A Leaf with Patchwork from the Saint Albans Bible
December 29, 2025 in Fragments, Manuscript Studies
A Leaf with Patchwork
from the Saint Albans Bible
in the Collection of William Voelkle
Double columns of 46 lines in Gothic Script
with 2-line Decorated Initials, Bar-Extensions,
Foliate Ornament,
and Marginal Inhabitants (Monkey, Dragon, Bird)
Northern France, circa 1330
Psalms 107:14 ([facerimus uir-]/tutem et ipse)
– 108:31 (a persequentibus [animam meam] )
and 109:2 ([tuorum te-]cum principium . . . )
– 110:6 (. . . operum suorum / [adnuntiabit populo suo])
Plus Cut-Out with Patch apparently from the Same Bible
Cut out (in 14 lines of one column):
Psalms 109:1–2 (Dixit Dominus domino meo . . . tuorum te-/]cum principium)
Replacement Patch (in 14 lines pasted to opposite side):
Epistle of James 1:11–15 (peccatum uero cum / [consummatum fuerit]
[Posted on 27 December 2025]
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto under glass. Photograph by William Voelkle.
Our series of RGME Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”, continues to uncover more leaves from the fragmentary manuscripts which the workshops consider, by request. Now we report another leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, with which our workshops began.
We set the stage by reviewing two leaves which generated our interest in this manuscript and its fragments. They belong to the Farrell and Weber Collections respectively, with portions from the Old Testament and the New Testament respectively.
The ‘new’ leaf belongs to the Collection of William Voelkle. Its pieced-together pieces represent parts of one Book from the Old Testament and another from the New Testament.
The patchwork, replacing a cut-out portion with a cutting from elsewhere in the volume, resembles a phenomenon which we explored previously in another fragmentary Vulgate Bible, the larger Lectern Bible dispersed by Otto F. Ege as his Number 14.
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Detail of Patch.
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Verso, Detail of Patch.
1. The Farrell Leaf
(from the Book of Numbers)
Our workshops first examined a leaf on loan to the RGME with part of the text of the Book of Numbers in a Latin Vulgate Bible in double columns of 46 lines in Gothic script, with decorative elements. Reports of our discoveries about that leaf have been reported in our blog on Manuscript Studies.
- A Latin Vulgate Leaf from the Book of Numbers (Part 1)
- Latin Vulgate Bible Leaf in the Collection of Jennah Farrell, Part 2: Provenance
- The Latin Vulgate Bible Leaf in the Farrell Collection Part 3: The Full Leaf
Collection of Jennah Farrell, Manuscript Leaf in Mat: top left. Photograph by Jennah Farrrell.
Recto
Collection of Jennah Farrell, Single Leaf from the Book of Numbers in a Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible manuscript. Full extent of the leaf, unframed: Recto. Photography by Mildred Budny.
Verso
Collection of Jennah Farrell, Latin Vulgate Bible Leaf: Verso with Ruler. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
2. The Weber Leaf
(from the Acts of the Apostles)
As the workshops progressed, our Associate Richard Weber revealed another leaf from this manuscript in his collection, to join our blogposts about various items in his collection. Unlike the first leaf considered in our workshops, from the Old Testament Book of Numbers, this leaf belongs to the New Testament portion of the bible, from within the text of the Acts of the Apostles. See
Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Verso: Top Left. Photograph by Richard Weber.
Recto
Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto. Photograph by Richard Weber.
Verso
Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto. Photograph by Richard Weber.
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto under glass. Photograph by William Voelkle.
3. The Voelkle Leaf
(from the Psalms
and the Epistle of James)
—A Patchwork Leaf
Next, our Associate William Voelkle sent a photograph of his leaf from the Saint Albans Bible.
About the leaf, William Voelkle reported that
I purchased the leaf from Philip Duschnes (NY dealer) August 10, 1983, as ‘repaired.’ The historiated miniature had been cut out and replaced with another section of the text.
— email of 29 December 2025
About Duschnes and his business, see, for example Philip C. Duschnes.
Contained within a glass-fronted frame, the leaf shows one side, but turns the other side to the back of the frame, where it remains hidden.
We examine the visible side, with glimpses also of the opposite side as revealed by show-through and other evidence.
Recto (the Visible Side)
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto. Photograph by William Voelkle.
The page has no running title, unlike some other parts of the Saint Albans Bible (see above).
Mainly the text on the page presents part of the Book of Psalms, plus a replacement patch for fourteen lines cut out from one column, which removed the first lines of Psalm 109.
