Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial P: St. Paul with a Sword and a Book (c. 1230–40): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial P: St. Paul with a Sword and a Book (c. 1230–40) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is William de Brailes (English, active c. 1230).

The work and its context

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

Circle of William de Brailes (England, Oxford) Single Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial P: St. Paul Holding a Sword and a Book and Initial M: A Jew Discoursing with a King, about 1230-40 Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection [Cat. no. 4] Few English illuminators are actually known by name. William de Brailes has been identified from documents that refer to his presence in Oxford. Moreover, his signature appears on one of seven detached psalter leaves now divided between Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Museum) and New York (Pierpont Morgan Library). It seems that several artists were working in the "de Brailes style," but it is not known whether these were organized members of his workshop or simply illuminators in the de Brailes circle. Typical of the de Brailes workshop is the use of drolleries (playful or sometimes comic figures that inhabit marginalia or initials). One such drollery, seen here, occupies the lower portion of the initial "P" introducing St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon. Wearing a scholar's cap, the drollery is contorted in pose, as if supporting the initial itself. This initial comes from a one-volume Bible, conveniently sized for portability and study. Such books were typically the products of lay workshops in academic towns like Oxford, Paris, and Bologna.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial P: St. Paul with a Sword and a Book
• Date: c. 1230–40
• Creator attribution: William de Brailes (English, active c. 1230)
• Culture: England, Oxford, 13th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Leaf: 18.5 x 13.2 cm (7 5/16 x 5 3/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2011.53

A detail from the museum

The initials in the margin, T.F. and P.A. are part of a unique system used by the Carthusians monks and indicate that this bible was likely used in a monastery.

Collection credit

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.