Picture Bible of the Late Middle Ages
Germany, late fourteenth century
Littera bastarda
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.
