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OMI - Old Manuscripts & Incunabula • tel 212/ 758-1946 • fax 593-6186 • www.omifacsimiles.com • immels@earthlink.net Biblical texts, p.28 11th- 12th c. Beato de Liébana. Códice del Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos. [London, British Library, Add. ms. 11695] [84-88526-77-6] Barcelona, 2004. 25 x 38 cm, 560 pp + commentary. A splendidly illuminated copy of the Beatus of Liébana, copied in the scriptorium at the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in southern Burgos. From entries in the manuscript we know that the monks Domingo and Muño commenced work on this expensive and lavish project, and at the sixth hour on Thursday, April 18, 1091, they finished the task of copying the text, a project which may have taken them several months. The work was then passed on to the illuminators; due to some problems which are not clear to us the entire work was only concluded on June 30, 1109. The superb condition of the manuscript suggests that it was hardly ever used. Commentary by Miguel C. Vivancos. 14th c. The Barcelona Haggadah. [London, British Library, Add. 14761] [0-948223-081] London, 1992. 19 x 26 cm, 322 pp + commentary. The Barcelona Haggadah, created around 1350 and named after the heraldic shield it bears resembling the arms of Barcelona, is recognized as one of the finest illuminated Hebrew MSS in the British Library. When it was created the Jews of Aragon and Catalonia formed one of the largest communities in Europe, and Barcelona was home to a flourishing center of book illumination linked to the Court and influenced by Italian and French styles. Of all categories of Jewish prayer book the Passover Haggadah tends to be the most extensively and richly decorated. The narrative itself, the Rabbinic elaboration, the family meal, the symbolic foods and the fact that the story is told to children, provide added incentives for colorful elaboration. Even the size of the MS lends itself to be used and enjoyed at the Passover table on the eve of the festival for the family gathering known as the Seder. This Haggadah is outstanding for its rich decorative and representational art scattered throughout the text. 128 of its 322 pages are richly ornamented with fanciful figures and pictorial scenes that provide fascinating insights into Jewish life in medieval Spain. For instance, music and culture in general flourished in Barcelona and its environs, and the Jewish community was proud to be fully involved. Indeed, until the forced conversion of the Jewish population of Barcelona in 1401, Jewish musicians played a vital role in drawing the Jews and Christians closer together. It is not surprising, therefore, that a lively interest in music is clearly displayed throughout the MS: in all, twenty-eight different instruments appear in the illustrations. More intimate details, such as the pictures of the meal, take us straight into a Jewish home of the period, while the synagogue scene reflects 14th-c. conditions and traditions. The illustrations of the five rabbis of Bnei Brak, the four sons, the story of Abraham breaking the idols, and the Exodus (which is shown taking place on horseback in medieval costume), are of great historical value. The unrestrained humor of the artist is clear from the dogs and rabbits that romp through the pages of the MS. Commentary by Jeremy Schonfield, Raphael Loewe, David Goldstein, & Malachi Beit-Arie. Limited edition of 500 copies, bound in leather. $ 4810
OMI - Old Manuscripts & Incunabula • tel 212/ 758-1946 • fax 593-6186 • www.omifacsimiles.com • immels@earthlink.net Biblical texts, p.29 11th c. The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch. British Museum Cotton Claudius B.iv. Edited by C.R. Dodwell and Peter Clemoes. [London, British Library, Cotton Claudius B.iv] Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 18. Copenhagen, 1974. 30 x 40 cm, 73, 321 pp. Collotype. This is a copy, written in the first half of the 11th c., of an Old English prose version of the first six books of the Old Testament, partly by Ælfric. In medieval times it belonged to the library of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury. It is one of the most lavishly illustrated of Anglo-Saxon MSS, containing no less than 400 colored drawings, which form one of the most extensive cycles of Pentateuch illustrations to survive from the Middle Ages. These drawings are of extreme interest icongraphically because they were derived from an Early Christian exemplar which has not otherwise come down to us. Half-morocco binding (also available in wrappers for c.25% less). € 1040 7th c. Das Buch von Lindisfarne. [standard edition]. [London, British Library, Cotton Nero D.iv] Luzern, 2002. 24.5 x 34 cm, 518 pp + commentary. The monastery of Lindisfarne, located on the coast of Northumbria on a small piece of land called “Holy Island”, was founded in 635 AD. St. Cuthbert, a venerated saint then and now, lived as a hermit near the abbey, although at one time he had been the bishop of Lindisfarne. A few years after his death in 687 he was canonized. The Lindisfarne Gospels, a splendid medieval MS was created by his brothers in his memory. Despite its age, almost 1300 years old, the Lindisfarne Gospels is in an extremely good state of preservation. The monks venerated the Gospels like a relic, art historians and paleographers see in its unfathomable wealth a foundation for further development in the Occident, and linguists find in it the oldest translation from Latin into ancient English. In the British Library it is kept as a national treasure. The Gospels contain the Latin text of the four gospels according to the vulgate version of St. Jerome. Each gospel opens with an introductory explanation, a summary of chapters and a calendar with the liturgical feast days. In addition, three prefaces, led by St. Jerome’s letter to Pope Damasus, procede the text. A series of sumptuously decorated canon tables opens the book. Monk Eadfrith, who became bishop of Lindisfarne shortly after Cuthbert’s canonization, is responsible not only for the complete copy of the gospel text in a beautiful insular majuscule but for its entire illumination. An inscription in the MS from the 10th c. names his successor Æthelwald as the bookbinder and Billfirth the hermit as the goldsmith who executed the ornamentation on the binding. Five extraordinary carpet pages present the whole range of insular ornaments in all their splendor of form and color. The Cross-carpet pages proceeding each gospel are equally rich in their ornamentation with large decorative initials stretching over the whole page. In the canon tables and portraits of the Evangelists the Lindisfarne Gospels show the influences of the Mediterranean and Celtic cultures blended into a masterpiece of insular book production. Commentary by Michelle Brown. Limited edition of 980 copies, bound in full leather. (N.B. The deluxe edition, with Victorian binding and decorative stones, is sold out). € 13800
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Bibles & sacred texts - facsimiles - Omi

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