Text |
BIBLE WITH ST. HIERONYMUS PROLOGUES AND HEBREW NAMES |
Description |
MS in Latin on vellum, Pisa, Italy, ca. 1310, 500 ff. (complete), 31x23 cm, 2 columns, (20x15 cm), 44 lines in a round Gothic book script of medium quality, signed by the scribe Phylippus on f. 223, red or blue initials with contrasting penwork flourishing in lilac or red, 95 illuminated initials with bar borders of cusped foliage or ivy-leaf sprays, 8 coats of arms in the Genesis initial, marginal notes in a 14th c. Italian loose cursive script. |
Context |
The 8 coats of arms of the initial for Genesis are: 1. the arms of the Church or the Papacy; 2. the arms of the Empire, presumably Emperor Henry VII (1308-1313); 3. the arms of Pope Clement V (1305-1314); 4. arms representing France; 5. the arms of the Putignanesi family in Pisa; 6. The Gaetani arms borne by pope Boniface VIII (1294-1302); 7. arms of the Gaetani family of Pisa; 8. arms of the counts of Spanheim, used by Lenfant de Spanheim. The presence of the arms of both the Empire and the Church may be an optimistic reflection of the declared intention of Henry VII to settle the discord between the Guelph and Ghibelline factions when he entered Italy in the autumn of 1310. |
Provenance |
1. Benedetto(?) Gaetani, canon of Pisa (with the arms of Gaetani family and the Papacy) (ca. 1310-); 2. Scholar at the University of Padua (14th c.); 3. John Kendall, Colchester (-1815);
4. Kendall Foundation, Colchester (1815-1865); 5. Sotheby's 9 March 1865 lot 353; 6. Frederick Startridge Ellis, London (1865-);
7. Quaritch Rough List 88(1899?):652; 8. Sotheby's 19.5.1936:9; 9. Otto F. Ege, Cleveland, Ohio (-1951); 10. Sotheby's 11.12.1984:41; 11. Dörling, Hamburg, Auktion 133, 29.11.1989:8; 12. Sam Fogg, London. |