As a witness to the medieval book culture in Europe, The Hamburg Bible is a monument in its own right. It is the result of a small group of highly talented clergy- and craftsmen who not only exercised their skills to an extraordinary perfection, but also allowed themselves - or were allowed - to show their fascination of their own craft. The 89 illuminated initials contained in the three volumes illustrate themes of biblical books, with one illustrating the production of the medieval book, from the manufacturing of parchment at the beginning of the process to the illumination of initial letters when the work approached completion.[2] The images are unique both as expressions of medieval art and as sources to the craft and history of the medieval book.
History
The Hamburg Bible was made in 1255, by a scribe named Karolus, at the behest of Bertholdus, then the dean of Hamburg Cathedral.[3] One calfskin was used to create the parchment - an illustration in folio 2 shows a layman handing parchment to Saint Jerome.
In 1784, the entire holdings of the Hamburg Cathedral Library were auctioned. The auction catalogue of this historic collection included 4,798 items. "Among the manuscripts was a Bible in three folio volumes according to Jerome's version, written on parchment in 1255." At this auction, the Danish Royal Library acquired the three-volume Latin Bible for 63 marks courant; since then it has been in Copenhagen.
The volumes
Authorship
Karolus and Bertholdus are named in a dedication verse at the beginning of all three volumes as the scribe and commissioner of the work, respectively. However, the illustrator is uncredited, and their identity is unknown. Some pricked areas of the third volume appear to bear the remnants of signatures of the authors.[3]
Materials
One calfskin was used to create each parchment bifolium of the manuscript. All of the quires in the three volumes were made of five parchment bifolia, with the exception of the last quire of the first volume, which has six bifolia, as the last one is blank and was pasted to the binding.[4] The first volume consists of 242 folios, which in turn make up 24 quires, meaning this book used in total the skins of 121 animals. The second volume consists of 230 folios, coming to 23 quires from 115 animals. The number of folios in the third volume is less straightforward, since one folio between folios 53 and 54 is not numbered, while another folio between folios 79 and 80 was at some point cut away, and is now lost. This means that the third volume was originally composed of 220 folios (but officially only has 218 folios), using the skins of 110 animals.
The bindings of the books likely originate from the fourteenth century bindings recycled for the purposes of the bible. The corners show evidence of 3-5mm of trimming. In addition, some of the edges show evidence of the shape of the animal's skin that went unnoticed during the books' production.[3]
Contents
Jerome setting up and lining a page
There are 89 initia, which can be divided into two groups: illustrations of the biblical text and depictions of the various steps of book production. The fact that the book itself is the subject of its creation is rare in medieval book illumination. The illustrations depict the Church Father Jerome or the Apostle Paul performing the following activities:
band
Page
actor
Task
I
137vb
Jerome
Setting up and lining a page
II
38va
Jerome
Proofreading a finished page
II
183ra
Jerome
Purchasing from the parchment manufacturer
II
195ra
Jerome
Cropping the page
III
125ra
Paul
Writing with lined sheets
III
133vb
Paul
Writing with pen, knife and ink horn
III
142vb
Paul, Timothy
While Paul writes, Timothy prepares the next page.
III
165rb
Paul
Preparation of the writing work, with lined sheet, pen, knife and ink horn
The various portraits of authors, a common theme in book illumination and not unique to the Hamburg Bible, have been omitted from this overview. The realism with which the production steps of the book are depicted is unusual, however.
Display
The Hamburg Bible has been shown to a wider audience at various special exhibitions in Denmark and abroad. It is available for research purposes in the Royal Library's high-security reading room. Due to the Bible's size and scope, digitization of the manuscript is a complex undertaking and was announced in 2011 for the coming years, with priority given to the illuminated pages.
↑ Erik Petersen: Bertoldus' bibel. Bøger, billeder og bogstaver i et håndskrift fra 1255 Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger (Copenhagen), Vol. 32, 1993. pp.7-38
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