Cleveland Museum of Art

Fol. 412v, Luke, historiated initial F, Luke praying at an altar, bust of God above

Date: c. 1275–1300
Medium: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
Culture: Southern France, Toulouse(?), 13th century
Department: Medieval Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 166415

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Biblical manuscripts were highly prized and important possessions of churches, monasteries, cathedral schools, and universities throughout medieval Europe. The biblical texts were known as the vulgate, the translations made by Saint Jerome in the fourth century from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, which became the definitive and official Latin version of the Roman Church. In the 13th century, the bible was, for the first time, produced as a single volume with an officially sanctioned sequence to its books and chapters as illustrated by this example. The very extensive decoration of this bible is arranged hierarchically to indicate the relative importance of the various texts so that full or almost full-page initials mark the openings of the first prologue, Genesis, and the first Gospel; historiated initials mark the beginning of each book and illuminated initials mark the Prologues.

View at Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Cleveland Museum of Art

Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: John L. Severance Fund

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.

Fol. 440v, Corinthians I, historiated initial P, Paul kneeling talking to the bust of God above

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166418

Fol. 457v, Timothy II, historiated initial P, Paul talking to the bust of God above

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166427

Fol. 220v, Psalm 38, historiated initial D, David kneeling, gesturing to the bust of God above

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166381

Fol. 482v, Revelations, historiated initial A, John seated at a desk writing to the Seven Churches of Asia

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166436

Fol. 425v, John, historiated initial I, John seated writing

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166416

Fol. 445v, Corinthians II, historiated initial P, Paul standing with a sword, talking to the bust of God above

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166419

Fol. 214v, Psalm 1, historiated initial 8, David harping

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166379

Fol. 449r, Galatians, historiated initial P, Paul seated with a sword, talking to the bust of God above

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166420

Fol. 218r, Psalm 26, historiated initial D, David kneeling pointing to his eyes, the bust of God above

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166380

Fol. 404r, Mark, historiated initial I, Mark standing with a scroll

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166414

Fol. 450v, Ephesians, historiated initial P, Paul seated with a sword, the bust of God above

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166421

Fol. 46v, Numbers, historiated initial L, Moses with horns, kneeling before God

Cleveland Museum of Art

#166430