(Mark, chapts. 9-10, including the Transfiguration)
"ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAVES FROM A PORTABLE BIBLE IN LATIN. (France, ca. 1250) 5 3/4 x 3 3/4". Double column, 49 lines, written in a tiny gothic book hand. Each leaf featuring capitals struck with red, headlines and verse numbers in blue and red, and one-line versal initials in red or blue. Many leaves with larger (typically four-line) initials in blue or red with elaborate penwork infilling and marginal extension in the same and contrasting colors. SOME LEAVES WITH LARGER INITIALS (typically seven- and nine-lines high) IN DIVIDED RED AND BLUE, OFTEN WITH VERY LONG MARGINAL EXTENSION, sometimes the entire length of the leaf. Most leaves with at least some (and a few leaves with many) MARGINAL ANNOTATIONS IN AN INCREDIBLY TINY HAND. Leaves variably dampstained diagonally across upper portion (sometimes as little as a tenth of the leaf affected, sometimes as much as a third, the discoloration never really absent, but never really dark), vellum a bit cockled, but pleasing leaves nevertheless, the text still quite distinct, the vellum generally clean, and the margins especially ample. Available are a number of leaves from a sizable fragment of a so-called pocket Bible, a 13th century innovation that is discussed in item #9, above. Of special interest here are the annotations: while the script of our leaves is quite tiny (though no smaller than many other 13th century portable Bibles), the annotations here are half(!) the size of the text, a fact that is almost as astonishing as the fact that these marginal notes are beautifully written and perfectly legible (though requiring for most eyes the assistance of magnification). Provided with each leaf offered here is an English translation of the text present on both sides of the leaf. While no English printed version is equivalent to the Latin Vulgate text used here, we have chosen one that comes close, using the 1582 Rheims New Testament and a 1635 printing of the Douay Old Testament."
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439247/datastre...
