Initial I: Entwined Beast and Serpent: Leaf from a Bible (2 of 2 Excised Leaves) (c. 1225–50): Art, History and Details

Initial I: Entwined Beast and Serpent: Leaf from a Bible (2 of 2 Excised Leaves) (c. 1225–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Pair of Leaves from a Latin Bible: Initial I: Entwined Beast and Serpent (opening of Book of Ruth) and Initial E: Entwined Lion and Serpents (opening of the Third Book of Kings), about 1225-50 England, Glastonbury(?) Ink and tempera on vellum The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection [Cat. nos. 2 and 3 (CMA 1999.122)] This pair of leaves from the same one-volume Bible have been traditionally associated with the Benedictine abbey of Glastonbury in southwest England. It is known that the Bible once belonged to the English antiquary and collector, Roger Gale (1672-1744), whose library of 450 manuscripts once included two of the surviving 35 books from Glastonbury Abbey. Until its dissolution in 1539, Glastonbury was one of the greatest and wealthiest abbeys in Europe. Given its vast wealth and the recorded library lists, the abbey must have been a substantial patron of the arts. However, only a few illuminated manuscripts can now be positively identified as Glastonbury work.

Object facts

• Title: Initial I: Entwined Beast and Serpent: Leaf from a Bible (2 of 2 Excised Leaves)
• Date: c. 1225–50
• Culture: England, Glastonbury(?), 13th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: tempera and ink on vellum
• Dimensions: Leaf: 20 x 15.2 cm (7 7/8 x 6 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2011.52

A detail from the museum

The museum owns another leaf from this same bible, 1999.122.

Collection credit

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby's (Firm). Western Manuscripts and Miniatures. 1982.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.