The Geraardsbergen Bible The Geraardsbergen Bible, vols II and III,...
The Geraardsbergen Bible
The Geraardsbergen Bible, vols II and III, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, late 12th century]
The impressive giant Bible from the Abbey of St Adrian at Geraardsbergen: a very rare example in private hands of a 12th-century display Bible, the epitome of Romanesque book production.
Vol. II: 430 x 290mm. 201 leaves: ii + 19(of 10, i assumed pastedown), 2-910, 108, 115(of 6 - ii, text continuous ff.98v-99), 12-1710, 1812, 19-2010, 217(of 8, viii assumed pastedown) + ii, catchwords and signatures I-XX, modern pencilled foliation bottom left, text complete, 41 lines in two columns written above top line, ruled space: 326 x 215mm, headings, chapter numbers and running-titles in red, opening heading in one-line capitals alternately in red and green, headings in red, some decorated in green, first line of some books in green, chapter lists with one-line initials alternately in red and green, one-line initials in red or blue with a few in green, two-line flourished initials extending into margins alternately in red with blue and light blue with red, one large and one very large flourished initial in blue and red with marginal extensions, eight very large red and blue puzzle initials flourished in red, blue and green forming elaborate marginal extensions, eighteen very large initials painted with foliate scrolls in red, blue and green, one large illuminated initial on a gold ground, one large historiated initial with dragon extension on a gold ground (margins cropped, on some leaves slightly into the marginal extensions; the upper margin f.64 and the lower margins ff.84, 148, 165 and 196 made up with modern vellum, small hole in text perhaps from lost repair f.45 and in margin f.103, repairs to edges of gutter on some leaves, slight staining to opening leaf and leaves towards end). The Arts and Crafts binding is in dark green morocco gilt by Douglas Cockerell at W.H. Smith, the WHS stamp used for Cockerell’s own designs 1905-1914. Half morocco box.
Provenance:
(1) Abbey of St Adrian, Geraardsbergen (Grammont): ownership inscription with curse on anyone who steals the book 'Liber beati adriani de Geraldimonte. Siquis eum vi vel furto abstulerit aut consenserit averti anathema sic fiat fiat amen', with a further curse 'Si quis furetur mala morte tunc morietur', f.201v. The Benedictine Abbey, originally of St Peter, was founded at Dikkelvenne in the 8th century and moved c.1100 to Geraardsbergen; the Abbey became a major centre of pilgrimage to the relics of St Adrian, hence the changed dedication in 1174. Little is known of its intellectual life but a Benedictine Abbey of its wealth and standing was bound to have a scriptorium and significant library. The Bible was most probably copied by the monks, perhaps with professional help, but it could have been sourced elsewhere. The Abbey was suppressed in 1796: books and liturgical objects had already been removed with the arrival of the French Revolutionary armies in 1792 and were dispersed piecemeal. Some manuscripts are known with certain provenances from the Abbey: four that apparently left with vol. II of the Bible are listed below.
(2) Charles Welvaert (1797-1866), priest at Gentbrugge from 1832: Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de feu Mr Charles Welvaert, Ghent, 11-12 December 1866, lot 10, Bibliae pars manuscripta à libr. Reg. ad II Mach. assez gros in-fol. sur parchemin, demi-rel. chagr. brun. – Provenant de l’Abbaye de St. Adrien à Grammont. Welvaert’s collection, chiefly of theological or liturgical books acquired at sales locally and abroad, was increased when he inherited from his brother, the Dean of Ieper (Ypres), Christophorus Bernardus Welvaert (1783-1864). Curate in Geraardsbergen from 1815 to 1819, he is a likely source of the Geraardsbergen volumes, lots 10-14 in the 1866 sale, which included the famous Geraardsbergen Breviary (Abbey of Maredsous, Lorent, 2021); for Christophorus, F. De Chou, ‘Biografisch repertorium van de parochiegeestelijken van Geraardsbergen 1802-2012’, Gerardimontium, 249, 2013, p.6.
(3) Franz Trau (1842-1905): his sale Vienna, Gilhofer and Rauschburg, 27-28 October 1905, lot 8, with the binding described as modern half leather with applied late gothic metal bosses and cornerpieces. Trau added to the library left him by his father, Carl Trau (1811-1887), who had a particular interest in medieval religious art; both were well travelled.
(4) Charles Harold St John Hornby (1867-1946): his book label inside upper cover; his MS 15, purchased from Quaritch in 1910. A partner in W.H. Smith where he promoted the bindery, Hornby was an informed and dedicated bibliophile, establishing the famed Ashendene Press, and collecting outstanding manuscript and printed books.
