Old English Hexateuch

Another copy of the text, without lavish illustrations but including a translation of the Book of Judges (hence also called the Old English Heptateuch), is found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc.

Though described as "vivid and dynamic",[5] the drawing and style of the Claudius miniatures has been regarded as somewhat crude compared to other manuscripts of the period, variously described as "rough", "incompetent" and "not of outstanding artistic importance".

[9] The settings do not attempt to represent Old Testament life as anything different from that of contemporary England, and so give valuable depictions of many aspects of the English world.

Opportunities offered by the text to show groups of animals are usually taken, and the Hand of God frequently appears.

[16] In particular the MS is believed to be the earliest surviving visual representation of the Horns of Moses, an iconographic convention which grew over the rest of the Middle Ages.

The Junius manuscript is from a few decades earlier, and also contains a retelling of Genesis, Exodus and other parts of the bible in Old English verse.

He suggests that an ancient prototype was available in Canterbury at the time, with illustrations drawing on ideas about charismatic leadership current in Hellenistic Egypt.

[20] This is especially the case for details in the iconography of the life of Moses, who is shown receiving his first bath, possibly the only such depiction in Western art, though there are Byzantine examples.