鈥My talk brings together my early and more recent research on the manuscript that I call the Welles-Ros Bible (Paris听叠颈产濒颈辞迟丑猫辩耻别听nationale听de France MS听fr. 1) 鈥 the most complete surviving witness and sole extant illuminated copy of the Anglo-Norman Bible, the 鈥渆arliest full prose vernacular Bible produced in England鈥 (Russell). Building on the work of biblical and literary scholars, I argue that this grand multilingual manuscript and the revised translation that it contains were produced in the later fourteenth century on the order of one or more matriarchs of the baronial Welles family of Lincolnshire. I discuss the circumstances of the commission and the volume鈥檚 functions and intended audience; and show how the Bible鈥檚 rich pictorial and heraldic program reframes Christian salvation history as Welles family history. Moreover, the manuscript鈥檚 main artist clearly read the scriptural text assiduously, adapting or even rejecting his wide-ranging, trans-regional models in order to visualize for his noble clients both the sense of the vernacular translation and its very words. My talk sheds new light on lay literate and religious aspiration and pedagogy; women鈥檚 cultural patronage; artists鈥 literacy and working methods; the history of bible translation and reception; medieval ideas about gender, sexuality, health, memory, and the emotions; and English art, society, and culture after the Black Death.鈥
Organised by Professor Alixe Bovey (The Courtauld) and Dr Tom Nickson (The Courtauld).听
This event is generously supported by the ICMA.
