The , also known as the "Bible Historiée", the "Bible Allégorisée" and sometimes "Emblémes Bibliques", is a later name for the most important examples of the medieval picture bibles, called in general "biblia pauperum", to have survived. They are heavily illustrated, and extremely expensive, illuminated manuscripts of the thirteenth century, and from the copies that still survive it is clear that they existed in at least two versions with different contents. They were similar in the choice and order of the Biblical texts selected, but differed in the allegorical and moral deductions drawn from these passages.
Though large, the manuscripts only contained selections of the text of the Bible, along with commentary and illustrations. Each page pairs Old and New Testament episodes with illustrations explaining their moral significance in terms of typology.
There are seven surviving fully illustrated manuscripts of the Bible moralisée group;Lowden, 11, all date from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries and were designed for the personal use of the French royal family.Greenspoon, 607 Four were created in the early thirteenth century,Tachau, 7 when church art dominated the decorative arts. As common in stained glass and other Gothic art of the time, the illustrations are framed within medallions.“Gothic Art and Architecture” The text explained the theological and moral meanings of the text. Many artists were involved in the creation of each of the Bibles moralisées, and their identities and shares of the work remain unclear.Lowden, 33
Background In the European Middle Ages the Catholic church made use of pictures as a means of instruction, to supplement the knowledge acquired by reading or oral teaching. Books only existed in manuscript form and, being extremely costly, were beyond the means of most people. Hardly anyone could read, outside the ranks of the clergy and the monks. So frescoes of scenes from the Old and New Testaments, stained-glass windows, and the like were set up in the churches, because, as the Synod of Arras (1025) said, "The illiterate contemplated in the lineaments of painting what they, having never learnt to read, could not discern in writing".
Pictures spread abroad a knowledge of the events recorded in the Bible and of the mutual connection between the leading facts of the Old and New Testaments, whether as type and antitype, or as prophecy and fulfillment. For this purpose the picture Bibles of the Middle Ages were copied and put in circulation. Parts of these go back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The Bibles moralisées were created to interpret and explain scripture. A broad didactic movement in the first half of the thirteenth century was one that placed an importance on pictures teaching morality. The Bible moralisées was part of this movement and attempted to do just that.Cothren, 329-330 Both the depiction and text must be read because the images hold an interpretation of the world or moment in history, and details within the images hold symbolic meaning.Tachau, 9
The manuscripts were for private use,Cothren, 34 specifically the Bibles moraliées were designed to teach the French kings. The second of the Bible manuscripts, Vienna 1179, may have been written in Latin for the purpose of teaching Louis VIII.
Description
The entire work contains about 5,000 illustrations. The pictures are arranged in two parallel columns on each page, each column having four medallions with pictures. Parallel to the pictures and alternating with them are two other narrower columns, with four legends each, one legend to each picture; the legends consisting alternatively of Biblical texts and moral or allegorical applications; whilst the pictures represent the subjects of the Biblical texts or of the applications of them. A specimen of the second edition of the "Bible Moralisée" is to be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS. Français No. 167). It contains the same selection and order of the Biblical passages, but it differs in the greater simplicity and brevity of the moral and allegorical teaching based on them. Another important Bible, intended to instruct by means of pictures, was that which has been called the "Bible Historiée toute figurée". It was a work of the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. In general outline and plan it resembles the others, but it differs from it in the selection of Bible passages and in the allegorical explanations derived from them. In life of Christ, the author of the "Bible Historiée toute figurée" dispensed with a written text altogether, and contented himself with writing a brief explanatory legend over the pictures depicting scenes of Christ's life.
The article “The Iconography of Theophilus Windows in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century” by Cothren compares the Bibles moralisées with Theophilus Windows because both have a didactic idea to use pictures to explain ideas regarding morals as well as to juxtapose scenes from the old and new testament. The difference is that stained glass art and the Theophilus Windows are created for public viewing while the Bibles moralisées were not.[Cothren, “The Iconography”, 329], Both the Theophilus Windows and the Bibles moralisées are a part of a didactic movement, wherein pictures are relied upon to teach morality.
The Four Early Bibles moralisées The best known copy of the first version is one of the most sumptuous illustrated manuscripts preserved to us from the Middle Ages. It no longer as a single volume; it has been split up into three separate parts kept in three libraries. The first part, consisting of 224 leaves, is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The second part of 222 leaves is in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris; and the third part, made up of 178 leaves, is kept in the British Library. Six leaves of the third part are missing, so that it ought to contain 184 leaves. When complete and bound together, therefore, the whole volume consisted of 630 leaves, written and illustrated on one side only.
