A Franciscan Bible Illuminated in the Style of William de Brailes

Abstract

• The decoration in Harley MS 2813, a Bible hitherto unpublished except for an inaccurate three-line description in the Harley Catalogue, is here attributed to the famous 13th-century Oxford illuminator William de Brailes. In addition to biblical texts it contains a selection of masses which show that it was probably made for a Franciscan, and it includes indexing symbols devised by Robert Grosseteste, which ties it even more closely to the Oxford Franciscan house.