Saturday 4 December 2021

More Leaves from the Hastière Bible

I recently bought some books about Bohemian illuminated manuscripts, and illuminated cuttings in Bohemian collections, including one about the illuminated leaves, cuttings, and fragments at the National Gallery in Prague, shown above [1]. A few items caught my eye in particular.

This cutting ... 

Prague, National Gallery, K 7304

... looks very much as if it comes from the same manuscript as a pair of cuttings that will be sold at Christie's in two weeks' time:

 
I made the connection after the hardcopy catalogue went to press, but the online version has been updated to include the comparison.

Of more direct interest to me and to this blog, however, is a catalogue entry describing a group of four Bible leaves (K 10735 - K10738), instantly recognisable as coming from the Bible I have called the Hastière Bible (discussed in this post and partially reconstructed on this Membra disiecta page):
Prologue to Proverbs (K 10738)

Ecclesiastes (K 10737)

This long-necked creature with a gold ball under each foot:
bears comparison with this one, on a leaf at the V&A Museum:
and the main historiated initial:
is plainly by the same illuminator (of modest talents) as initials such as these:

I have now updated the membra disiecta page accordingly.


[1]  Iluminované rukopisné zlomky z oblasti latinské kultury ve Sbírce grafiky a kresby Národní galerie v Praze -- Illuminated manuscript fragments from the Latin cultural sphere in the Collection of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery in Prague, ed. by Pavel Brodský and Martina Šumová, Studie o rukopisech Monographia, svazek 25, Vydání první (Praha: Masarykův ústav a Archiv AV ČR, v.v.i, 2020). 

I bought this and other books (with the help of Google Translate) from https://www.kosmas.cz/ 
They currently have several MSS-related titles with deep discounts, e.g. Iluminované rukopisy českého původu v polských sbírkách (Illuminated manuscripts of Czech origin in Polish collections) reduced from 245Kč to 90 Kč i.e. it is now less than $5 or £5, though of course shipping has to be added.

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