Medieval Manuscripts from the Collection of Richard and Mary Rouse: England

UCLA Charles E. Young Library Department of Special Collections
Medieval Manuscripts from the Collection of Richard and Mary Rouse

Detail of initial at the beginning of Maccabees II

ROUSE MS 4
QUIRES FROM A BIBLE (MACCABEES I, II). CENTRAL ITALY, S. XIII 3/4

Maccabees, Books I and II, a fragment from a handsome Italian Bible written and illuminated in Rome or the papal city of Perugia in the third quarter of the thirteenth century.

Detail of initial at the beginning of Maccabees I

Each book opens with a miniature of a mounted knight, as is customary for Maccabees I and II. In this case, the illuminator may well have seen a Roman equestrian statue and modeled his horse upon it. The two books have been detached from their Bible since the early nineteenth century, when they were put in the present binding of quarter leather over paper boards. Found in a Los Angeles rummage sale of ca. 2,000 paperbacks.

R.H. & M.A. Rouse MS 4

Italy #2 of 8
previous | next

Austria

Czechoslovakia

England

France

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

Spain

Switzerland