<div class="description">
<p>Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 29. Oxford, England, Circa 1230-1240. This manuscript contains a fragmentary copy of the Latin Vulgate Bible. It was made in Oxford circa 1230-1240, and the miniatures are attributed to celebrated English illuminator William de Brailes. There are thirty-nine historiated or inhabited initials, featuring figures or scenes relevant to the text they accompany. On fol. 81r, for example, Psalm 13 begins with an inhabited initial D showing a fool (the text reads 'The fool hath said in his heart: there is no God'). God is shown speaking to the prophets Hosea (fol. 113r), Amos (115v), Obadiah (118r), and Zephaniah (112v) in initials at the start of each of their books, and the two books of Maccabees begin with initials showing knights (fols. 127r and 137r). Occasionally, the decorated terminals of these initials have been excised (fols. 1r, 30v, 61r, 137r, and 153v). Many leaves are missing from this manuscript. Fourteen are known to be in the Lilly Library at Indiana University (Ricketts MSS C1, III:25, and III:53) and a number of others are dispersed among private collections elsewhere. Fols. 157-160 in the present volume are entirely detached and kept separately from the book itself, and others are partly loose within the sixteenth-century binding.
</p>
<br>Subjects: 13th century; English; England</div>
<div class="fn value">
Free Library of Philadelphia</div>
Internet Archive identifier