The Oxford-Paris-London manuscripts consist of 3 volumes and artists had left evidence in their work of working under time pressure.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 154], The Oxford-Paris-London Bible was the most accessible through publication for five decades in the 20th century.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 139],
Vienna 2554 made it to the Imperial Library in Vienna in 1783.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 53], It is the most familiar of the Bibles. It has a frontispiece that is one of the most reproduced images of the Middle Ages. This manuscript is the most accessible to scholars from all the Bibles moralisées, this is due to an exceptional facsimile that has been published in full colour. This facsimile was published in three thousand copies at its original size in 1973. As well, the facsimile has been republished (first in 1992 and again in 1995) twice at half the size of the original. These publications have allowed the wide exchange of Vienna 2554.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 11], The second of the Bibles is also in Vienna, its codex is 1179, and it is less accessible than Vienna 2554 through publication.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 55], Some evidence shows that Vienna 1179 was a rethought version of what was first created in Vienna 2554; this reverses the usual connection that is made between the two.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 56],
Because of the close relations between France and Spain in the 13th century, there appeared several moralized Bibles in Spain at this time. One complete version, similar to that described above, is the St. Louis Bible. It was copied and illustrated between 1226 and 1234 in Paris on the orders of Blanche of Castile for her son Louis IX, who gave it to Alfonso X of Castile; it remains in good condition in the Cathedral of Toledo. The three volumes are exhibited in the Cathedral Treasury, making this 3 volume bible the easiest of all the bibles moralisées for any visitor to see, but yet it was also the most difficult for a scholar to be allowed to study.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 95], The number of requests the cathedral Chapter received from scholars seeking direct access to the Bible of St Louis in order to study and conduct research on a great many subjects, increased every day, so eventually the Chapter decided to produce a facsimile edition of the Bible of St Louis. After approaching different publishing houses, the project was finally entrusted to M. Moleiro Editor in Barcelona and since 2006 a complete facsimile edition is available.
There was also the Spanish Biblia moralizada (Biblioteca nacional de Madrid 10232) from the late 14th century, which contains independently translated passages and glosses, though it has few illuminations.George D. Greenia, "Bible in Spain, The Moralized." Medieval Iberia: an encyclopedia, E. Michael Gerli, Samuel G. Armistead, eds. Volume 8 of Routledge encyclopedias of the Middle Ages. Taylor & Francis, 2003. pp. 166–167.
The later Bibles moralisées Of the seven Bibles moralisées only one, manuscript Français 167 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, has survived in its complete form. Français 167 can be traced almost without a break from its creation in Paris for King John II of France in 1349-52 up until now.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées,221], The sixth of the Bibles moralisées is known now as MS Additional 18719 in the British Library, is the least known of the seven, and is the work of well known late thirteenth-century English artist.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées,189], Français 166 is the last of the seven fully illustrated Bibles moralisées.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 251]
Date and Locations
Historians still dispute the time, place and the intended readers of the first two bibles moralisées, though consensus seems to believe that they were created during the first three decades of the thirteenth century in Paris.Tachau, 18
The theories behind the commissioning of the Bibles moralisées
One theory is that Vienna 2554 was written between 1208 and 1215, commissioned by Phillip II Augustus, for his son, Louis VIII or his bride.[Tachau, “God's Compass and Vana Curiositas”, 7], Others have dated the manuscript later, to either the decade 1215-1225 or the decade 1220-1230.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 50], A point of reference for the dating of Vienna 2554 is the image of a mature looking bearded king at the end of Vienna 1179. This image was probably created before 1226 when Louis IX succeeded his father.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 51], There is some consensus that Vienna 1179 was made shortly after Vienna 2554.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 90], An accepted theory regarding Toledo is that it was created on the orders of Blanche of Castile for Louis IX, this may be in connection to his marriage to Marguerite of Provence in 1234 majorite.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 183], Oxford-Paris-London was probably also created on orders of Blanche of Castile for a related circumstance during approximately the same time period. Due to the fact that organization for Louis` marriage began in 1233 this may be the time period when this manuscript was started.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 185], There is debate as to whether MS Additional 18719 (Add. 18719) was created at the end of the thirteenth century or the beginning of the fourteenth.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 190], Français 166 came to be in the royal collection by 1518, how it got there remains unknown, though it has been theorized that Aymar of Poitiers may have given manuscripts to King Charles VIII while he was serving in Provence.[Lowden, The making of the Bibles moralisées, 284],