Page of the so-called Glanville Manuscript: Descriptio Orbis

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Page of the so-called Glanville Manuscript: Descriptio Orbis

Artist Bartholomew Glanville Flemish?

Date1460

Dimensions19 × 15 in. (48.3 × 38.1 cm)

Mediumink on vellum

ClassificationManuscripts

Credit LineGift of Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus

Object number

1915.67

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Label TextThe decorative borders surrounding the text frame the calligraphy and offer the eye an interesting array of foliage, flowers, and fruit to study in addition to the text. Such borders represented a sampling of the artist’s talent, displaying his observation of natural elements and his attempt to make them accessible to the viewer’s experience. The decorated initial letters include one highly ornate example—the beginning letter “O” of blue and white ink on a gold-leaf background with an interlacing knot contained within—as well as smaller, red and blue initials with elaborate pen flourishes in contrasting ink that mark the beginning of each paragraph. This leaf was at some point removed from an encyclopedia of “the nature of things” written by early 13th-century English priest, philosopher, and ecclesiastical writer Bartholomaeus Anglicus (Bartholomew, the Englishman), also known as Bartholomaeus de Glanville. This manuscript page dates to the 15th century and may have been transcribed from the original.