Ornamental illuminated initials for letters K and L
St John’s Coll. MS C.1, f. 197v
Dominicans of St Jacques Paris, Concordantiae Bibliorum
Canterbury?, ca 1320–1330

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Master and Fellows of St John’s College

This manuscript is an English copy of the early fourteenth century from the Benedictine library of Christ Church Canterbury. As in the Bury St Edmunds copy the text is laid out in three main columns each subdivided into two, the biblical reference as the narrower first column and the wider second column containing the biblical quotation. This three column layout is followed in the incunable printed copies and even in the sixteenth and seventeenth century editions. The large capital initials in gold for the preface and each letter of the alphabet have as infill and surround delicate penwork in pink, delineating scrolls of foliage in reserve incorporating dragons, animals, birds and figures. This very fine penwork ornament may be paralleled in other manuscripts which might help to localise the place of production, but as yet this has not been done. It cannot be excluded that the book might have been made in Canterbury itself.