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Cambridge. Corpus Christi College, Parker Library MS 2I

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Source
Parker Library On the Web (Cambridge)
Library
UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library
Shelfmark
  • MS 002I
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • 1100 - 1199
Language
  • Latin
  • Middle English
Title
  • Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 002I: The Bury Bible
  • The Bury Bible
Description

  • Summary: This great Bible, CCCC MS 2, one of the most famous of the books in the Parker Library, is now bound in three volumes (2I, 2II, 2III), although once was a single volume. 2I contains ff. 1r-121v with Jerome’s Prologue and the books from Genesis to Joshua; 2II contains ff. 122r-241v with the books from Judges to Isaiah; 2III contains ff. 242r-357v with the books from Jeremiah to Job. The single volume thus contained the books of the Old Testament from Genesis to Job, and the second volume with the remainder of the Bible has not survived. It can be identified with a Bible commissioned by Hervey, the sacrist, for his brother, Talbot, prior of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, c. 1135-8, which was illuminated by Master Hugo. The miniatures and some of the illuminated initials are painted on separate pieces of vellum stuck to the page, and the description of the Bible in the Gesta Sacristarum attests that master Hugo 'was unable to find any suitable calf-hide in these parts' and had to purchase parchment from Ireland. Six large full-page or half-page miniatures preface some of the books, whereas the others have historiated or ornamental initials. Six of the large pictures have been removed from the book and are lost. It is a prime example of the very large luxury Bibles made in the twelfth century for monastic houses. The artist, Master Hugo, was influenced by Byzantine painting, and may have seen either illuminated manuscripts opr wall-paintings, such as those of Asinou in Cyprus which most closely resemble his style. The faces are modelled with shading in green and grey, and the folds are divided into sections reflecting the position of the limbs. This has been called the 'damp-fold' style and influenced many other artists working in England in the period c. 1140-70 at Canterbury, Winchester and elsewhere. After the dissolution of the abbey of Bury St Edmunds at the Reformation the Bible eventually came into the hands of Matthew Parker.


    Contents :


    1v-121v - The Bury Bible

    Note: (1r) blank except for scribbles of cent. xv viz.

    Note: (1r) To master Adam this be deliuered (?) with spede

    Note: (1r) Hec sunt nomina filiorum israel etc.

    Note: (1v) Full page initial to Jerome's Prologue

    Note: (1v) At top in red

    rubric: (1v) Incipit epistola beati Ieronimi presbiteri ad paulinum in omnibus diuine hystorie libris

    Note: Text

    incipit: (1v) Frater Ambrosius

    Note: (1v) The letters after the initial being red, blue, crimson and green capitals. The page is framed in double bands of gold between which are acanthus and vine patterns of classical aspect In the stalk of the F are three medallions framed in gold, and with grounds of dark red representing: a. A centaur galloping, with long green shield, and lance with pennon. b. A man in cap and cloak, his R. foot gone, wearing a wooden leg attached to his knee, running after a hare which he is clipping with shears. c. A mermaid holding two fishes. Below this a man with basket gathering grapes. The main ground of the letter is blue, and it consists of conventional foliage in gold, red, green, pink, purple, blue, in which are introduced bearded human heads with gold horns, a man with a mace, white birds, and two splendid purple apes, drawn from the life. The whole work is magnificent. The leaf is a double one

    Note: (2r) Col. 1 is in coloured capitals, red, blue, green, yellow, and contains 13 lines of 8-10 letters each

    rubric: (5v) Explicit Epistola

    rubric: (5v) Incipit prologus beati Ieronimi presbiteri in libro Bresith idest Genesis

    incipit: (5v) Desiderii mei

    Note: (5v) Magnificent initial D on a piece of vellum pasted on to the leaf

    rubric: (6r) Explicit prologus. Incipiunt Capitula

    Note: Genesis has 79 capitula (wrongly numbered)

    Note: After this a leaf is unhappily gone, which must have contained the frontispiece to Genesis

    Note: (7r) (a double leaf) has seven lines of writing in red, blue, green and yellow capitals

    incipit: (7r) Principio

    explicit: (7r) super aquas

    Note: Genesis ends

    rubric: (32r) Explicit liber Bresith id est genesis. habet versus tria milia octingentos

    rubric: (32r) Incipiunt capitula libri Hellesmoth idest Exodi (xxi)

    Note: (32v) Two-thirds of f. 32v are blank. A picture has been stripped off

    Note: (33r) The first column with the initial to Exodus and beginning of text in coloured capitals (as before) is a patch stuck on

    rubric: (53v) Explicit Ellesmoth idest Exodus habet versus quatuor milia

    Note: (53v) Capitula of Leviticus (xvi)

    Note: (54r) A picture which filled almost all of f. 54r has been stripped off

    Note: (54v) Leviticus. Decorative initial, not stuck on

    rubric: (69r) Explicit liber Leviticus qui hebraice dicitur vaiecra havet versus II CCCtos

    Note: (69r) Capitula of Numbers (xxxi)

    Note: (70r) (double leaf). Frontispiece to Numbers, full-page. Double gold frame with classical leaf-pattern on black ground Two pictures. Above: Blue ground. On L. the Father nimbed, with white hair and beard, seated upon clouds (red, blue and green with jagged edges) holds a gold tablet with arched top. On R. the Son seated on similar clouds, nimbed and bearded, holds a gold staff. Each points downwards. The Father is in purple over blue, the Son in red (purplish) over orange, over green. Their mantles are edged with gold. Behind each is a green panel. Below. Blue ground with green panel in C. On L. a group of six men face R.; one leans on axe, one sits on the ground. They are the people or the spies. On R. Moses (not nimbed or horned) addresses them: behind him is Aaron and a group of six or seven elders. Aaron is older (blue-haired)

    Note: (70r) Names have been scribbled in cent. xv on the ground, e.g. populus, Aaron, and: tome portur

    Note: (70v) Decorative initial to Numbers, not stuck on

    rubric: (92r) Explicit liber Numeri qui hebraice dicitur vaiedaber habet versus III

    Note: (92r) Capitula of Deuteronomy (152)

    Note: (94r) Full-page frontispiece to Deuteronomy, double leaf

    Note: (94r) Border and backgrounds as for Numbers

    Note: (94r) Above. On L. the Son (?) nimbed, with golden rod. Moses nimbed, horned and white-haired, holds book inscribed (xiv) hec dicit dominus deus and addresses five men seated on R. Below. Moses in C. horned, nimbed, white-haired, holding gold tables, turns to four men on L. and points to a mount on R. on which is a tree with two white birds, a blue ram? a purple goat and two red pigs. Flames(?), like the clouds of the upper picture to Numbers, break out of the mount. This has to do with the law of unclean beasts, etc.

    Note: (94v) Decorative initial, not stuck on

    rubric: (113v) Explicit Addabarim quod Grece dicitur Deuteronium Latine secunda lex habet versus duo milia sescentos

    Note: (113v) Prol. to Joshua and Judges

    incipit: (113v) Tandem finito pentatheuco

    Note: (114r) Argumentum

    incipit: (114r) Ihesus filius naue in typum

    explicit: (114r) regna describit

    Note: (114r) Capitula of Joshua (xxxii)

    Note: (115r) has been a double leaf with full-page picture, now stripped off

    Note: (115v) Decorative initial

Rights
  • Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
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