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Holkham Picture Bible Book, 1327-1335AD
Infantry in battle, lower register, folio 40r
f. 40r, Two mounted kings and their knights do battle against one another; below, the commoners fight each other with bucklers, swords, sticks and axes.
Title: Bible (the 'Holkham Bible Picture Book')
Date: c 1327-1335
Content: A biblical picture book with explanatory text of varying length, sometimes in rhyming couplets, in Anglo-Norman French, with some English.
Ownership: Origin; England, S.E. (London?). Provenance; An unknown Dominican friar probably commissioned this work: the first image is of a friar saying to the artist 'Ore feres bien e nettement car mustre serra a riche gent' (Now do it well and thoroughly, for it will be shown to important people); to which the scribe replies 'Si frai voyre, e Deux me doynt vivre, Unkes ne veyses un autretel livre' (So I will, and if God grant me life, you will never see a better book than mine) (f. 1r).
Following a blank page (f. 38v), this final section contains the 'Last Things' which precede the Second Coming (derived from Historia Scholastica, In Evangelia, cxxxiv-cxli).
British Library Manuscript Additional 47682.
Contents: A biblical picture book with explanatory text of varying length, sometimes in rhyming couplets, in Anglo-Norman French, with some English. The material covers Genesis from Creation to Noah (ff. 1-9), the Life of Christ from the Annunciation (preceded by genealogies of Mary and Jesus) to the Ascension (ff. 10-38) and the fifteen signs of the Day of Judgement with some introductory material (ff. 39-42), (Dean, Anglo-Norman Literature , 1999, no. 472).
Source: British Library - Explore Archives and Manuscripts
Referenced on p.9, English Medieval Knight 1300-1400 by Christopher Gravett (Author), Graham Turner (Illustrator)
An infantry battle, from the Holkham Picture Bible Book of 1327-1335. One man has a mail coat but most wear a quilted aketon under the tunic, glimpsed at the forearms or hem. Some have mail hoods, others quilted versions, that of the left figure buttoning up at the chin. Leather gauntlets seem to be worn, only one man having plate versions. Small bucklers with metal boss and rim can be seen. (By permission of the British Library MS Add. 47680 (sic), f.40)