A modern pencil note at the left opposite line 3 of the left-hand column identifies the number of the Vulgate Psalm (“108”) which opens there (Deus laudem meam me tacueris). It seems likely that the note postdates the dismemberment of the manuscript, so that an identification of the contents of the leaf might be appropriate, starting with the first of the Psalms on the page.
Rubrication in red pigment announces the start of Psalms 108 and 110 — perhaps it did so also for the opening of Psalm 109, but that title would have been lost in the cut-out.
Show-through from the opposite side reveals (in mirrored view) the presence of polychrome bar ornament in verticals along the inner and outer margins as well as the intercolumn — that is, at the left-hand side of both columns of text on that page and, to a less marked extent, at the right-hand side of the outer column — and in branching formations at both upper and lower margins.
The Texts:
Parts of Two Different Books of the Bible
The visible side of the leaf carries text principally from the Book of Psalms. It begins midword within Psalms 107:14 ([facerimus uir-]/tutem et ipse) and ends within Psalms 110:31 (operum suorum / [adnuntiabit populo suo]). The text carries the full text of Psalm 108, but only the last part of Psalm 109, because its first lines have been cut out and removed, taking the opening initial and the adjacent section of its intercolumnar bar ornament at the left. Untouched was the bar ornament at the right-hand side, along with the full-length bird perched in profile upon its foliage.
The Psalms text in column a and the upper and lower parts of column b:
Psalms 107:14 ([facerimus uir-]/tutem et ipse) – 108:31 (a persequentibus /[animam meam])
and (after the gap produced by the cut-out)
Psalms 109:2 (tuorum te-/]cum principium) – 110:1–6 (operum suorum / [adnuntiabit populo suo])
Missing text cut out from column b:
Psalms 109:1–2 ([Dixit dominus Domino meo . . . tuorum te-]cum principium)
Replacement patch of fourteen lines in a single column:
Epistle of James 1:11–15 (Exortus est enim . . . peccatum uero cum / [consummatum fuerit]
Untouched in the cutting process was the bar ornament at the right-hand side, along with the full-length bird perched upon its foliage. Seen in profile facing left, the bird raises its offside leg and its head to look up to the left. Might the bird perhaps depict a thrush or strike?
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto under glass, Midsection with patch. Photograph by William Voelkle.
A patch in the second column supplies a passage of fourteen lines of text where the original text had been cut out — presumably as a specimen of text and/or decoration. The supplied portion presents similar layout, script, structure, and intercolumnar border decoration as characteristic of the Saint Albans Bible, so perhaps or presumably another leaf from the same book supplied the gap. Certainty about the source of the replacement might become clearer if, say, the portion of the Epistle of James in the volume can be identified either intact or defective.
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto under glass, Detail with patch. Photograph by William Voelkle.
The bar ornament at the left on the replacement patch is broader than the bar ornament which it supplants or interrupts in the intercolumn of the Psalms leaf, although its undulating ornamental pattern and coloring resembles that bar. The extensions to the left from the replacement bar imply that this patch came from a left-hand column on its former page, reaching into the inner margin.
The Decoration and Figural Ornament
Ornamented initials stand at the openings of the individual Psalms, as inset 2-line polychrome capitals within frames. From their left-hand side, extensions might rise or descend along the side of the column of text to curve into the upper or lower margins in elaborate branching foliate motifs. The individual verses of the Psalms open within the continuous lines of text as inset 1-line capitals, rendered alternately in blue pigment or gold, within beds of penline decoration.
Top
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto under glass, Top. Photograph by William Voelkle.
Bottom
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto under glass, Lower portion. Photograph by William Voelkle.
Seen in profile, the animated elements in the lower margin comprise
1) a charming undulating dragonesque creature with raised wings at the outer right, an elongated neck, and an open-mouthed head facing right with a dog-like head having pointed ears and a bearded lower jaw; and
2) an upright monkey striding toward the left. In its outstretched hands this creature holds an implement which might depict a spindle and whorl.
Below the monkey’s feet, two foliate terminals of the border ornament have descending streaks of ink and pigment which damaged the page at an unknown stage.
Collection of William Voelkle, Framed Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible: Recto under glass, detail: monkey. Photograph by William Voelkle.
Questions or Suggestions?
Do you know of other leaves from this Bible? Do you know of other works by the same scribe(s) or artist(s)? We welcome your feedback.
*************
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v, detail. Image via Creative Commons.
The 2002 BM Symposium:
Continuing our series of interviews and reports, we explore the processes by which Mildred Budny’s 2-volume Insular, Angl0-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue (“The Catalogue” or “The Illustrated Catalogue”) was designed, laid out, and typeset to camera-ready copy for its publication as a set of 2 volumes of “Text” and “Plates”.
