You may remember Erik Kwakkel or Leiden University from earlier posts like A Fantasy Tip From History: Medieval Spam. Erik recently shared the incredible history of St. Albans Bible. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
A Horror Story
In 1964, the New York rare book dealer Philip Duschnes (d. 1970) bought and subsequently broke a splendid medieval Bible produced in early-fourteenth-century Paris.
Every page is adorned with exuberant decoration, usually with gold leaf. With so much beauty on each page, to Duschnes the manuscript must have seemed ideal for breaking and selling by the leaf. In 1965, he began offering individual leaves for sale in his catalogue 169, stating that others from the same manuscript were available. Cut to order.
Yikes!
Breaking a book
This wasn’t the first time Duschnes had dismembered a book. He had already cut up a copy of the famous Kelmscott Chaucer and sold it by the leaf in this 1941 publication.He bought this bible at the Sotheby’s auction of 6 July 1964 for £1,500 (approximately $12,000 today). At the time of purchase, the manuscript contained two flyleaves taken from a register from St Albans Abbey, which suggests a St Albans provenance. The abbey’s chronicle, moreover, detailed that abbot Michael de Mentmore (1335-1349) gifted two beautiful bibles to the community and Duschnes’s bible was believed to have been one of these two books. Following this assumption, auction catalogues have come to refer to the broken parent manuscript acquired by Duschnes as the “St Albans Bible,” despite the uncertainty surrounding its earliest provenance.
As a result of Duschnes’s dark deed, leaves from “the” St Albans Bible flooded the market and often found new homes in private collections (very few are held in university libraries). Even today, the book’s eye-catching leaves are frequently auctioned.
Auction houses do not usually identify new owners and, while leaves purchased by libraries may in time appear on the radar, especially when they are digitized, those in private collections may not be seen for many decades.
The origins of the St Albans Bible
A thorough study of the St Albans Bible has yet to be conducted. This is likely due to the fact that the book was cut into pieces and scattered across multiple institutions and private owners.
In parallel to other Parisian products of this age, there are probably three artists at work in the manuscript.
One executed the historiated initials, a second the illumination (border decoration, chapter numbers, both made with gold leaf), while a third did the penwork flourishing. A forth individual copied the text.
The individuals involved in its production were affiliated to the famous Parisian illuminator and libraire (bookseller) Jean Pucelle.
The St Albans Bible was the product of a closely-knit community of artisans at the heart of the Parisian book trade. Those involved in the book’s creation lived and worked in the same street, which made it easy to get teams together.
The community brought together by Pucelle consisted of different artisans each time, although research shows that booksellers preferred to work with the same group of colleagues.
How do we know this? Because of an inscription at the end of the bible. In brown ink, it states:
Jean Pucelle, Anseau de Sens and Jacques Maci illuminated this book. This vermilion line that you see was written in the year of our Lord 1327, on a Thursday, the last day of April on the eve of May – this I tell you.
You can read more about the history of St. Albans Bible on Medieval Books.
I have Erik Kwakkel’s Medieval Books to thank for this fascinating insight into the world of Medieval spam. Erik Kwakkel is a book historian and lecturer at Leiden University. His blog brings the world of medieval manuscripts to life in a wonderful way. You can read the original post in its entirety on his blog.
Charles Yallowitz said:
Reblogged this on Legends of Windemere.
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beetleypete said:
What a tragedy that this was allowed to be broken up, and sold off piecemeal. Thanks for bringing us the story, Nicholas.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Apparently, it’s quite common practice. Made my hair stand on end when I realized that.
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wilfredbooks said:
Interesting stuff, Nicholas. I’m not religious, but the idea of cutting up such an important historical artefact merely for the sake of profit (greed again!) seems like sacrilege to me, if you’ll excuse the irony! Cheers, Jon.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Couldn’t agree more. Everyone went ballistic (and rightly so) when the Taliban shot up the Buddhas in Afghanistan or when the Islamic State looted Mesopotamian treasures, but no one bats an eyelid when Medieval books are cut up for profit. I must be getting older, as the world makes less sense each day.
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V.M.Sang said:
The world is going mad around us, Nicholas.
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wilfredbooks said:
Reblogged this on Wilfred Books and commented:
Unfortunately, some historical books such as this are worth more when cut up (aka destroyed) than they are left intact. Sheer greed.
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Damyanti Biswas (@damyantiwrites) said:
There’s no end to greed or idiocracy.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Sigh… It sure does look so 😦
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V.M.Sang said:
This is truly a horror story. I can’t understand the mentality of someone even thinking of doing this.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Simple: profit.
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V.M.Sang said:
Sadly, you are right. “The love of money is the root of all evil.”
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Don Massenzio said:
Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this great post from Nicholas Rossis’ blog with he Horrific History of St. Albans Bible
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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DebyFredericks said:
Horrifying as it is to think of an antique book being taken apart like this, I was really afraid you would tell us the whole thing was actually a fake!
Interesting, though, that the book (such as can be found of it) is identified by “end credits” giving the names of those who worked on it!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I, too, loved that “end credits” detail!
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coldhandboyack said:
What a horrible thing to do in the name of profit.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I know 😦
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Lyn Horner said:
May the villain who cut apart the precious book be cursed forever.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol some of these book did have curses on them for anyone who’d dare destroy them. Maybe those scribes were on to something!
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kimwrtr said:
Reblogged this on Kim's Musings.
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Bon Repos Gites said:
A fascinating post!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoyed it! Apologies for the tardy response; I took a few days off and I’m slowly catching up 🙂
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Bon Repos Gites said:
Yes, I enjoyed it very much! Good luck wading through the in-box 😉
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