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Detailed record for Royal 1 B XII
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| Title |
Bible, with the Interpretation of Hebrew names (the 'Bible of William of Hales') |
| Origin |
England, S. (Salisbury) |
| Date |
1254 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
| Scribe |
William de Hales |
| Artists |
The Sarum Master |
| Decoration |
35 historiated initials in gold and colours (ff. 1, 20v, 34, 43, 56, 67v, 84v, 95, 104, 114, 124, 133v, 145v, 158, 162v, 165v, 178, 186v, 198, 227v, 244, 267, 320, 330v, 337, 348, 356v, 367, 368, 375v, 379, 383v, 389v, 390, 390v), 12 initials with animals or human heads (ff. 153v, 183, 184v, 189, 191, 193v, 208, 209, 313, 369, 387, 391), at the beginning of biblical books, and foliate initials in gold and colours, some with grotesque figures (e.g., ff. 3v, 75, 388), at the beginning of other biblical books. A marginal drawing in black ink of Samson fighting with a lion (f. 80) next to Judges 14:1-5. Small initials in blue with red pen-flourishing, running titles and chapter numbers in blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
350 x 200 (200 x 120), in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 431 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. |
| Provenance |
Written by William de Hales for Thomas de la Wile, a canon of Salisbury (1254): inscribed 'Hunc librum scripsit Will[elmu]s de Hales, / magist[r]o Thome de la Wile, quem vocavit / magist[er] Radulfus de Hehham tunc cancel/larius Sar[isburiensis] ad regim[en] scola[rum] Sar[isburiensium] quibus / d[eu]s in hoc s[e]c[u]lo et in futuro p[ro]picientur. Amen. / F[a]c[tu]s fuit libere anno M cc.l. quarto. ab i[n]/carnatione domini'. (f. 431).
John Theyer (bap. 1598, d. 1673), antiquary, included in the catalogue of his library left to his grandson Charles Theyer (b. 1651): see Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 3 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697'), II, no. 6462 (?);
Robert Scott (b. c. 1632, d. 1709/10), London bookseller: included in the list of John Theyer’s manuscripts in his possession, assessed in 1678 by William Beveridge and William Jane, Royal Appendix, 70, no. 42.
Charles II (b. 1630, d.1685), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland: purchased from Scott together over 300 other manuscripts from Theyer's library.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Includes the Interpretation of Hebrew names (ff. 399v-431).
Catchwords, quire signatures in the form of Roman numerals.
According to Nigel Morgan (see Morgan 1988, p. 62), only a few initials are by the Sarum Master himself (e.g., ff. 84v, 95, 114, 208, 183, 184v, 193v, 320, 368, 389v, 390, 390v). Other initials are by two or three different artists, one perhaps related to the style of the Bible, Paris, BNF, ms. lat. 15 (no. 105).
The text is a copy of the early 12th-century Bible, Salisbury Cathedral MS 184 (see Glunz 1933, no. 51, where the Salisbury Cathedral exemplar is incorrectly given as MS 148) . |
| Select bibliography |
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Ilustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 5.
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 4th edn, ed. by Edward Miller, 2 vols (London: George Bell & Sons, 1894), II, p. 67.
John Chapman, 'Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908), pp. 208, 210, 211.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, pp. 12-13, pl. 8.
Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1926), p. 122.
H. H. Glunz, History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933), no. 51.
Albert Hollaender, 'The Sarum Illuminator and his School', Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Magazine, 50 (1943), 230-62 (pp. 253-54, pl. XV-XVb).
Peter Brieger, English Art 1216-1307, Oxford History of English Art, 4 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 177.
Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (London: Penguin Books, 1965), p. 107.
A. L. Bennet, 'Additions to the William of Devon group', Art Bulletin, 54 (1972), 31-40 (p. 34 n.10).
Colophons de manuscrits occidentaux des origines au XVIe siècle, 7 vols. (Fribourg Suisse: Editions Universitaires, 1965-1979), II, no. 5918.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I no. 855.
Christopher de Hamel, 'Books in Medieval Salisbury', The Hatcher Review, 2 (1982), 99- 109 (pp. 103-04).
N. R. Ker, 'From 'Above Top Line' to 'Below Top Line', in N. R. Ker, Books, Collectors and Libraries: Studies in the Medieval Heritage, ed. by Andrew G. Watson (London: Hambledon Press, 1985), pp. 71-74 (p. 74).
J. J. G. Alexander and E. Temple, Illuminated Manuscripts in Oxford College Libraries, the University Archives and the Taylor Institution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), p. 23.
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), II: 1250-1285, no. 102.
C. M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003), p. 150. |
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f. 34
Moses |
f. 80
Samson and a lion |
f. 84v
Elkanah and Hannah |
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f. 153v
Mermaid |
f. 193v
Three-faced man |
f. 368
Peter |
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f. 435
Colophon |
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