Beschreibung:

Illuminated manuscript on vellum, [France, mid-13th century]. Single leaf with an historiated initial, from a portable Bible, gothic pearl script, 152 x 102 mm, text from the opening of proverbs. Double column, 51 lines in a very fine gothic pearl script. Rubrics in red, capitals struck with red, headlines and chapter numbers in red and blue, the latter with trailing penwork in both colors, a six-line historiated initial in blue, pink, red, and burnished gold, showing King Solomon presenting his proverbs to a tonsured man, this initial with a descender extending the length of the text and terminating in a dragon whose curling tail spans the width of the column; the same column with a bar border inhabited by a similar dragon extending half the length of the column. One small marginal smudge.