Central Italian Master - photo 1
Central Italian Master - photo 2
Central Italian Master - photo 3
Central Italian Master - photo 4
Central Italian Master - photo 5

Central Italian Master

Lot 3
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1514350
Lot 3 | Central Italian Master
Estimate value
£ 12 000 – 18 000
Central Italian Master
Bible with Prologues attributed to St Jerome and the Interpretation of Hebrew Names, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy, probably Umbria, perhaps Assisi, first quarter 14th century]
A portable Bible produced in central Italy at the turn of the 14th century with an iconographically unusual Genesis initial. No Italian Bible manuscript has sold at international auction since 2016 (RBH/ABSA).

213 x 155mm. iv (paper) + i (vellum) + 435 +iv (paper), lacking opening leaf else complete, collation: 111 (of 12, lacking i), 2-1312, 1414, 15-1612, 1710, 18-3312, 3514, 3614, catchwords survive, modern pencil foliation, prickings partially evident at fore- and upper edge, two columns of 50 lines, ruled space: 130 x 90mm, rubrics in red, running titles and chapter numbers in alternate letters of blue and red, four-line chapter initials in red or blue with contrasting flourishing in red and purple extending into the margins, one column-length historiated initial to open Genesis (lacking opening leaf, lower margin of f.1 cut away, light sprinkling of wormtracks to the first fifty-five leaves touching the Genesis initial, short tears to upper margins of ff.54-55, 101-2 and 111, isolated patches of faint marginal dampstaining and thumbsoiling). Laced-case limp vellum over pasteboard binding, flat spine labelled ‘Biblia del Sec:xiii’ in black ink, partially covering an earlier ‘Biblia Sacra’ in the same brown ink as ‘S4’ and ‘Codex’ at head and foot of spine (lacking ties, upper cover loose where unlaced from textblock).

Provenance:
(1) The style of the Genesis initial on f.2v suggests the manuscript was painted in Central Italy, perhaps Assisi. Erased inscriptions on f.435v are likely those of an early owner.

(2) Perhaps once part of the library belonging to the Church of San Callisto in Rome; a set of manuscript notes added at the front of our volume (f.i-iv) by one Aloysius Ungaretti state that this Bible was studied at the behest of Cardinal Aloysius Lambruschini (1776-1854) in 1832, the same year he was given the titular church. The later vellum title page (f.i) may have been added at this time.

(3) Howard Lehman Goodhart (1884-1951), stockbroker and bibliophile: his leather book label inside upper cover. By descent to his daughter:

(4) Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994): her leather book label inside upper cover, MS 56. On deposit at Bryn Mawr, BMC 40. Published in Faye & Bond, Supplement, p.400, no 56.

Content: Bible with Prologues ff.1-407; Interpretation of Hebrew Names ff.408-431v; table of lections ff.432-435v.

The prologues vary a little from the ‘standard’ Paris Vulgate across both the Old and New Testaments and some extra prologues are added. The sequence is that of Paris, save for the fact this volume lacks the Psalms, likely produced and bound separately. The so-called ‘Paris Bible’, the epitome of 13th-century book production, offered a complete, standardised sequence of texts, including a guide to the meaning of biblical names in Hebrew, in a one-volume, portable format suitable for use by students of theology at the University of Paris. As the Paris model spread through Italy, Bibles produced in Bologna and elsewhere adapted and standardized their features to reflect the Parisian form.

Illumination:
The style of the historiated initial ‘I’ to open Genesis (‘In principio creavit’), presumably depicting God on each day of Creation, looks to have been painted by a provincial Umbrian illuminator in the first decades of the 14th century. Christie’s is grateful to Beatrice Alai for pointing us towards Assisi as a place of production and identifying the influence of the master who painted Missal 8 for San Rufino in c.1273 (Assisi, Archivio Capitolare, San Rufino MS.8).




Literature

Faye & Bond Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.400, no 56.
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