MINIATURIST, Greek
(active 430s in Rome)

Quedlinburg Itala fragment

430s
Manuscript (Cod. theol. lat. fol. 485), 305 x 205 mm
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin

The Quedlinburg Itala is a fragment of six folios from a large 5th-century illuminated manuscript of an Old Latin Itala translation of parts of I Samuel of the Old Testament. (Itala is the collective name given to the Latin translations of biblical texts that existed before the Vulgate, the Latin translation produced by Jerome in the late 4th century.) It is the oldest surviving illustrated biblical manuscript. The fragments were found from 1865 onwards (two in 1865, two in 1867, one in 1887) re-used in the bindings of different books that had been bound in the 17th century in the town of Quedlinburg, home of Quedlinburg Abbey, a large Imperial monastery.

Folio 2 recto contains four scenes illustrating 1 Samuel 15:13-33.




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