Anjou Bible
[citation needed] The manuscript is held by the Catholic University of Leuven's Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (Maurits Sabbe Library, Hs 1).
[3] The biblical text, written in Latin, is the work of a single scribe,[3] Iannutius de Matrice, who wrote in the colophon on folio 312r:[4] Qui sripsit scribat semper cum domino vivat.
Due to the tight binding in the early twentieth century causing damage to the parchment and illustration, a conservation project was initiated in May 2008.
A monographic study titled The Bible of Anjou: A Royal Manuscript Revealed, featuring contributions from an international team of researchers, was published in 2010.
The marriage agreement stipulated that Andreas and Joanna would become kings, but in his will drawn up on January 16, 1343, Robert decided to reserve the royal title of queen for his granddaughter.
Joanna fled to Provence, presented herself before the Pope in Avignon to prove her innocence, was acquitted, and returned to Naples two years later to reclaim her throne.
[11] What happened to the manuscript after it came into the possession of d’Alifio is not documented, but it was first found in 1402 inventory of the books of Jean, Duke of Berry.
The book was part of a list of possessions that the Duke had reserved testamentary for the heirs of Jean de Montaigu.
A document from 1418 informs us that the items reserved for the heirs of Montaigu were auctioned on March 18, 1418, by order of Charles VI.
The Anjou Bible was then sold for 125 livres tournois to Galiache Pinel, a merchant in Paris, for a price well below the estimated value of 1416.
Afterward, the manuscript came into the possession of Nicolaas le Ruistre (or Ruterius), bishop of Arras and chancellor at the University of Leuven.
In 1974, the manuscript was transmitted to the Maurits Sabbe Library of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven.
The Anjou Bible is being examined and conserved in the Book Heritage Lab - Expertisecentrum voor Onderzoek en Conservering van Documentair Erfgoed KU Leuven, led by Lieve Watteeuw, a multi-year project in collaboration with the Core Facility VIEW, the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, and the Imaging Lab of KU Leuven Libraries.
He painted, among other things, the fantasy birds with long necks and tails in soft pastel colors, which are frequently found in the margins to conceal repairs to the parchment.
[3] The parchment had irregular quality, and differences in thickness within a folio were sometimes significant, leading to deep folds at the edges.
The chapters in the Bible books start with a decorated initial of 2 lines high painted in color on a background of burnished gold.
In the first, we see the enthroned Robert robed like a Byzantine emperor, flanked by personifications of the eight virtues that defeat and cast the eight vices into the abyss.
Next to them, two girls kneel at the feet of another character in royal dress, Robert I of Anjou with his two granddaughters, Joanna, who succeeded him, and her sister Maria.
This miniature illustrates the succession within the Angevin dynasty, and makes it clear that Robert had chosen his granddaughter Joanna to succeed him after the death of his son.
