| 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, written in two columns. Page headings indicating the name of the biblical book are in alternating red and blue.Small initials are alternately in red, flourished with blue, and vice versa. Sixty-nine larger initials (beginning text of Bible books and arguments) contain fine miniatures on a blue background. Portions of several decorated initials have been cut from the pages, presumably to sell.
Bound in the early 20th-century in half-red goatskin and oak boards with a large metal clasp, a replacement for an earlier binding apparently deliberately removed. An insert pasted inside (f 1*r), dated 1859, details the manuscript's later history. Some sections towards the end of the volume have been re-bound in the wrong order. |
| 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 the date of the note, 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 later re-bound in England. |