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Description
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Bible, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [southern France or northern Spain, second quarter of the thirteenth century] 351 leaves, 163mm. by 112mm., wanting a leaf or two from the Hebrew names, else complete, collation: i14, ii15 (i probably a singleton), iii-ix16, x-xi14, xii-xv16, xvi14, xviixxi16, xxii14, xxiii10, double column, 50 lines in brown ink in a tiny early gothic bookhand, large red or blue initials (mainly 6-line) with contrasting penwork at beginning of each book, full-page initial 'I' (opening Genesis, fol.4r) in red and blue, enclosing God the Father holding the twin orbs of heaven and earth and trampling an ornamental dragon underfoot, some minor discolouration to first few leaves, else good condition, early sixteenth-century Spanish blind-stamped binding of brown leather over wooden boards (rebacked with spine laid on), blind tooled with rectangular panels filled with knotwork designs, remains of two clasps, fitted case
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Lot Note
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This volume contains the standard books of the Bible with their prologues as listed by Ker (MMBL, I, 96-7), with the exceptions listed in the Bergendal catalogue, followed by the Interpretation of Hebrew Names. This manuscript dates to the first few decades after the final decisive push of the Muslim Almohad rulers out of the Iberian peninsula. The armies of Castile, Navarre, Aragon and Portugal united and defeated the Almohads at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. By 1252 only the Kingdom of Granada remained as a sovereign Muslim state.
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