Old English Hexateuch

representing a biblical scene in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch Claudius B.iv. was probably compiled in the second quarter of the 11th century at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. It incorporates translations and a preface by Ælfric of Eynsham, while the remaining parts of the translation were carried out by anonymous authors. Peter Clemoes suggests that Byrhtferth of Ramsey was responsible for the compilation as well as for parts of the translation. With 156 folios, it is largely complete, but does not include all the biblical text of the books. Commentary and other material in Latin and Old English was added in the 12th century, often using blank areas in incomplete miniatures. One or, more likely, several artists accompanied the narrative with 394 drawings in inks of various colours, most brightly coloured with washes, containing about 550 scenes. Many of these are unfinished, at varying stages of completion, and like most unfinished manuscript programmes, the degree of completion falls off in later sections. The settings do not attempt to represent Old Testament life as anything different from that of contemporary England, and so give valuable depictions of many aspects of the English world. The extensive illustrations suggest that it was designed mainly for lay use, and possibly intended for a single highly placed individual or family. It is the earliest illustrated manuscript of a large part of the bible in any vernacular language. 's gifts of livestock to Esau There are twelve full-page miniatures spread through the texts, and the other miniatures range from nearly full-page to about a quarter of a page. Many pages have two or even three illustrations, and the majority of pages have a miniature, some of which combine two scenes in bordered compartments. The degree of completion with washes tends to diminish as the book goes on. Some images appear to have been added to at a later date. The colouring has some eccentricities; in particular many figures have blue hair, and the many tents are shown with boldly coloured stripes. Opportunities offered by the text to show groups of animals are usually taken, and the Hand of God frequently appears. The sheet size is , with the text occupying . It was in the Cotton Library by 1621. In particular the MS is believed to be the earliest surviving visual representation of the Horns of Moses, an iconographic convention which grew over the rest of the Middle Ages. Together with the Junius manuscript (also in the British Library), and psalters, in particular the Harley Psalter copy of the Utrecht Psalter, it is the only surviving late Anglo-Saxon manuscript with extensive Old Testament illustrations. The Junius manuscript is from a few decades earlier, and also contains a retelling of Genesis, Exodus and other parts of the bible in Old English verse. The ambitious programme of illustration is also unfinished. ==Possible Late antique model ==

Although the 1975 edition edited by Dodwell and Clemoes asserted that "the artist was not copying the pictures of a remote and long-forgotten age; like other creative artists he was thinking in terms of his own life and times”, this is exactly what is proposed in a monograph of 2017 by Herbert Broderick, dealing with the illustrations in the manuscript. He suggests that an ancient prototype was available in Canterbury at the time, with illustrations drawing on ideas about charismatic leadership current in Hellenistic Egypt. This is especially the case for details in the iconography of the life of Moses, who is shown receiving his first bath, possibly the only such depiction in Western art, though there are Byzantine examples. This was a common trope in art depicting classical gods and heroes including Dionysus and Alexander the Great (not to mention Buddha), and, especially in Byzantine art, became a usual feature in the Nativity of Jesus in art. The horns of Moses, first known in art in this manuscript, are another example, though they do not take the form that became common. They rise straight from the sides of the head, and are large. In one illustration they are coloured yellow, perhaps suggesting light. File:Hexablog2b Lot wife.webp|Lot and his wife File:Hexateuch, Cotton MS Claudius B IV, f. 60v.png|Folio 60 verso File:OEH Two Scenes of Tamar BL 1915.jpg|Two scenes of Tamar ==See also==