Bibles & sacred texts - facsimiles - Omi

OMI - Old Manuscripts & Incunabula • tel 212/ 758-1946 • fax 593-6186 • www.omifacsimiles.com • immels@earthlink.net Biblical texts, p.30
8th c. The Vespasian Psalter. British Museum Cotton Vespasian A.I. Edited by David
H. Wright, with a Contribution on the Gloss by Alistair Campbell.
[London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian A.I]
Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 14. Copenhagen, 1967. 101, pp.
Collotype. This beautiful work ranks among the finest work produced in England in the 8th
c. and has the added interest that it is believed, with good reason, to have been written at St.
Augustine’s, Canterbury, and to have remained there until its dissolution in 1538. It is a
psalter of the Roman version, with canticles and hymns, written in unical script of
remarkable quality. There are also prolegomena in rustic capitals. Its painted decoration,
some of which are reproduced in color, includes a full-page illustration of David and
musicians, several incipits and a great many initials. Half-morocco binding (also available
in wrappers for c.25% less).
€ 940
15th c. Biblia pauperum (“Goldene Bilderbibel”).
[London, British Library, Kings Ms. 5]
Luzern, 1993. Oblong, 37 x 18 cm, 62 pp + commentary.
Unique medieval MS illustrating scenes from the Bible, produced in The Hague during the
late 14th and early 15th c. It is a product of a thriving new center of arts established in that
city by the Court of Albrecht of Bavaria and his second wife Margaret of Cleves. Stylistic
similarities with Margaret’s “Book of Hours” suggest it was illustrated by the same artist.
All 93 miniatures in the MS were painted on burnished gold backgrounds, an unusual
feature of a biblia pauperum. The illustrations appear on the rectos while the versos remain
blank, and they are grouped together typologically: groups of three miniatures, each
depicting an important event in the life of Christ, make up a complete picture cycle.
Selected scenes from the New Testament are flanked by two scenes from the Old
Testament, in keeping with the Christian belief that the two Testaments comprise a unity
and that prophecies made in the Old prefigure in the New. Limited edition of 980 copies,
bound in leather (after the original).
18th c. Perek Shirah.
[London, British Library, or.54 (OR.12,983)]
[0-948223-170] London, 1996. 8 x 13 cm, 2 vols, 34, 56 pp.
This charming 18th-c. Hebrew and Yiddish MS was probably written by Aaron Wolf
Schreiber Herlingen of Gewitsch in Vienna. Its vellum leaves contain exquisite miniatures
of many of the “worshippers” within magnificent scenes from nature. The "Perek Shirah", a
10th-c. text, reflects an acute awareness of the spiritual dimension of nature and the
environment. It is a cosmic hymn to the Creator in which all of creation, including the
winds, clouds, all species of birds, mammals and fish sing praises for their very existence.
It opens with the promise that those who recite it "are assured of a place in the World to
Come" and ends with the hope that their study will be transformed into good deeds that will
win heavenly reward. The praises are expressed in the form of scriptural quotations,
reflecting the Jewish belief in the interdependence of study and prayer. Commenatary by
Malachi Beit-Arié and Emile Schrijver, including a translation of the text by Jeremy
Schonfield. Limited edition of 550 copies, bound in aged vellum and tooled after the
original, housed in hand-marbled slipcase.