Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

One of the period’s most compelling biblical manuscripts related in style to the royal Bible moralisées.

c. 220 × 135–150 mm (each), six leaves, ruled in plummet and written above top line in two columns of fifty lines, in a small, highly regular Gothic bookhand, TWO HISTORIATED INITIALS ‘U’ with Obadiah, half-length, scroll and initial ‘E’ with Jonah, young and beardless, hand raised (end of Amos, Obadiah and beginning of Jonah). Marginal wear and discoloration to margins, tape stains present to the verso of some leaves, gold and pigments lustrous and in excellent condition.

This cutting comes from the famous Hornby-Cockerell Bible, sometimes referred to as the Huth-Hornby-Cockerell-Haddaway Bible (acknowledging its rich modern provenance), made in Paris in the early thirteenth century. A 1971 exhibition at The Walters Art Gallery, The Bible in the Middle Ages, proposed that at least four distinct artistic hands collaborated in illuminating the parent volume. One artist, responsible for initials such as David harping in Psalm 1 and a blue bear in II Kings, demonstrates strong highlights and compositional forms consistent with English work under Byzantine influence. A second illuminator, linked to Genesis and Luke, was described as stylistically close to the Bibles moralisées produced in France between 1235 and 1250, although the absence of characteristic “hairpin” or “Muldenstil” drapery suggests an earlier date. A third artist, dubbed the “Master of the Old Testament Ladies,” executed initials for books such as Ruth, Judith, Esther, and Ecclesiastes with a monumental grace comparable to Gothic cathedral sculpture. A fourth, unnamed hand is thought to have painted the more complex figural compositions found in the Pauline Epistles. The collaboration of these artists, along with the manuscript’s format and execution, situates the Bible within a major workshop. The fourth artist was perhaps responsible for the illumination on the present page. Continued discovery of its dispersed leaves promises further insights into this significant manuscript.

Provenance

(1) Joseph Lilly (1804–1870). London bookseller; sold the manuscript in 1856 to:
(2) Henry Huth (1815–1878). Described in his posthumously published library catalogue as a 14th-century manuscript bound in brown morocco; by descent to:
(3) Alfred Henry Huth (1850–1910). Sold on the fourth day (20 November 1911) of his eight-day posthumous sale at Sotheby’s, lot 645, purchased by Quaritch for £300 on behalf of:
(4) Charles Harold St John Hornby (1867–1946). Recorded as no. 23 in his collection; rebound in white pigskin by Katharine Adams in 1912; bequeathed to:
(5) Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (1867–1962). With his signature and notes; sold by him for £1,500 in January 1957 to Quaritch; sold by them on 7 February 1957 to:
(7) Eisemann – Acquired from Quaritch for £2,250.
(8) Harry A. Levinson (1904–1995). Bookseller, Beverly Hills; listed in Catalogue 58 (May 1962), no. 20, priced at $17,000.
(9) Arthur Haddaway (1901–1981). Purchased from Levinson on 8 November 1965; with his bookplate; exhibited at the University of Texas at Austin in 1971; sold from his estate at Christie’s New York, 25 September 1981, lot 2, purchased for $21,000 by:
(10) Bruce P. Ferrini (1949–2010). Manuscript dismembered by January 1982, with single leaves dispersed (e.g., to the collection of Michael Greenberg, Elk Grove, IL).
(11) Present leaf: inscribed in pencil with Bruce Ferrini’s stock number “VM-1954”. Acquired through Sam Fogg in November 1996.
(12) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 1065b.

Parent manuscript and sister leaves
Leaves from this Bible are now dispersed across numerous public and private collections. Regrettably, the manuscript was not fully catalogued prior to its dismemberment, and no comprehensive inventory of its historiated initials survives. More than 180 leaves are now preserved at The Ohio State University (OSU) and have been the subject of a recent study by Eric Johnson (Spec.Rar.Ms.Lat.14). A proposed reconstruction by Peter Kidd (2021) assumes that all canonical biblical books were originally included, following the standard Parisian order of the thirteenth century unless contrary evidence exists.


LITERATURE
W.C. Hazlitt and F.S. Ellis, The Huth Library: A Catalogue of Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters and Engravings, Collected by Henry Huth, with Collations and Bibliographical Descriptions, London, 1880, I, p. 159; Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the Famous Library of Printed Books, Illuminated Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, and Engravings Collected by Henry Huth..., London, 1911, lot 645; Harry A. Levinson, Catalogue 58: 104 Rare Books and Manuscripts, Beverly Hills, 1962, no. 20, pls. X–XII; Gothic and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from Texas Collections, Austin, 1971, no. 1 (ill.); R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis, Berkeley, CA, 1977; Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc., Early Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Important Bibles... Estate of Arthur Haddaway, New York, 1981, lot 2 (ill. and col. ill.); Edward R. Lubin, European Illuminated Manuscripts, catalogued by R.S. Wieck, New York, [1985], no. 4; The Schuster Gallery, Illuminated Manuscripts, London, 1987, no. 6 (ill.); Eric J. Johnson, “Breaking and Remaking Scripture: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Hornby-Cockerell Bible,” Manuscript Studies, 4, (2019), pp. 270–333. Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, vol. 3: French Miniatures, London, 2021, cat. 15.

We are grateful to Peter Kidd for permission to quote from his catalogue for this entry, and we thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.

The Robert McCarthy Collection