| Description | Biblia Latina: parchment manuscript Latin Bible. Written in Italy(?) in the late 13th or early 14th century. 69 decorated initials on blue background, some historiated, and or/overlaid with silver, red and blue flourishes, with well-preserved medieval painted edge decoration. Some decorated initials now missing having been cut out, presumably to sell. Main body text in a single hand throughout in a well-executed Gothic minuscule.
Bound in the early 20th-century in half-red goatskin and oak boards with a large metal clasp. Replacement for an earlier binding apparently deliberately removed.. An insert pasted inside (f 1*r), dated 1859, details the manuscript's later history. |
| CustodialHistory | According to a note in the front of the volume, the original binding was removed when the manuscript was taken out of Spain "many years" before 1859. It belonged to a Spanish lawyer who, obliged to leave Spain owing to his political opinions, resided in England as a refugee for some years. The manuscript was rebound in England, c1856. |