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Detailed record for Additional 47682
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| Title |
Bible (the 'Holkham Bible Picture Book') |
| Origin |
England, S. E. (London?) |
| Date |
c 1327-1335 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
Tinted drawings on every folio illustrating Genesis to Noah (ff. 1-9); a Gospel Harmony (ff. 10-38); and the Last Things (ff. 39-42), with short explanatory French text, sometimes in verse. |
| Dimensions in mm |
285 x 210 (265 x 200) |
| Official foliation |
ff. ii + 42 (f. i is a paste-down; f. ii is the first front flyleaf; + 1 unfoliated modern paper flyleaf at the beginning and 2 at the end), |
| Collation |
i7(ff. 1-7; first leaf added), ii2(ff. 8-9), iii-viii4(ff 10-33), ix5(ff. 34-38), x4(ff. 39-42). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. |
| Provenance |
An unknown Dominican friar probably commissioned this work: a friar next to a speech scroll inscribed: 'Ore feres bien e nettement car mustre serra a riche gent' ('Now do it well and thoroughly, for it will be shown to important people'); with an artist whose speech scroll is inscribed: ‘Si frai voyre e Deux me doynt vivere Nonkes ne veyses un autretel livere’ ('Indeed, I certainly will, if God lets me live, never will you see another such book') (f. 1r).
Thomas William Coke, 4th Earl of Leicester of Holkham (b. 1880, d. 1949); his crested label and a note in his hand, 'This Book was purchased by Mr Roscoe, for Thos. Coke, 1816' (f. i verso);
In the library of Holkham Hall, Norfolk from 1816 to 1952: formerly Holkham Manuscript 666 (number in pencil on f. ii).
Acquired by the British Museum in 1952 as part of a purchase of twelve Holkham manuscripts, with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund, the Pilgrim Trust and Friends of the National Libraries. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts. |
| Select bibliography |
L. Dorez, Les Manuscrits à Peintures de la Bibliothèque de Lord Leicester à Holkham (Paris, 1908), pls. xxiii-xxviii.
George Frederick Warner, Queen Mary's Psalter (1912), pp. 10-15, 28, 30.
C. W. James, 'Some notes upon the Manuscript Library at Holkham', The Library, 4th ser., ii, (1922), pp. 232, 233.
Montague Rhodes James, 'An English Bible-Picture Book of the fourteenth century (Holkham MS. 666)', The Walpole Society, 11 (1922-3), 1-27.
Seymour de Ricci, William Roscoe and Frederic Madden. A handlist of manuscripts in the library of the Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall (Oxford, 1932), p. 56.
William Owen Hassall, The Holkham Bible Picture Book (London, 1954), [Facsimile].
T. A. J. Burnett, 'The Undeciphered Inscriptions in the Holkham Bible Picture Book', British Museum Quarterly 26 (1962-3), 26-27.
Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (London: Penguin Books, 1965), pp. 135, 204, pl. 138.
[D. H. Turner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 5 (London: British Museum, 1965), pl. 22.
Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 25.
Francis Klingender, Animals in Art and Thought to the end of the Middle Ages, ed. by Evelyn Antal and John Harthan (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971), pp. 412-13, pl. 243.
Frederick P. Pickering, The Anglo-Norman Text of the Holkham Bible Picture Book, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 23 (Oxford, 1971).
John Block Friedman, 'The architect's compass in the creation miniatures of the later middle ages',Traditio, 30 (1974),419-29 (p. 424).
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, 1951-1955 (London: British Library, 1982), pp. 54-56.
Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 5 (London: Harvey Miller, 1986), II, no. 97.
The Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagent England 1200-1400, ed. by Jonathan Alexander and Paul Binski (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987), no. 221 [exhibition catalogue].
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 54, 164 n. 26, fig. 77.
Michelle P. Brown, 'The Role of the Wax Tablets in Medieval Literacy: A Reconsideration in Light of a Recent Find from York', The British Library Journal, 20 (1994), 1-16 (p. 10, fig. 8).
C. M.Kauffmann, 'Art and Popular Culture: New Themes in the Holkham Bible Picture Book', in Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture Presented to Peter Lasko, ed. by D. Buckton and T.A. Heslop (London, 1994), pp. 46-69.
Ruth Dean and Maureen Bolton, Anglo-Norman Literature, A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), no. 472.
John Higgitt, The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and the Gaelic West (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 232, 271 n. 40.
C. M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003), pp. 231-37, pls 173-236.
Paul Binski, Becket’s Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170-1300 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), pl. 182.
Alixe Bovey, The Chaworth Roll: A fourteenth-century Genealogy of the Kings of England (London: Sam Fogg, 2004), p. 17, fig. 12.
Nigel J. Morgan, 'The Torments of the Damned in Hell in Texts and Images in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries', in Prophecy, Apocalypse and the Day of Doom, Proceedings of the 2000 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Nigel Morgan (Donington: Shaun tyas, 2004), pp. 250-60 (p. 260).
Ian Short, 'Introduction, The Texts', in The Trinity Apocalypse (Trinity College Cambridge, MS R.16.2) (London: British Library, 2005), pp. 123-36 (p. 135).
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), pp. 126-27, figs. 113-14.
Sacred: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their Sacred Texts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 122 [exhibition catalogue].
