ENLUMINURE. BIBLE. Illuminated leaf from a Chudleigh... Lot 2

[ENLUMINURE]. [BIBLE]. Illuminated leaf from a Chudleigh Bible. In Latin, from an illuminated manuscript on parchment. Northern France, Arras (Abbaye Saint-Vaast ?), 13th century (circa 1220-1230). Text copied on two columns (each with 54 lines), Gothic script, capital letters highlighted in red, initial painted in blue with red watermark decoration, chapters indicated in Roman letters in the margins, a few headings in pale red and inscriptions in pale red in the margins, running titles in red and blue, large initial M introducing the Prologue of the Book of Joshua formed of zoomorphic hybrids and tracing of the letter in blue and pink with white ornamental decoration. Dimensions: 285x190 mm Text: recto, end of Deuteronomy (part of chapter 36, chapter 37-38); verso, beginning of the Book of Joshua, Prologue. Folio from the "Chudleigh Bible", several folios of which are in institutional collections. This Bible is named after a previous owner: Charles Oswald Hugh Clifford (1887-1962), 11th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. The Bible was sold by Sotheby's, The Property of the Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, December 7, 1953, lot 51. The lot was acquired by the bookseller Maggs. This Bible was sold again by Sotheby's, July 8, 1970, lot 104; then by Christie's, July 11, 1974, lot 18. It was dismembered in the 1980s. The text of the Chudleigh Bible predates the standardization resulting from the spread of the "Paris Bible" a little before the middle of the 13th century. It is therefore an interesting example of a type of Bible produced between the great Roman Bibles and the portable Bibles of preaching monks. Robert Branner refers to this manuscript as part of his "Alexander Atelier" in Arras (see Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles, 1977, p. 30 n. 17). Iconographic comparisons can be made with the so-called "Glazier-Rylands" Bible, whose leaves are also scattered (Ancienne coll. Glazier, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library; Manchester, John Rylands Library; London, Victoria and Albert Museum), or with a manuscript associated with Tournai (Brussels, KBR, MS 2523). Arras and Tournai are close in distance, so it seems likely that the Chudleigh Bible was made in this region, or at least that its artist was trained there. See Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, III: French Miniatures (London, 2021), no. 17 pp. 69-73 for a list of related leaves.