Holkham Bible
London, British Library, Additional MS 47682
A leaf in the Holkham Bible bearing 2 miniatures, 1 above & 1 below, each with a 1 or 2 line caption in French. Both miniatures are line drawings in brown ink tinted with washes in shades of red, brown, blue, & green. The upper 1—how the peers fight—depicts a chaotic battle scene of armoured men fighting on horseback, in chain mail & plate armour. They wield swords & axes, as fallen men & horses are trampled in the fray. In the lower miniature—how the commoners fight—a smaller group of men battle on foot. Their armour is much lighter; they bear swords, axes, or bows & arrows, & carry small round buckler shields.
Holkham Bible, f. 40r
Also known asHolkham Bible Picture Book
Datec.1327–1335
Place of originEngland, S.E. (London?)
Language(s)Anglo-Norman French with some Middle English
PatronLikely commissioned by a Dominican friar[1]
MaterialParchment, ink, coloured washes
Size285 × 210 (265 × 200) mm
ScriptGothic and Gothic cursive
Illumination(s)231 miniatures; initials with penwork decoration
Previously keptNorfolk, Holkham Hall, MS 666[2]

The Holkham Bible (London, British Library, Additional MS 47682) is an illustrated collection of biblical and apocryphal stories in Norman French. The picture book was produced in England during the decades before 1350 for use by an unidentified Dominican friar. Its illustrations depict the stories in contemporary English settings, making it a visual source on medieval English society.

Contents and decoration

The Holkham Bible is a biblical picture book consisting of 42 parchment leaves bearing 231 pen-and-ink drawings, usually two per page. Each drawing is tinted with coloured washes consisting of pigments of reds, blues, browns, yellows, and greens.[1] Short explanatory captions in Anglo-Norman French, sometimes in verse, typically appear above each miniature, though some captions are situated below or incorporated into the miniature itself (e.g., f. 11r–11v).[3] After opening with a presentation miniature (f. 1r) and a representation of the Wheel of Fortune (f. 1v), the miniatures turn to their primary subject. They cover,

  1. the Book of Genesis, from Creation to the Flood (ff. 2r–9r);
  2. genealogies of Mary and Jesus via two Jesse Trees (f. 10r–10v);
  3. representations of the Four Evangelists with their symbols (ff. 10v–11v);
  4. the Life of Christ, from the Annunciation to the Ascension (ff. 11v–38r); and
  5. the ‘Last Things’, fifteen signs which precede the Second Coming and Last Judgment (ff. 39r–42v).

(Note that ff. 9v and 38v are blank.)

In the Genesis section (ff. 2r–9r), the miniatures include a red ink diaperwork background with vine and oak leaves, fleur-de-lis, and floral motifs, and the captions open with enlarged decorative initials in red or blue with penwork decoration—details not included elsewhere in the manuscript. Majuscules heightened by a stroke of red ink appear throughout the codex.[1]

History and provenance

Internal evidence suggests that Holkham Bible was likely commissioned by or for an unidentified Dominican friar.[1] Occupying the manuscript’s opening leaf is a miniature depicting a friar standing next to a seated scribe or limner with a banderole or ‘speech scroll’ extending from each man’s mouth.[2] The scrolls show the friar saying “Ore feres bien e nettement car mustre serra a riche gent” (‘Now do [it] well and thoroughly for it will be shown to important people’), to which the artisan replies “Si frai voyre e Deux me doynt vivere Nonkes ne veyses un autretel Liuere” (‘I will do so truly, if God grants me to live; never will you see another such book’).[4][5] The nature of the exchange, together with the miniature’s placement at the opening of the codex—i.e., at f. 1r, functioning as a frontispiece—suggest that it is a type of presentation miniature: a symbolic representation of a manuscript’s patron or donor being presented with the finished book in which the miniature appears, or, as here, in the act of commissioning the book. Such miniatures are not unusual in medieval illuminated manuscripts.[6]

Although of English origin, the manuscript was in continental Europe by 1816 when William Roscoe, writing to Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, of Holkham, reported that it had just returned to England from the Continent; over a century later, M.R. James speculated that it may have “been taken abroad in the sixteenth century by some Catholic family … leaving England under the stress of the Reformation”.[5]: 1  According to Roscoe’s letter, the auctioneer Winstanley “bought [the book] from a Catholic priest … for £28”, and Roscoe could purchase it on Coke’s behalf for £30.[7]: 233  Apparently Coke agreed: a note added on a flyleaf (f. i v) states that he obtained the codex from "Mr Roscoe" in 1816.[1] As MS 666, it remained part of the library of Holkham Hall, Norfolk, until 1952 when it entered the collections of the British Library (then the British Museum) with several other Holkham Hall manuscripts.[1]

Editions and facsimiles

In 1954, W.O. Hassall, Bodleian Library staff member and Librarian to the Earl of Leicester,[8] edited and introduced a facsimile edition of the Holkham Bible for the Roxburghe Club.[9] The British Library published an updated facsimile edition, edited by Michelle P. Brown, in 2007.[10]

A digital surrogate of the manuscript can be viewed online via the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts site.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 British Library. "Detailed record for Additional 47682". Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. Retrieved 11 Feb 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 British Library. "Add MS 47682". Digitised Manuscripts. Retrieved 11 Feb 2022.
  3. ↑ Dean, Ruth; Bolton, Maureen (1999). Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts. London: Anglo-Norman Text Society. pp. no. 472.
  4. ↑ Burnett, T.A.J. (1962). "The Undeciphered Inscriptions in the Holkham Bible Picture Book". The British Museum Quarterly. 26 (1/2): 26–27. doi:10.2307/4422764. JSTOR 4422764.
  5. 1 2 James, M.R. (1922–1923). "An English Bible-Picture Book of the Fourteenth Century (Holkham MS. 666)". Volumes of the Walpole Society. 11: 1–27.
  6. ↑ Brown, Michelle P. (1994). Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Publications. ISBN 0-8923-6217-0.
  7. ↑ James, C.W. (1922). "Some Notes Upon the Manuscript Library at Holkham". The Library. 4th. 2 (4): 213–237.
  8. ↑ Vaisey, David (28 Jul 1994). "Obituary: W. O. Hassall". The Independent.
  9. ↑ Hassall, W.O. (1954). The Holkham Bible Picture Book. London: Dropmore Press.
  10. ↑ Brown, Michelle P. (2007). The Holkham Bible Picture Book: A Facsimile. London: British Library.
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