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The Teutonic Knights were among the more successful military orders. They were given papal approval in 1199 and oversaw the colonization by German settlers and the imposition of Christianity in what is now Poland and Lithuania. Like their counterparts, the Templars, who suffered the brutal suppression and nationalization of their assets by the French crown just after 1300, they operated a system of banking to get money 'to the front line'. This Bible was made in Liège. The ornament in the initials is inhabited by dragons, heads and grotesques that spill over into the margins.","physicalDescription":"Book of Esther\r\nLeaf, with 11-line initial L (interlace decoration, faces and grotesques); initial I descending 27 lines in margin; monkey on ass shooting arrow at monkey with shield and club on bull; 3-line initial H (in blue with red flourishing).\r\nRunning title: Incipit prologus I Librum Hester: Incipit Liber Hester\r\n40 lines; 2 cols.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"parchment","id":"AAT11851"},{"text":"pigments","id":"x33204"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"}],"techniques":[{"text":"illumination","id":"AAT220539"},{"text":"writing","id":"AAT54698"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Water-based pigments, gilding and ink on parchment","categories":[{"text":"Manuscript 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II (see London, British Library, Add. MS 32058, fol. 9). All leaves now in the V&amp;A collection belong to volume II. The second volume was dismantled by the time the museum acquired a first batch of leaves in 1883 from W.H. James Weale (9036A to 9036Z, 9036Z/A, 9036F/1). Another batch was bought in 1906 (D.544 to D.599-1906). No part of volume I is known to survive (Genesis to II Chronicles) and volume III is now Oxford, Keble College, MS 69.\n\r\nPart of cuttings purchased in batches from William Henry James Weale in 1883, 95 on 9 April 1883, 258 on 17 April 1883, 20 on 20 February, for the total sum of £96.7.2 (now Museum nos 8972-9042). These included 27 leaves and 1 cutting from the Teutonic Knights Bible, vol. II. \n\r\nCuttings from the same manuscript in the V&amp;A collection: Museum nos 9036A to 9036Z, 9036Z/A, 9036F/1, D.544 to D.599-1906. \r\n\r\nCuttings from the same manuscript in other collections: London, British Library, Add. MS 32058, ff. 9-22. \n\nVol. III (containing the Old Testament): Oxford, Keble College, MS 69.","historicalContext":"Professionally-made books used decorative initials to signal the major divisions of a text. There was usually a hierarchy of intials within any book to designate sections, chapters, paragraphs and other breaks. The initials were added either by the scribe or, increasingly in the later Middle Ages, by a specialist, in spaces left blank by the scribe. The important initials might be historiated or decorated, while the lesser initials were made up of coloured letters on coloured or gold grounds, often with flourishing in ink of a contrasting colour.\r\n\r\nGrotesque animals and figures are no strangers to medieval art; they are much in evidence in the Gothic cathedrals and still dominate European city centres, and were much beloved of Victorian restorers. There is occasionally a link between grotesques and text, but often there seems little more than incongrous romping.\r\n\r\n'Illuminated Manuscripts and their makers'; Rowan Watson, 2003\r\n\r\n","briefDescription":"Leaf from a Bible (Book of Esther), present-day Belgium (Liège), ca. 1300.\r\nA duplicate number MS.723 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"<u>Catalogue of illuminated manuscripts : Part II, Miniatures, leaves, and cuttings</u>, by S.C. Cockerell and E.F. Strange (London: HMSO, 1908, 1st edition).","id":"AUTH355671"},"details":"pp. 68-73.","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<u>Catalogue of Miniatures, Leaves, and Cuttings from Illuminated Manuscripts. Victoria and Albert Museum. Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design</u>, by S.C. Cockerell and C. Harcourt Smith (London: HMSO, 1923, 2nd edition).","id":"AUTH349022"},"details":"pp. 60-65.","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Malcolm B. Parkes,<u>The medieval manuscripts of Keble College, Oxford: a descriptive catalogue with summary descriptions of the Greek and Oriental manuscripts</u> (London: Scolar Press, 1979).","id":"AUTH357510"},"details":"MS69 (vol. III of this Bible). ","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Judith Oliver,<u> Gothic manuscript illumination in the diocese of Liège (c. 1250-c. 1330)</u>, Leuven: Peeters, 1988.","id":"AUTH357506"},"details":"I, pp. 185-188, II, pl. 191-194.","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Watson, Rowan. <i>Vandals and Enthusiasts: Views of Illumination in the Nineteenth Century</i>, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1995","id":"AUTH354797"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Watson, R.<i> Illuminated manuscripts and their makers. An account based on the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum</i>. London, 2003.","id":"AUTH348649"},"details":"pp. 86-87.","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"monkey (animal)","id":"x30136"},{"text":"bull (animal)","id":"x30279"},{"text":"ass (animal)","id":"x30281"},{"text":"grotesques","id":"AAT10211"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["The Bible (Prologue to the Book of Esther)"],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Fragmented Illuminations: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Cuttings at the V&A, 08/09/2021 - 26/06/2022, rooms 88A-90 <br> \r\n<br>\r\n<b>The Teutonic Knights Bible</b><br>\r\nThese leaves once marked the beginning of the Book \r\nof Esther and the Book of Daniel in a three-volume \r\nBible. Thanks to an inscription on another surviving leaf \r\nat the British Library, we know that it was made for \r\nthe Maastricht monastery of the Teutonic Knights, \r\na powerful German military order founded in the 1190s. \r\nSome initials extend into amusing scenes in the \r\nmargins, including two monkeys riding what appear \r\nto be cows [left] and another pair busy spinning [right].<br>\r\n<br>\r\nLeaves with initials ‘L’, ‘I’, and ‘D’ with Daniel in the lions’ den, \r\nfrom the Teutonic Knights Bible<br>\r\nLiège, Belgium, about 1300<br>\r\nInk, gold, watercolour and bodycolour on parchment<br>\r\nMuseum nos. 9036E and 9036X ","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["9036E"],"accessionNumberNum":"9036","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Cancelled number","id":"THES52962"},"number":"723"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-29","recordCreationDate":"2003-11-24","availableToBook":false}}