(5) Major John Roland Abbey (1894-1969): his bookplate inside upper cover; his ms J.A. 3175, purchased with 68 other manuscripts in September 1946 from Hornby’s executors, on the recommendation of Sir Sydney Cockerell, Douglas’s brother; these were the foundations of Abbey’s extraordinary library of manuscripts, exceptional for quality as well as size; his sale, Part IX, the Hornby Manuscripts, Part II, Sotheby’s, 25 March 1975, lot 2943, acquired by the British Rail Pension Fund.
(6) Sir Paul Getty KBE (1932-2003), founder of the Wormsley Library: purchased in 1988 as the British Rail Pension Fund realised its investment in works of art.
(7) The Schøyen Collection, MS 6; purchased from Heribert Tenschert, Leuchtendes Mittelalter II, Katalog XXV, 1990, no 5, thus reuniting it with vol. III (below) after a separation of nearly two centuries.
Vol. III: 452 x 303mm. 121 leaves + 15 loose leaves, detailed under Provenance: 17(of 10, lacking i-iii), 2-1210, 134(of 10, lacking v-x), modern pencilled foliation top right, + 15 loose leaves, including the bifolium v-vi of gathering 13, some consecutive, catchword f.7v, signatures I-XII and two loose leaves with XV and XVII, 40 lines ff.1-18 and 41 lines from f.18v, in two columns written above top line, ruled space: 316 x 210mm and 322 x 210mm, prickings in margins, headings, one-line initials of chapter lists, chapter numbers and running-titles in red, heading and opening to prologue to Acts in one-line capitals alternately in red and blue, one-line initials alternately in red and blue, two-line flourished initials extending into margins alternately in red with blue and light blue with red, seven large flourished puzzle initials in red and blue with elaborate marginal extensions, twenty-two large initials painted with foliate scrolls in red, blue and green, two large historiated initials on gold grounds with marginal extensions, one with foliate terminals and one with heads, human and dragon (lacking three leaves at beginning and leaves and gatherings at end, early small loss to text supplied in Gothic hand in margin f.26, outer margins excised ff.39 and 56, some original repairs in margins unstitched, repairs to some leaves in lower margins into gutter, one lost, some pages cockled, wear to margins). 15th-century blind stamped half leather over wooden boards, possible remboîtage (lacking central bosses and straps or clasps, restored for Eichenberger c.1985). Half morocco box.
Provenance:
(1) The Abbey of St Adrian at Geraardsbergen: although no ownership marks remain, the volume matches vol. II in script, design and some annotations and repairs; vol. II has been trimmed so that Vol. III, which retains its pricking, is larger. The opening leaves of vol. III were ruled for, and written with, 40 lines, apparently a mistake which was abruptly corrected to 41 lines on the verso of the first folio of the third gathering. The longer chapter divisions of the 13th-century Paris Bible have been added in Arabic numerals by the same post-medieval hand in vol. II and in vol. III from ff.8v-11 and 25 onwards, where ff.1-8 and 11v-24 were updated by an earlier hand in Roman numerals. The half binding recorded on vol. II in 1866 may indicate a binding history shared with vol. III. The differences do not outweigh the similarities. In vol. III the text of the Prophets, with no numbered chapter lists, is largely articulated by one-line initials instead of the two-line initials of vol. II. These do appear, the first on f.36v for Jeremiah 39, but only consistently in Acts and the Epistles, following chapter lists. In vol. III guide letters for the coloured initials survive from f.105 onwards and annotations and corrections were added in a formal gothic hand, working from partially erased cursive guide texts e.g. f.51v.
(2) Antiquariat Dr Walter Eichenberger, Beinwil am See, Switzerland: acquired from a Swiss private collection; a pencilled note inside the upper cover records 24/25 loose leaves, elsewhere described as from Acts and the Epistles and being placed at the end of the volume. The bound volume was sold at Sotheby’s 24 June 1986, lot 78; the loose leaves were retained by Eichenberger and dispersed; the subsequent provenances of the 21 known are given below.
(3) The Schøyen Collection MS 6; after acquisition of the bound volume, a further fifteen leaves were successfully added to the collection, see below.
Fifteen leaves (a) –(o), most with very small pencilled annotations of content and/or provenance;
(a) – (b) Malachi, opening in 3:6, continuing the text from f.121, to the end; preface to Acts (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, S.640); chapter list for Acts (De Bruyne, Sommaires, divisions et rubriques de la Bible latine, A); Acts from 1:1-2:14. This bifolium formed ff.122-123. Christie’s Online Auction, 3 December 2015, lot 6, with leaves (d), (h) and (i), sold for £80,500.
(c) Acts 20:9-21:26, purchased from Eichenberger in 1991.
(d) Canonical Epistles: James 3:12-end; chapter list for 1 Peter (S.325,15; De Bruyne A); 1 Peter 1:1-3. Christie's, 2015.
(e) 1 Peter 3:10-end, chapter list for 2 Peter (S. 325,16; De Bruyne A; final item numbered xx on (e) not xxi); 2 Peter 1:1-3...
