and decoration, this Bible was probably made for an important commission, either a monastery or an important collector. This Bible has been rebound with a German or Flemish 17th century binding that bears the golden arms of the Hillesheim family.

Illuminated Manuscript: Christ Enthroned and David Playing the Psaltery

Cristoforo Cortese (Active c.1390, died before 1445)

c.1401-1405 A.D.

Venice, Italy

A major discovery, this richly ornamented letter B is the earliest known work by Cristoforo Cortese, who was the most important Venetian illuminator at the end of the fourteenth century to the middle of the fifteenth century. It comes from a dismantled, long-lost Antiphonal made for the nuns of the Corpus Domini, a Venetian Dominican nunnery newly founded in 1394. The Antiphonal was sponsored by Beata Chiara Gambacorta of the parent house in Pisa, who is most likely the nun portrayed kneeling at David’s feet.

The Guise Book of Hours

c.1415 A.D.

Paris, France

This parchment manuscript, handwritten in both Latin and French, includes a full cycle of miniatures directly dependent on designs of the Boucicaut Master, one of the leading Parisian illuminators during the first decades of the fifteenth century. This artist is known to have produced an incredible quantity of luxury manuscripts for the Royal Court, its high officials, and the aristocracy, most famously the Duke de Berry, whose celebrated miniature paintings can be seen in the Chateau de Chantilly, near Paris, France.

Illuminated Chaptered Latin Vulgate Bible

c.1250 A.D.

Paris, France

Handwritten on vellum

Saint Jerome's Letters

Saint Jerome’s Letters

1467 A.D.

Ferrara, Italy

This illuminated Latin manuscript on parchment was signed and dated by Giovannie Grasso of Carpi, a well-known scribe, on February 28, 1467. It contains Jerome’s voluminous correspondence on many themes such as theology, criticism, conduct, and history (this particular volume includes correspondence with Pope Damasus), demonstrating how Jerome’s influence persisted throughout the Middle Ages into the Renaissance.

Statue: St. Jerome

Statue: St. Jerome (347 A.D.-c.420 A.D.)
Colonial Spanish

16th Century A.D.

H. 75cm x W. 32 x D. 23cm

Carved in hickory wood; gessoed, polychromed and gilded. St. Jerome, renowned for renouncing his classical studies in 375 A.D. and henceforth living as an ascetic in the desert, devoting himself entirely to scriptural studies.

The saint’s attribute, a lion, rests at his feet under the folds of the garment. As legend goes, Jerome removed a thorn from a lion’s paw when they were both in the wilderness and, grateful to Jerome, the lion never left his side afterwards. A book is held as an attribute in his left hand, an allusion to St. Jerome’s activity as biblical scholar and translator. Jerome translated from Hebrew and Greek into Latin the Bible that became the standard version for over 1000 years and is known as the Vulgate. His right hand may have once held another attribute, possibly a pen.

Gradual Leaf

c.1300 A.D.

Artist and location unknown

Handwritten on vellum

Wycliffite New Testament

John Wyclif (1320-1384)

1400-1425 A.D.

Oxford, England

Most scholars believe that John Wyclif did not directly translate the Bible that bears his name. For years it was thought that manuscript Bodley 959 was Wyclif’s original work, but the end of Baruch 3:20 contains a reference to Nicholas Herford, Wyclif’s colleague, who did the translation of the Old Testament. The remainder was most likely completed by some of Wyclif’s followers. Whether or not Wyclif did any of the translation himself is not completely known, however, we do know that he at least facilitated this translation into Middle English. We also know that it took up to ten months to hand copy one of these Bibles. Further, there must have been many of these Bibles copied and distributed because more than 600 years later, about 200 copies of the Wyclif Bible or New Testament have survived.

The Douville Book of Hours

c.1490 A.D.

Amiens, France

This thoroughly original Book of Hours was handwritten in Latin and painted in a colorful lively style for a Picard couple, probably of the Douville de Maillefeu family, whose motto “live joyously and do well” and symbols appear throughout the parchment manuscript.

St. Luke the Evangelist

Leaf from Breviary of Borso d’Este

Artist: Circle of Giorgio d’Alemagna

c.1460 A.D.

Italy

This beautifully illuminated leaf includes a miniature (small painting) of St. Luke the Evangelist. The Breviary was a liturgical book containing readings, hymns, psalms and other prayers for the Daily Office, required of all priests, monks and nuns.