Genesis initial, Creation scenes with images of Dominicans adoring the Crucifixion and the Lamb of God
Fitzwilliam Mus. MS 1056-1975, f. 4v
Bible
Bologna, ca 1260

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

During the thirteenth century Bibles were produced in large numbers in university cities such as Bologna, Paris and Oxford where many Dominicans studied and taught. Some of these Bibles have probable Dominican ownership either based on the inclusion of Dominican liturgical texts or containing images of the friars. In Italy the main centre of Bible production in the thirteenth century was Bologna and many were given elaborate illumination with historiated initials to most of the books. Dominican ownership of this manuscript might be implied from busts of the friars in adoration on the Genesis page, but may just refer to their important role in teaching and studying at the university in Bologna. Also in the Prologue at the beginning of the Bible, St Jerome is depicted in Dominican habit, and a Dominican is shown in the border decoration of that page. Production in Bologna is fairly certain because its figure style and ornamental forms are closely related to a group of other books, mostly Bibles, produced there in the period ca 1250 to ca 1265, some of which are dated.