The Winchester Bible (review)

Reviews 167 Donovan, Claire, The Winchester Bible, London, The British Library, 1993; paper, pp. 64; 74 illustrations; R.R.P. £10.95. The Winchester Bible is one of the most magnificent of all the Uluminated manuscripts produced in medieval England. Probably commissioned by Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, and created in the scriptorium of Winchester cathedral priory in the mid-twelfth century, it involved six outstanding illuminators and a single master scribe, but was left unfinished after about fifteen years' work. It is still housed in Winchester Cathedral; although, one leaf, probably removed in the nineteenth century, is in the Pierpont Morgan Library in N e w York. Claire Donovan's detaUed account of the Winchester Bible was produced to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the consecration of Winchester Cathedral. In an introductory essay, she discusses the context in which this Bible was made, the cathedral priory and the patronage of Henry of Blois, and the details of its making. The rest of the book deals with each illustration in turn, from Genesis to Apocalypse. There are many excellent colour plates, including both sides of the Morgan Leaf, as well as black and white reproductions of almost every illuminated or decorated initial. She draws heavily on the work of Walter Oakeshott, who spent a lifetime studying this Bible, but is occassional^ prepared to disagree with him, most notably over the question of whether the Morgan Leaf was ever physically part of the Winchester Bible. She argues that it was. As well as for its remarkable beauty, the Winchester Bible is particularly interesting for what it reveals about the way in which lavish manuscripts of this kind were produced. Oakeshott gave the illuminators memorable names as the 'Master of the leaping figures' and the 'Gothic majesty master'. The manuscript shows not only the radical differences in then styles and palettes, but also the way in which one illuminator prepared a drawing to which another would add colour, changing the design in the process. This Bible challenges most of the accepted ideas about the way in which deluxe manuscripts were created. The different stages of the process of decoration were not carried out sequentially. Various intials and drawings were left in almost every possible stage of partial completion. The work of the scribe and the artists was not particularly well coordinated. In several places the illuminated initials do notfitthe space left for them or are lacking some of the letters omitted from the written text. Donovan has given us a succint but comprehensive account of this remarkable manuscript which 168 Reviews reveals the complexities of its production and also captures much of its beauty. Toby Burrows University Library Univeristy of Western Australia Evans, G. R., Philosophy and theology in the Middle Ages, London and N.Y., RouUedge, 1993; paper; pp. x, 139; R.R.P. AUSS24.95. The author advises in the acknowledgments that this short book, while drafted in English, was published originahy in a German series. Its current publication was undertaken on the understanding that it might alsofilla gap in the available literature in English, but it is hard to know whether the gap it is supposed tofillis very large in the literature of either language. The writer clearly has an excellent command of thefieldunder survey and the book is well written and weU tempered in its opinions and judgments. It is not easy, however, to identify its intended audience. O n the one hand, the discussion assumes too much to be really useful as an introduction to philosophy and theology in the Middle Ages. O n the other hand, the treatment is too general to be of great value to anyone with a reasonable knowledge of thetopicsin question. Within the limited span of 150 pages, the book is encyclopedic in character. In Part I, there is discussion of the broad idea of philosophy and theology and the relations of harmony and tension between them in this period. This is followed by consideration of the development of schools and scholars especially in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, an account of the classical sources of medieval philosophy, and a summary of the main theories then current about knowledge, truth, language...