The King in the Manuscript: The Presentation Inscription of the Vienna Latin Bible moralisée

Abstract

For over 125 years, historians have speculated about the intended, presumed Capetian royal recipients of the four earliest Bibles moralisées, four of the most significant manuscripts from Gothic Paris. Of these codices, only Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB) MS 1179, the Vienna Latin Bible moralisée, contains a written presentation inscription. Erased long ago, it has nevertheless frustrated scholars’ efforts to read it. Multispectral Imaging now reveals the name of the non-Capetian intended recipient. This article offers an explanation of why, when, and for whom the manuscript may have been produced, revealing it as a witness to Denmark’s greater role in Capetian territorial ambitions and diplomacy than historians have generally appreciated. In the course of establishing for whom the manuscript was made, the article explains why the long-accepted argument for dating this manuscript to 1219 or later is invalid, and proposes an earlier terminus post quem of 1208 for both the earlier Old French Bible moralisée and this codex. Implicitly, these discoveries undermine assumptions regarding the recipients of the other supposed Capetian Bibles moralisées. Finally, this study provides evidence of the Vienna Latin Bible moralisée’s hitherto unknown history between its early thirteenth-century creation and the 1730s, when it was rebound for the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy.