| AdminHistory | Part of the 'Bohun Bible' manuscript belonging in 1613 to Richard Legh, who presented it to Sir Peter Leicester of Tabley Inferior, Cheshire.
From the description given by the auction house:
'This leaf is part of the remains of a very noble manuscript, which, in its original state, must have been one of the most magnificent Latin Bibles every produced in England in mediaeval times. Their state of preservation is wonderfully fine, and, save for a few trifling flaws always found in vellum leaves of this large size, are as brilliant and fresh as when illuminated nearly 600 years ago. They are also remarkable for the splendour of their burnished gold and harmony of colour. Their art stikingly resembles that in a manuscript in the British Museum attributed to an East Anglian source, and they are certainly the work of one of the finest English artists of his time. The liberal use of blue and red, alternate or in any combination, in the border and initial work, is a distinctive mark of the period about 1350. The border work, too, is very interesting, as showing the origin of the beautiful ivy-leaf borders in manuscripts of the following century. In 1613 this manuscript belonged to Richard Legh, a member of the well-known Cheshire family of that name, who presented it to Sir Peter Leicester, the famous Cheshire antiquary, as appears from his autograph note of ownership at the end of Malachi: "Ex libris Petri Leicester de Nether-Tabley: qui liber mihi Dono datur a Richardo = Maria Dumwill de Limme Armigero, 27 die Martii, Anno Domini 1665." He has also added notes on mutilated leaves, showing that the mutilation was done before the date.' |
| CustodialHistory | Purchased c. 1940 [or between 1927-1940], probably by Metropolitan Borough of Stepney. Later accessioned on 27 July 1987.
The leaf-by-leaf dispersal of the Bohun Bible began as early as the 17th century. Ultimately, the Bible was dismembered by Myers & Company, Bond Street, London, who sold individual leaves beginning in 1927. See Christopher de Hamel, 'The Bohun Bible Leaves', Script & Print 32:1 (2008): 49-63; and Lucy Freeman Sandler, 'Illuminators and Patrons in Fourteenth-Century England: The Psalter and Hours of Humphrey de Bohun and the Manuscripts of the Bohun Family' (Toronto, 2014).
Source: 'The Bohun Bible leaves': Paper in Special Issue: Transitus: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australia and New Zealand. Lowry, James; Manion, Margaret and Spedding, Patrick (eds). Available on line: search.informit.org |