Leaf from a Miniature Manuscript Bible, circa 1240

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 2

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

Sold as Otto F. Ege's Original Leaves from Famous Bibles: Nine Centuries, 1121-1935 A.D. Cleveland: Otto Ege, circa 1950, this collection consists of 37 original Bible leaves in mattes with descriptive labels. Three items are manuscript pages, while an additional 34 are printed. The leaves range in age from circa 1200 to 1935. During the years 1938-1950, Ege published portfolios under this title with 37, 50 and 60 leaves.

For preservation reasons, the leaves have been separated from their mattes, and enclosed in mylar. However, each matte and descriptive label has been retained with its original leaf where possible.

The descriptions consist mostly of transcriptions of the labels written by Ege.

Dates

Creation: circa 1240

Creator

From the Collection: Ege, Otto F. (Compiler, Person)
From the Collection: Duschnes, Philip C. (Compiler, Person)

Biographical / Historical

The Latin Vulgate version, usually attributed to St. Jerome, is here executed in angular Gothic script, eleven lines to the inch, on finest vellum. These small portable Bibles were produced in great numbers by the Dominicans (1250-1275) in the early days of the Sorbonne. It has been calculated that in the year 1250, it would have taken the earnings of a day laborer for fifteen years to purchase a manuscript Bible of this type.