Bid on this lot
The Geraardsbergen Bible
The Geraardsbergen Bible, vols II and III, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Netherlands, late 12th century]
The impressive giant Bible from the Abbey of St Adrian at Geraardsbergen: a very rare example in private hands of a 12th-century display Bible, the epitome of Romanesque book production.
Vol. II: 430 x 290mm. 201 leaves: ii + 19(of 10, i assumed pastedown), 2-910, 108, 115(of 6 - ii, text continuous ff.98v-99), 12-1710, 1812, 19-2010, 217(of 8, viii assumed pastedown) + ii, catchwords and signatures I-XX, modern pencilled foliation bottom left, text complete, 41 lines in two columns written above top line, ruled space: 326 x 215mm, headings, chapter numbers and running-titles in red, opening heading in one-line capitals alternately in red and green, headings in red, some decorated in green, first line of some books in green, chapter lists with one-line initials alternately in red and green, one-line initials in red or blue with a few in green, two-line flourished initials extending into margins alternately in red with blue and light blue with red, one large and one very large flourished initial in blue and red with marginal extensions, eight very large red and blue puzzle initials flourished in red, blue and green forming elaborate marginal extensions, eighteen very large initials painted with foliate scrolls in red, blue and green, one large illuminated initial on a gold ground, one large historiated initial with dragon extension on a gold ground (margins cropped, on some leaves slightly into the marginal extensions; the upper margin f.64 and the lower margins ff.84, 148, 165 and 196 made up with modern vellum, small hole in text perhaps from lost repair f.45 and in margin f.103, repairs to edges of gutter on some leaves, slight staining to opening leaf and leaves towards end). The Arts and Crafts binding is in dark green morocco gilt by Douglas Cockerell at W.H. Smith, the WHS stamp used for Cockerell’s own designs 1905-1914. Half morocco box.
Provenance:
(1) Abbey of St Adrian, Geraardsbergen (Grammont): ownership inscription with curse on anyone who steals the book 'Liber beati adriani de Geraldimonte. Siquis eum vi vel furto abstulerit aut consenserit averti anathema sic fiat fiat amen', with a further curse 'Si quis furetur mala morte tunc morietur', f.201v. The Benedictine Abbey, originally of St Peter, was founded at Dikkelvenne in the 8th century and moved c.1100 to Geraardsbergen; the Abbey became a major centre of pilgrimage to the relics of St Adrian, hence the changed dedication in 1174. Little is known of its intellectual life but a Benedictine Abbey of its wealth and standing was bound to have a scriptorium and significant library. The Bible was most probably copied by the monks, perhaps with professional help, but it could have been sourced elsewhere. The Abbey was suppressed in 1796: books and liturgical objects had already been removed with the arrival of the French Revolutionary armies in 1792 and were dispersed piecemeal. Some manuscripts are known with certain provenances from the Abbey: four that apparently left with vol. II of the Bible are listed below.
(2) Charles Welvaert (1797-1866), priest at Gentbrugge from 1832: Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de feu Mr Charles Welvaert, Ghent, 11-12 December 1866, lot 10, Bibliae pars manuscripta à libr. Reg. ad II Mach. assez gros in-fol. sur parchemin, demi-rel. chagr. brun. – Provenant de l’Abbaye de St. Adrien à Grammont. Welvaert’s collection, chiefly of theological or liturgical books acquired at sales locally and abroad, was increased when he inherited from his brother, the Dean of Ieper (Ypres), Christophorus Bernardus Welvaert (1783-1864). Curate in Geraardsbergen from 1815 to 1819, he is a likely source of the Geraardsbergen volumes, lots 10-14 in the 1866 sale, which included the famous Geraardsbergen Breviary (Abbey of Maredsous, Lorent, 2021); for Christophorus, F. De Chou, ‘Biografisch repertorium van de parochiegeestelijken van Geraardsbergen 1802-2012’, Gerardimontium, 249, 2013, p.6.
(3) Franz Trau (1842-1905): his sale Vienna, Gilhofer and Rauschburg, 27-28 October 1905, lot 8, with the binding described as modern half leather with applied late gothic metal bosses and cornerpieces. Trau added to the library left him by his father, Carl Trau (1811-1887), who had a particular interest in medieval religious art; both were well travelled.
(4) Charles Harold St John Hornby (1867-1946): his book label inside upper cover; his MS 15, purchased from Quaritch in 1910. A partner in W.H. Smith where he promoted the bindery, Hornby was an informed and dedicated bibliophile, establishing the famed Ashendene Press, and collecting outstanding manuscript and printed books.
