Beschreibung:

Mahiet (fl. 1330s-40s) A leaf from the St Albans Bible, Paris, c.1320-40 A LEAF FROM THE ST ALBANS BIBLE, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1320-40] A leaf from a Bible almost certainly owned by St Albans Abbey, reputed to have been commissioned by Richard de Bury (Bishop of Durham and author of the Philobiblon) and owned by Michael de Mentmore, Abbot of St Albans. 294 x 198mm, 2 columns of 46 lines, ruled space: c.190 x 125mm, the text comprising Deuteronomy 6:24-9:7, three 2-line illuminated initials with borders. Provenance: (1) ‘From an important Bible illuminated possibly for Richard de Bury [d.1345] author of the Philobiblon, and almost certainly given to St Albans Abbey by Michael de Mentmore [Abbot of St Albans] who died of the Black Death in April 1349’ (Sotheby’s, 25 April 1983, lot 87; for further detail see C. de Hamel in Fine Books and Book Collecting […], 1981, pp.10–12); until 1964 the volume was in a binding that incorporated fragments of a Register of John Whethamstede (d.1465), Abbot of St Albans. (2) Sold as ‘The Property of a Lady’ at Sotheby’s, 6 July 1964, lot 239; bought by: (3) Philip Duschnes for £1,500 (broken by him, with leaves offered in his catalogues from 1965 onwards). The illumination of the St Albans Bible can be attributed to Mahiet, a collaborator of Jean Pucelle on the Belleville Breviary (Paris, BnF, MS Lat. 10483, 10484) who produced a large number of manuscripts in Paris in the 1330s and 1340s. See also P. Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, III, no 85.