Michelle Brown, The Holkham Bible: A Facsimile (London, British Library, 2007). [facsimile]
Richard K. Emmerson, 'Visualizing the Vernacular: Middle English in early fourteenth-century bilingual and trilingual Manuscript Illustrations', in Tributes to Lucy Freeman Sandler: Studies in Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. by Kathryn A. Smith and Carol H. Krinsky (London: Harvey Miller, 2007), pp. 187-204 (p. 193).
Deirdre Jackson, Marvellous to Behold: Miracles in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pls 21, 24, 42, 43.
Herbert L. Kessler, ‘Evil Eye(ing): Romanesque Art as A Shield of Faith’, in Romanesque: Art and Thought in the Twelfth Century: Essays in Honor of Walter Cahn, ed. by Colum Hourihane, Index of Christian Art Occasional Papers, 10 (Princeton: Index of Christian Art, 2008), pp. 107-35 (p. 123).
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 7.
John Lowden, ‘The Holkham Bible Picture Book and the Bible Moralisée’, in The Medieval Book: Glosses from Friends and Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel, ed. by James H. Marrow, Richard A. Linenthal, and William Noel (Houten, 2010), pp. 75-83.
Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Nigel F. Palmer, The Prayer Book of Ursula Begerin, 2 vols (Dietikon-Zurich: Urs Graf, 2015), I, pp. 169, 173, 211, 312, 247, 253, 279, 328; figs. 194, 271, 276, 336, 390.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World (London: Thames and Hudson, 2016), pp.230-35. |
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f. 1
Dominican friar and artist |
f. 1v
Wheel of Fortune |
f. 2
God the Creator |
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f. 2v
Creation |
f. 3
Adam and Eve |
f. 3v
The Tree of Knowledge |
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f. 4
The Transgression and Expulsion |
f. 4v
After the fall |
f. 5
Cain and Abel |
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f. 5v
The murder of Abel. |
f. 6
Cain |
f. 7
Lamech and Noah |
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f. 7v
Noah and the ark |
f. 8
The dove and the raven |
f. 8
Noah |
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f. 8v
Noah after the flood |
f. 9
Drunkenness of Noah |
f. 10
Tree of Jesse |
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f. 10v
Genealogy of Christ |
f. 11
Mark and Luke |
f. 11v
John; Satan and Christ; the Annunciation |
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f. 12
Joseph and Mary |
f. 12v
The Visitation; the Nativity |
f. 13
The Visitation of the shepherds |
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f. 13v
The Circumcision; the Magi |
f. 14
The Flight into Egypt; Joseph and Mary are robbed |
f. 14v
Miraclesduring the Flight to Egypt |
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f. 15
Three further miracles |
f. 15v
Five miracles of Christ's infancy |
f. 16
Two further miracles from Christ's childhood |
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f. 16v
Herod kills his sons |
f. 17
Herod's suicide; Archelaus; the Virgin and Child |
f. 17v
The return from Egypt; Christ in the temple. |
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f. 18
Christ's childhood; John the Baptist prophesied |
f. 18v
John the Baptist |
f. 19
John preaching; the Baptism of Christ; the Temptation |
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f. 19v
Temptations; conversions by John the Baptist |
f. 20
The Disciples; Christ in the Temple |
f. 20v
Nicodemus; the marriage at Cana |
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f. 21
John the Baptist and Salome; Christ is told |
f. 21v
Salome's dance; the death of St John the Baptist |
f. 22
The Disciples fishing; the miraculous catch |
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f. 22v
St Peter; Christ preaching |
f. 23
The Sermon on the Mount; three miracles. |
f. 23v
Christ healing and casting out devils |
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f. 24
Calming the storm; the Gadarene swine |
f. 24v
Christ healing ; the woman of Samaria |
f. 25
Christ's ministry |
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f. 25v
Mary Magdalene; Martha and Mary |
f. 26
The entry into Jerusalem |
f. 26v
Christ and the Pharisees |
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f. 27
Three parables |
f. 27v
Christ and the Saracens, Sadducees and Pharisees |
f. 28
The Last Supper |
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f. 28v
Christ and the disciples; Gethsemane |
f. 29
The Betrayal |
f. 29v
Christ scourged; Peter's denial |
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f. 30
Death of Judas; Pilate |
f. 30v
Herod and Pilate; the Flagellation |
f. 31
Christ and the Cross |
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f. 31v
The Crucifixion |
f. 32
The Crucifixion |
f. 32v
The Crucifixion |
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f. 33
The Deposition |
f. 33v
The Entombment |
f. 34
The Harrowing of Hell |
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f. 34v
The Resurrection |
f. 35
Mary Magdalene, Peter and John |
f. 35v
Mary Magelene meets Christ; the guards are bribed |
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f. 36
The dinner at Emmaus |
f. 36v
Christ appears at Jerusalem; doubting Thomas |
f. 37
The resurrected Christ at the lake |
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f. 37v
Christ and Peter |
f. 38
The Ascension |
f. 39
Christ's prophesies; martyrdom of Zachariah |
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f. 39v
Destruction of the temple and prophecies of doom |
f. 40
Battles prophesied |
f. 40v
The first five signs before Judgement Day |
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f. 41
Signs of Judgement Day |
f. 41v
Signs of Judgement Day |
f. 42
Judgement Day |
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f. 42v
Christ in Judgement |
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