(5) Major John Roland Abbey (1894-1969): his bookplate inside upper cover; his ms J.A. 3175, purchased with 68 other manuscripts in September 1946 from Hornby’s executors, on the recommendation of Sir Sydney Cockerell, Douglas’s brother; these were the foundations of Abbey’s extraordinary library of manuscripts, exceptional for quality as well as size; his sale, Part IX, the Hornby Manuscripts, Part II, Sotheby’s, 25 March 1975, lot 2943, acquired by the British Rail Pension Fund.
(6) Sir Paul Getty KBE (1932-2003), founder of the Wormsley Library: purchased in 1988 as the British Rail Pension Fund realised its investment in works of art.
(7) The Schøyen Collection, MS 6; purchased from Heribert Tenschert, Leuchtendes Mittelalter II, Katalog XXV, 1990, no 5, thus reuniting it with vol. III (below) after a separation of nearly two centuries.
Vol. III: 452 x 303mm. 121 leaves + 15 loose leaves, detailed under Provenance: 17(of 10, lacking i-iii), 2-1210, 134(of 10, lacking v-x), modern pencilled foliation top right, + 15 loose leaves, including the bifolium v-vi of gathering 13, some consecutive, catchword f.7v, signatures I-XII and two loose leaves with XV and XVII, 40 lines ff.1-18 and 41 lines from f.18v, in two columns written above top line, ruled space: 316 x 210mm and 322 x 210mm, prickings in margins, headings, one-line initials of chapter lists, chapter numbers and running-titles in red, heading and opening to prologue to Acts in one-line capitals alternately in red and blue, one-line initials alternately in red and blue, two-line flourished initials extending into margins alternately in red with blue and light blue with red, seven large flourished puzzle initials in red and blue with elaborate marginal extensions, twenty-two large initials painted with foliate scrolls in red, blue and green, two large historiated initials on gold grounds with marginal extensions, one with foliate terminals and one with heads, human and dragon (lacking three leaves at beginning and leaves and gatherings at end, early small loss to text supplied in Gothic hand in margin f.26, outer margins excised ff.39 and 56, some original repairs in margins unstitched, repairs to some leaves in lower margins into gutter, one lost, some pages cockled, wear to margins). 15th-century blind stamped half leather over wooden boards, possible remboîtage (lacking central bosses and straps or clasps, restored for Eichenberger c.1985). Half morocco box.
Provenance:
(1) The Abbey of St Adrian at Geraardsbergen: although no ownership marks remain, the volume matches vol. II in script, design and some annotations and repairs; vol. II has been trimmed so that Vol. III, which retains its pricking, is larger. The opening leaves of vol. III were ruled for, and written with, 40 lines, apparently a mistake which was abruptly corrected to 41 lines on the verso of the first folio of the third gathering. The longer chapter divisions of the 13th-century Paris Bible have been added in Arabic numerals by the same post-medieval hand in vol. II and in vol. III from ff.8v-11 and 25 onwards, where ff.1-8 and 11v-24 were updated by an earlier hand in Roman numerals. The half binding recorded on vol. II in 1866 may indicate a binding history shared with vol. III. The differences do not outweigh the similarities. In vol. III the text of the Prophets, with no numbered chapter lists, is largely articulated by one-line initials instead of the two-line initials of vol. II. These do appear, the first on f.36v for Jeremiah 39, but only consistently in Acts and the Epistles, following chapter lists. In vol. III guide letters for the coloured initials survive from f.105 onwards and annotations and corrections were added in a formal gothic hand, working from partially erased cursive guide texts e.g. f.51v.
(2) Antiquariat Dr Walter Eichenberger, Beinwil am See, Switzerland: acquired from a Swiss private collection; a pencilled note inside the upper cover records 24/25 loose leaves, elsewhere described as from Acts and the Epistles and being placed at the end of the volume. The bound volume was sold at Sotheby’s 24 June 1986, lot 78; the loose leaves were retained by Eichenberger and dispersed; the subsequent provenances of the 21 known are given below.
(3) The Schøyen Collection MS 6; after acquisition of the bound volume, a further fifteen leaves were successfully added to the collection, see below.
Fifteen leaves (a) –(o), most with very small pencilled annotations of content and/or provenance;
(a) – (b) Malachi, opening in 3:6, continuing the text from f.121, to the end; preface to Acts (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, S.640); chapter list for Acts (De Bruyne, Sommaires, divisions et rubriques de la Bible latine, A); Acts from 1:1-2:14. This bifolium formed ff.122-123. Christie’s Online Auction, 3 December 2015, lot 6, with leaves (d), (h) and (i), sold for £80,500.
(c) Acts 20:9-21:26, purchased from Eichenberger in 1991.
(d) Canonical Epistles: James 3:12-end; chapter list for 1 Peter (S.325,15; De Bruyne A); 1 Peter 1:1-3. Christie's, 2015.
(e) 1 Peter 3:10-end, chapter list for 2 Peter (S. 325,16; De Bruyne A; final item numbered xx on (e) not xxi); 2 Peter 1:1-3...
