Bifolium from a copy of John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam, or ‘nourisher on the Bible’, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France, fifteenth century]

Bifolium from a copy of John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam, or nourisher on the Bible, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France, fifteenth century]

2 conjoined leaves (innermost bifolium from gathering), with double column of 49 lines in a good French late medieval bookhand (continuous text for chs. 4-28 of text), names of authorities and quotations underlined in red, capitals touched in red, red paragraph marks, red rubrics, running titles De primo libro Genesis in red, some small holes, corners cut away, discoloured on reverses of leaves, one border slightly trimmed (without affect to text), overall in fair and presentable condition, each leaf: 345 by 240mm.

John Marchesinus was an important Franciscan author who lived in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. He completed this work, an etymological analysis of the Vulgate, in Reggio Emilia around the end of the thirteenth century. It was intended to provide young friars with a semantic, liturgical, and theological aid to understand the Scriptures.