Lambeth Bible
The Lambeth Bible is a 12th-century illuminated manuscript, among the finest surviving giant Bibles from Romanesque England. It exists in two volumes; the first is in Lambeth Palace Library, where it has been housed since the library's establishment in 1610, as verified by Archbishop Bancroft's manuscript catalogue. This volume covers Genesis to Job on 328 leaves of vellum measuring circa 520 x 355 mm; the second incomplete volume is in the Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery.
The style of the illumination is clearly influenced by the work of Master Hugo, the illuminator of the Bury Bible. The Lambeth Bible bears close stylistic resemblance to the Gospel book made for Abbot Wedric of Liessies Abbey in 1146, of which only two leaves survive, now in Avesnes-sur-Helpe.
For many years the first volume in the Lambeth Palace Library was paired with another volume in the library, but in 1924 it was realized that the correct pairing was with the Maidstone volume.
Provenance
The Lambeth Bible does not have a press-mark or any other indication of its initial owner or origin. Furthermore, it cannot be located in medieval records of English monastic establishments. As a result, there has been much debate about the provenance of the Lambeth Bible. Eric Millar proposed a Canterbury provenance, which C. R. Dodwell supported in his study of the Canterbury scriptorium of 1954. Millar and Dodwell based their theory of a Canterbury provenance on some entries from the sixteenth century that occur on folio 310r in the Maidstone volume. These entries show that around 1541, the manuscript was in Lenham, a town halfway between Canterbury and Maidstone, and provide evidence that there was a possible connection between the new Lenham owners of the manuscript and the monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury. More recently, Josef Reidmaier also argued that the manuscript was produced in the Christ Church scriptorium in Canterbury around 1150. Riedmaier criticizes Dodwell's evidence of a Canterbury provenance as inadequate, since it was based primarily on storage records of the manuscript's location from the sixteenth century. He argues that a Canterbury provenance is accurate, but that the strongest evidence for this is actually found in the textual, structural, and iconographic characteristics of the Lambeth Bible. Dorothy Shepard argues that the book was produced in the scriptorium of St Augustine's Abbey between 1150-70. To support her theory, Shepard cites other bibles produced in the scriptorium at St Augustine's which contain the same prefatory materials as the Lambeth Bible. However, none of the divisions of the two-volume Bibles included in the inventory of the St Augustine’s library correspond to that of the Lambeth Bible. Christopher de Hamel instead links the Bible to Faversham Abbey, and claims that it was being produced for King Stephen. He supports his claim by drawing attention to the frequent royal imagery in the Bible, and the short period between 1146 and 1154 as an explanation for the Bible's incomplete state.Description
Both volumes of the Lambeth Bible are considerably large, measuring 20.5 x 13.5 inches. The Lambeth volume is generally in excellent condition, with only a few missing pages. Aside from those and the fifteenth-century binding replacement, it remains largely in its original state. The Maidstone volume is in a state of disrepair, with the binding showing signs of deterioration, early pages torn out or damaged, and the majority of illuminated pages and initials missing.Layout
The two main scribes responsible for composing the manuscript were also tasked with determining its layout. The initial scribe's method involved writing the text first and then allocating the remaining space for decoration. Additionally, this scribe opted for each book to commence at the start of a new folio. In contrast, the second scribe diverged from this layout approach, opting for minimal breaks between text, even omitting delineations for the beginning of new books as the first scribe had done. Consequently, the section of the Maidstone volume written by the second scribe appears significantly denser and more crowded in comparison.Illuminated Miniatures
In the Lambeth volume, the entire Octateuch and the four books of Kings contain illuminated miniatures, excluding Exodus and Leviticus. In the Maidstone volume, illustrations were planned for the beginnings of nearly all the books of the Old Testament. However, in the New Testament section of the Maidstone volume, illustrations were only planned for the first two Gospels, after which pictorial elements were omitted for the remainder of the volume.Historiated Initials
Both of the Lambeth Bible volumes include historiated illuminated initials. These historiated initials only appear at the beginning of each biblical book, depicting either the author of the text or the central figure of the events described within. This practice was a tradition that was common in illuminated Bibles of the 11th and 12th centuries. However, in the Maidstone volume, this tradition halts abruptly. Instead, simpler arabesque initials are employed from the Acts of the Apostles onward.Typically, these figures are represented within these historiated initials through one of three methods: seated upon the letter's form, integrated into the inner space of the letter, or substituting parts of the letter's structure.
Scripts
The Lambeth Bible is written in a pre-Gothic style of script known as littera minuscula protogothica textualis libraria formata, which is characterized as a sizable, rounded script with vertical characters that is typical of the prominent Bibles and Psalters from the 12th century. Based on the handwriting present in the Bible, it is generally thought that both the Lambeth volume and a significant portion of the Maidstone volume were written by a single scribe. However, starting from folio 197r of the Maidstone volume, a completely new and distinct handwriting emerges, persisting throughout the rest of the Bible. This suggests that two distinct scribes were involved in the writing of the Lambeth Bible.Repairs, Restoration, and Additions
During the latter half of the 15th century, repairs were carried out on both volumes. Additional supply leaves were inserted into the Maidstone volume, and both were subsequently rebound using bindings crafted from white goat-skin and wooden boards. During the 1600s, the Lambeth volume had the Archiepiscopal arms of the Archbishop of Canterbury stamped at the center of its cover. The new bindings added in the 15th century during the rebind of the Bible are nearly indistinguishable from one another. It seems that originally, each volume was secured with a set of metal clasps, which are now absent. Both the front and back covers feature panels with diagonal lines, forming diamond-shaped sections where subtle designs are lightly etched.Iconography
Byzantine Influence
The Lambeth Bible is indirectly shaped by Byzantine influence, inherited from its major influence, the Bury Bible, which was itself directly influenced by Byzantine style. The influence of Byzantine art can be seen in the iconography of many of the illustrations contained within the Lambeth Bible, such as the illustration of the book of Genesis on folio six. Rather than adhering to traditional Byzantine iconography, the scene depicted in folio six much more closely aligns with the contemporaneous 12th-century Byzantine iconography. This is apparent in the fusion of two narratives from Jacob's story depicted in the illustration. In this portrayal, Jacob is depicted both dreaming, witnessing a ladder encircled by angels ascending towards God offering a scroll, and awake, anointing oil onto the stone that served as his pillow. While in traditional Byzantine iconography these scenes are distinct, the amalgamation of these narratives mirrors the iconography found in 12th-century Byzantine art, exemplified by the mosaics in Palermo and Monreale.The Byzantine influence seen in the Bury Bible, and consequently in the Lambeth Bible, is thought to have potentially arisen from the inundation of Byzantine art brought to England during the mid-12th century, spurred by the Second Crusade.