To place medieval manuscripts within their proper context is not always an easy task. When manuscripts lack colophons, when no notations, contemporary ex libris or notes from the atelier are available, the attempts to establish when and where they were produced, and who their patrons and producers were, can be very problematic. Being the paradigmatic example of a book, Bibles are no exception in this regard. Romanesque Bibles, such as those held at the Biblioteca Pública in Burgos, at San Isidoro in León, at the Library of the Real Academia de la Historia, and at the Lérida and Calahorra cathedrals, which date back to the mid-12th and early 13th century, are commonly described as Bibles of "transition" for having been produced in between the Carolingian and Gothic areas. Giving these exemplars the attention they deserve, some scholars have worked on the texts they transmit, while the majority has focused on their extraordinary illumination. These Bibles, which are veritable library treasures and have been featured at various exhibitions, are apparently well known, but where and when did they originate? These are certainly aspects which need to be considered. The information available in the Romanesque Bible corpus is uneven. Hence, a particularly explicit colophon acknowledging the exemplar which served as the codex model, in addition to the analysis of the script, confirm that the Bible currently held in the Real Colegiata of San Isidoro, in León, was made at the collegiate scriptorium in ca. 1162. Information regarding other exemplars in the corpus is significantly scarcer. Most often we can only determine the place of origin immediately prior to an exemplar’s present location, and can only venture a date and an origin on the basis of the script, illumination, codicological analysis and internal specificities, along with additional information coming from other objects. It is nonetheless preferable to assume that little is known regarding the genesis of these manuscripts, which in fact is true, and leave the question open, than insist on ascribing them to some atelier, which would be fictional, on the basis of weak evidence since the passage of time and the reproduction of information from secondary sources have turned once coherent suppositions into false certainties. |
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