# Bible moralisée [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, French]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Manuscript \(Ms. français 166\) ## Commentary Bible moralisée 1480s Manuscript \(Ms. français 166\) Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris The kind of bible known as Bible moralisée originated at the French royal court during the first thirty years of the 13th century. These bibles used interrelated medallions or rondels \(eight per page\) as well as marginal texts to interpret bible passages. They were usually written in Latin. This kind of books provide commentaries and interpretations of the Bible by comparing characters, deeds and events from the Old Testament with examples from the New Testament. In around 1402, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, commissioned the illustration of an extensive Bible moralisée by the Limbourg brothers. By the time Philip the Bold died suddenly in 1404, the Limbourg brothers had already painted hundreds of scenes in medallions on folios 1 to 24. The work came to a halt, the unfinished manuscript changed owners several times and numerous illuminators continued the decoration until the end of the 15th century. However, the manuscript was never completed. Folio 41r shows a typical arrangement on the pages of the manuscript. On each pages, a composition of eight small miniatures is arranged in two columns to create the mandatory typological statement of this type of book. Here, scenes from the stories of Moses and Balaam make up just such a redemptive and moral context. ## Related artworks - [A History of Western Saints]() - [Antiphoner]() - [Aristotle: De Interpretazione]() - [Aristotle: Works]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Beatus of Liébana: Commentary on the Apocalypse]() - [Belleville Breviary]() - [Bible Historiale]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()