Highlights of the Exhibition
The Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Bible Collection
at
Bridwell
Library
1996-2006
September 7-November 18, 2006
Illuminated Paris Bible
[Biblia latina]. Illuminated manuscript on parchment. [Paris, France: c. 1250]. Genesis 1:1.
In the late twelfth century scholars and theologians at the University of Paris had at last tacitly agreed upon a uniform recension of the Vulgate. The new, authoritative, version would later become known as the Paris text. Up to this time, the Bible almost invariably appeared in multiple volumes, ordered in a variety of ways. Parisian booksellers soon began producing one volume Bibles using the improved Paris text intended for individual rather than institutional use. These small Bibles were portable, accurate, and produced in quantity. This example follows the now familiar order of both the old and the new testaments, and the language of the Vulgate as it exists today. Eighty illuminations introduce books of the Bible in an equally canonical sequence of images. The diminutive size of this Bible indicates that the designer intended the volume to be read in the hands, rather than from a lectern. The image shows Genesis 1:1.
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