Facsimiles of Medieval Manuscripts and Incunabula

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MSS. 2554

The Bible Moralisée is a genre of medieval bibles which pair scenes from the Old Testament with scenes from the New Testament with minimal scriptural and commentary captions to highly typological comparisons. The MS 2554 is the most famous example of the corpus of medieval moralized bibles.

High Quality Color Facsimile with German and French Commentary

New York City, Pierpoint Morgan Library, MS M. 240

The Bible Moralisée of St. Louis is a moralized bible that was commissioned by Blanche of Castile for her son, King Louis IX of France. The Bible was used to help instruct the young king on ideals of rulership and piety as he was made king when he was only 12 years old.

High Quality Color Facsimile with German Commentary

Weimar, Zentralbibliothek der Deutschen Klassik, Fol. max. 4

Biblia Pauperum means Paupers’ Bible and refers to a type of picture bible that used visual typological comparisons to teach lessons. They are similar to Bible moralisée but use less text and are more commonly written in vernacular languages. The Biblia Pauperum was a popular genre of printed and block-books.

High Quality Color Facsimile with German Commentary

London, British Library, MS Add. 47680

The Holkham Bible Picture Book is an illuminated picture bible in Norman French. The manuscript was made for a Dominican friar before 1350. According to an inscription in the beginning of the book, it was made to help teach noblemen.

High Quality Color Facsimile with English Commentary

Rome, Vatican Apostolic Library, Ms. Pal. Graec. 431

The Joshua Roll is the only illuminated manuscript in scroll form to survive from the Middle Byzantine period, dating to the 10th century. It is over 10 meters in length but is likely incomplete. It focuses on the military success of Joshua, using text from the Old Testament Book of Joshua (Chapters II-IX). It is painted in grisaille and was likely produced in Constantinople.

High Quality Color Facsimile with Multilingual Commentary

New York City, Pierpoint Morgan Library, MS M.719-720 and Freiburg, Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg im Breisgau, MS 334

This facsimile brings together two separated portions of the same manuscript.

Black and White and Color Partial Facsimile

Clementinum, National Library of Czech Republic, MS 23 C

The Velislai Biblia Picta is a picture bible, which reduces the text of the bible down to short captions which frame the 747 ink and color wash images. Velislav, notary of John I of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, is believed to have been the patron.

Black and White Facsimile

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS Theol. graec. 31

The Vienna Genesis, a purple codex, dates to the first half of the 6th century and is the oldest surviving illustrated biblical codex. There are twenty-four surviving folios, each with miniatures at the bottom of both recto and verso that directly relate to the text above them.

High Quality Color Facsimile

Jerusalem, National and University Library

The Aleppo Codex was written in Tiberias in the 10th century C.E. It is organized in the tradition of the Sephardi biblical manuscripts where the Torah and Nevi’im are conventional, but the Ketuvim differs.

High Quality Color Facsimile

St. Petersburg, Russian National Library, Firkovich B. 19.A

The Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew and dates to 1008 C.E., according to its colophon. Like the Aleppo Codex, this manuscript follows the Tiberian mesorah.

Black and While Facsimile with English Introduction

London, British Library, MS Add. 47680

The Holkham Bible Picture Book is an illuminated picture bible in Norman French. The manuscript was made for a Dominican friar before 1350. According to an inscription in the beginning of the book, it was made to help teach noblemen.

Black and White with Some Color Facsimile with English Commentary

New York City, The Pierpont Morgan Library, Ms M. 638

The Morgan Picture Bible is 13th-century illuminated manuscript that depicts the bible in contemporary crusader scenes. It is accompanied by text in Latin, Persian, Arabic, Judeo-Persian, and Hebrew.

High Quality Color Facsimile with English Interspersed Transcription

The Pamplona Bible is a picture bible from Pamplona that was produced around the turn of the 13th century. Unusually, it contains almost no text except for the condensed picture captions. There are astonishingly more than 900 images of biblical scenes which are done in a fine black outline with simple color washes.

Black and White Facsimile with English Commentary

Cambridge, Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, MS 2

The Bury Bible was made around the year 1135 for the monastery of Bury St. Edmunds. The abbey’s chronicle indicates that it was painted by an artist called Master Hugo.

Partial Color Facsimile with English Commentary

Copenhagen, Royal Library, Gl. Kongl. Saml. MS 6

High Quality Color and Black and White Facsimile with German Commentary

London, British Library, Add. MS 43725 (and Leipzig University, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Russian National Library)

The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four Greek Christian Bible codices, written in 4th century uncials. Although most of the Old Testament is missing, scholars believe it once contained the entire Hebrew Bible. In its current form the Codex Sinaiticus contains half the Septuagint, the complete New Testament, the entire Deuterocanonical books, the Epistle of Barnabas, and portions of the Shepherd of Hermas. The manuscript was begun after 325 C.E. because it contains the Eusebian Canons, and was most likely completed around the middle of the 4th century.

High Quality Color Facsimile

London, British Library, Sign. Add. MS 10546

The Moutier-Grandval Bible was produced around the year 840 at the Monaster of St. Martin in Tours. It is a large-format bible that contains four full-page miniatures.

Color Partial Facsimile with German Commentary