Production and Use of Latin Bible Manuscripts in Italy during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

This paper focuses on the codicological, paleographical and textual features of Latin Bible manuscripts produced in Italy during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and the way in which they were read. The relation between the physical appearance and contents of these codices and those of the so-called Paris Bible is also examined in order to understand the mechanisms underlying the diffusion of the latter in Italy. The analysis is limited to a group of little less than one hundred Bibles of northern, central and southern Italian origin, whose commissioners or first owners/users (mendicant and monastic orders, clergy and laymen alike) can be determined with reasonable certainty. Thus, it is possible to connect each manuscript to a specific context, purpose, and, often, way of reading. The research shows that to different degrees and with extremely few exceptions, all Bibles examined bear the features of a commercial, relatively standardized, and up-to-date book production. Differences, especially in format, are normally connected to the purpose the book was supposed to fulfill; while textual variety is most common in Bibles that were not produced in contexts influenced by university models, either Parisian or Bolognese. Indeed, Bibles that were mostly influenced by the so-called Paris Bible are not surprisingly those copied in the university town of Bologna after the mid-thirteenth century. True differentiation in the manuscripts occurred only after use. It was then that their text was revised, if necessary, digested, and transformed into something instrumental for the life, mission, or work of their owners and readers.