The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Leaf from a Bible: Initial E: Entwined Lions and Serpents (1 of 2 Excised Leaves)

Leaf from a Bible: Initial E: Entwined Lions and Serpents (1 of 2 Excised Leaves)

c. 1225–50
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The museum owns another leaf from this same bible, 2011.52.

Description

This pair of leaves from the same one-volume Bible have been traditionally associated with the Benedictine Abbey of Glastonbury in southwest England. It is known that the Bible once belonged to the English antiquary and collector, Roger Gale (1672–1744), whose library of 450 manuscripts once included two of the surviving 35 books from Glastonbury Abbey. Until its dissolution in 1539, Glastonbury was one of the greatest and wealthiest abbeys in Europe. Given its vast wealth and the recorded library lists, the abbey must have been a substantial patron of the arts. However, only a few illuminated manuscripts can now be positively identified as Glastonbury work.
  • Glastonbury Abbey, England (purportedly)
    Roger Gale (1672-1744), Yorkshire, England
    June 22, 1982
    [Sale: Sotheby's London, 22 June 1982, lot 47]
    [Bruce Ferrini, Akron, OH, sold to Jeanne Miles Blackburn]
    -1999
    Jeanne Miles Blackburn, Durham, NC, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1999-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Sotheby's (Firm). Western Manuscripts and Miniatures. 1982. lot 47
    Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 13, cat. no. 3 archive.org
  • The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000).
  • {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Bible: Initial E: Entwined Lions and Serpents (1 of 2 Excised Leaves)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1225–50|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1999.122