22 - Romanesque display Bibles

Summary

Romanesque display Bibles are monumental luxury codices, most of which were produced between 1060 and 1200 – the period dominated in western Europe by a distinctive style in architecture and art inspired by ancient Roman precedent, and therefore characterised as ‘Romanesque’ by nineteenth-century scholars. They constitute probably the most elaborate, expensive and beautiful group of Bibles ever made. Containing in one to five volumes the complete Vulgate text and many accessory texts, they were produced in all parts of Europe and even in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. Although costly in terms both of the materials required and the time needed for copying and decoration, hundreds were made. Many have survived complete and others in part.

Although display Bibles form a distinct category of manuscript production in the Romanesque period, they were for the most part individually conceived and executed. The number of volumes, the size of the page, the page layout and the amount of decoration vary widely. They comprise from fewer than 400 pages to over 700. Characteristically, they are large folio-sized productions, many being over 500 mm high and 300 mm wide. Most were even larger when new but have been trimmed during rebinding; only a few have retained their jewelled bindings. The size of the pages allows for forty or fifty or more lines of text per column as well as ample margins between columns and around the text-blocks. The largest single Romanesque Bible known is the Codex Gigas, 900 mm tall, made in Bohemia early in the thirteenth century (Stockholm, Royal Library, Holm. A. 148). Many middle-sized examples in the range of 300–350 mm tall were produced as well. Copied on the highest-quality parchment in a large rounded minuscule script, these Bibles project a feeling of spaciousness and monumentality.