{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O93660"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O93660/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CD9945/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CD9945/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CD9945","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AK9145","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O93660/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O93660","accessionNumber":"8984B","objectType":"Manuscript cutting","titles":[{"title":"Cutting from St Gregory's Moralia in Job","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"This is part of a page from a copy of <i>Moralia in Job</i>. This is a series of lectures on the biblical book of Job written by St Gregory the Great (540–604). Professionally made books used decorative initials, such as the initial B on this fragment, to signal the main divisions of a text. There was usually a hierarchy of initials within any book to designate sections, chapters, paragraphs and other breaks. The initials were added either by the scribe or by a specialist, in spaces left blank by the scribe. The latter was increasingly the practice in the later Middle Ages. The important initials might be historiated (that is, with a figurative picture, <i>istoire</i> being the term for story) or decorated. The lesser initials were made of coloured letters on coloured or gold grounds, often with flourishing in ink of a contrasting colour.","physicalDescription":"Beginning of Book XXX of St Gregory's Moralia in Job.\r\nRecto: initial B with foliated scrolls and dragons on blue, red, green and yellow ground.\r\nRubrics in alternating red and green.\r\nRubric: EXPLICIT LIBER XIX. INCIPIT LIBER XXX. Text: BEATUS IOB utrum ne fecerit...\r\nVerso: text.\r\nThis initial was in the lower part of the right hand-side column of a manuscript written on two columns.  ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Saint Gregory the Great","id":"N511"},"association":{"text":"author","id":"AAT25492"},"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 and ink on parchment","categories":[{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Manuscripts","id":"THES48922"},{"text":"Manuscript cutting","id":"THES275182"},{"text":"Medieval and renaissance","id":"THES271264"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2009CD9945","2006AK9145"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"I","shelf":"66","box":"A"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"manuscript cutting","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Mosan","id":"x38794"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Rhineland","id":"x29098"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"late 12th century","earliest":"1150-01-01","latest":"1199-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"8984A","id":"O93703"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"8984C","id":"O684638"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"218-226","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"overall","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"143","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"overall","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"110","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"text block","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"7","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"interlinear space","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Part 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).\nCuttings from the same manuscript in the V&amp;A collection: Museum nos 8984A, 8984B.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Cutting with initial B from St Gregory’s Moralia in Job, Mosan or Rhenish, late 12th century. ","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Catalogue of the circulating collection of illuminated manuscript leaves and cuttings selected from the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, intro. by E.F. Strange, London: HMSO, 1908.","id":"AUTH404464"},"details":"p. 17 (nos 88-90; as Flemish, late 12th century).","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":"p. 15 (as Flemish, late 12th century, but 8984C missing).","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Gregory (Saint)","id":"N511"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"ornament","id":"AAT56258"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Moralia in Job"],"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>A Commentary on the Book of Job</b><br>\r\nIn the 590s, Gregory the Great, later pope, gave a \r\nseries of lectures on the Book of Job, offering multiple \r\nlayers of interpretation of the biblical text. These were \r\nthen gathered into a book called Moralia in Job, which \r\nbecame very successful and influential. In this 12thcentury \r\nmanuscript, each section is introduced by a \r\nlarge initial bursting with life. A hunting scene unfolds \r\nin the swirling scrolls of the letter ‘H’, while the \r\ncolourful ‘B’ is formed of foliage and sinuous dragons.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nInitials ‘H’ and ‘B’, from Gregory the Great (died 604), Moralia in Job<br>\r\nProbably Meuse Valley, Belgium, about 1175–1200<br>\r\nInk and watercolour on parchment<br>\r\nMuseum nos. 8984A–B ","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["8984B"],"accessionNumberNum":"8984","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Cancelled number","id":"THES52962"},"number":"MS.90"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-11","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-24","availableToBook":false}}