User:ZipporahXiong/Ashburnham Pentateuch

The Ashburnham Pentateuch (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS nouv. acq. lat. 2334, also known as the Tours Pentateuch and the Codex Turonensis) is a late 6th- or early 7th-century Latin illuminated manuscript of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). Although it originally contained all five books of the Pentateuch, it is now missing the whole of Deuteronomy as well as sections of the other five books.

It has 142 folios and 19 miniatures, and measures 372mm by 321mm. It is thought to have originally included as many as 68 full page miniatures. A full page table containing the Latin names of the books and Latin transliterations of the Hebrew names serves as a front piece to Genesis. The table is enclosed within a curtained arch. Some of the full page miniatures, such as that containing the miniature of Noah's Ark (folio 9r), contain a single scene. Other full page miniatures, such as that telling the story of Cain and Abel, contain many scenes which are placed in a register, with each scene having a different color background.

History

Origin

The origin of this manuscript is uncertain. Although it has been described by some scholars as Spanish, it may have come from North Africa, Syria or Italy.

Following closely after the French Revolution had ended, approximately around 1825, the illuminated manuscript relocated from St. Gatien's library to the municipal library of Tours.^[1] The miniatures were used as the source of a later cycle of wall-paintings at the church of St Julian in Tours. The manuscript was at the Library of Tours before being stolen in 1842 by Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja and sold to Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham in 1847. Since 1888, it has been housed at the National Library of France in Paris after its restitution by the heirs of Lord Ashburnham.

Description

Text and script

Decoration

It is richly decorated with 18 full-page miniatures (remains of the original 69) illustrating scenes from the Genesis and Exodus biblical books. Its production has been assigned on stylistic base to Spain, Northern Africa or Italy. The miniatures of the Pentateuch have been analyzed in non-invasive way in order to characterize its palette and to compare it with those of other early medieval manuscripts. The results of this investigation highlighted the wide use of the pigment Egyptian blue, an unusual feature in miniature painting.^[2]

Notes

^ Verkerk, Dorothy (February 9, 2004). Early Medieval Bible Illumination and the Ashburnham Pentateuch. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 9780521829175.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Aceto, M. (2020). "New evidence of non-traditional Egyptian blue manufacture in the 6th century Ashburnham Pentateuch". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 33: 102487. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102487. S2CID 224977970.

Sources

Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983. ISBN 9780801415067.
Verkerk, Dorothy. Early medieval Bible illumination and the Ashburnham Pentateuch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 9780521829175.
Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. Codices IIlustres: The World's Most Famous Illuminated Manuscripts, 400 to 1600. Köln, Taschen, 2005. ISBN 9783822847503.
Weitzmann, Kurt. Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination. New York: George Braziller, 1977. ISBN 9780807608319.

External links

[1] Verkerk, Dorothy (February 9, 2004). Early Medieval Bible Illumination and the Ashburnham Pentateuch. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 9780521829175.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[2] Aceto, M. (2020). "New evidence of non-traditional Egyptian blue manufacture in the 6th century Ashburnham Pentateuch". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 33: 102487. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102487. S2CID 224977970.

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