# Vivian Bible [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, French]() - Date: 0801-0850 - Technique: Manuscript \(Ms. lat. 1\), 495 x 345 mm ## Commentary Vivian Bible c. 845 Manuscript \(Ms. lat. 1\), 495 x 345 mm Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris During the Carolingian era, St. Martin's Abbey in Tours was a major centre of book illumination. Its great achievements during the ninth century were closely related to sources at Charlemagne's court school in Aachen. The present book, known as the First Bible of Charles the Bald, takes its name from Count Vivian, the lay abbot of the Abbey from 844 to 851, who commissioned it and presented to Charles the Bald in 846 on a visit to the church, as shown in the presentation miniature at the end of the book. This single-volume Bible was created as part of a half-century-long undertaking managed by Alcuin, Abbot of St Martin, to produce one-volume manuscripts of the whole of Scripture \(including prefatory material\) written in clear Carolingian minuscule. The manuscript contains 423 folios with 8 full-page miniatures, 4 canon tables and 87 initials. Of the various artists who worked on the illustrations, one stands out, the master who created the St Jerome \(folio 3v\), the David \(folio 215v\), the Majestas Domini \(folio 329\) images and the dedication picture \(folio 422v\). He is known as 'Master C', and adjudged the greatest book painter of the entire Carolingian era. The picture shows folio 386v with The Conversion of Saint Paul. ## 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]()