University Library, Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany)
Ms. 334
and Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, NY
Ms 719-720

Date of Publication of the Facsimile: 1960
Publisher: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Konstanz, Bodensee (Germany)
Reproduction and Printing: Reprodruck, Stuttgart (Germany)

Here the facsimile brings together two sections of a codex which had become separated and are now preserved in different libraries, on opposite sides of the Atlantic. The first part of this pictorial Life of Christ, which was intended for the instruction and edification of the laity, is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, in New York, and has been reproduced in black and white. The second part (fols. 24-46) is reproduced in color facsimile from the Freiburg manuscript. This is an unusual arrangement, dictated in this case by financial concerns.

This abbreviated Bible is another example of the emphasis on the didactic and devotional importance of pictorial representation in the later Middle Ages, particularly among the laity. Meditation on the Passion and on the suffering of Christ was also characteristic of this later period. We see here the sequence devoted to Christ and his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives.

fol. 26v (120K)

fol. 27r (120K)

fol. 40v (112K)

fol. 41r (112K)

Antichrist

Holkham Picture Book