Leaf with historiated initial E showing Baruch, from the Hastière Bible, Southern Netherlands, 14th century. A duplicate number MS.219 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.

Recto: historiated initial E showing the prophet Baruch holding a scroll with the inscription ‘pater noster et noster pater’; dove of the Holy Spirit flying towards him. In the lower margin, drollerie with a quadruped and two-headed snake. This initial introduces the Book of Baruch.
Incipit: Et hec sunt verba libri qui scripsit Baruch
2 columns, 38 lines
Verso: 3-line initial P in blue with red flourishing, ‘ij’ written in margin to guide the rubricator.

Probably commissioned by the couple depicted in the Crucifixion scene (Museum no. 279:1) identified by the scrolls they hold as Johans de Hastières and Magrite de Matetio (?) Voisia. The cleric depicted kneeling before Christ (?) (Museum no. 246:10), called 'Egidius de Romereet' would also have been involved in the commissioning of the Bible, which was in multiple volumes. May have been made in the region of Hastière, south of Namur.
Purchased from J. and S. Goldschmidt as part of three portfolios (now Museum nos 234-296) designated as a 'Illuminations: a collection of 338 specimens, pages and cuttings' for the total sum of £100.0.0, received on 15 October 1872; passed on for Register in April 1874 (see Register of Drawings).
Cuttings from the same manuscript in the V&A collection: 246:7, 246:8, 246:9, 246:10, 260:1, 260:2, 260:3, 260:4, 260:5, 260:6, 260:7, 279:1, 279:2.

Cuttings from the same manuscript in other collections: Philadelphia, Free Library; Nuremberg, Nationalmuseum; Paris, Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts; Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung; Zeileis collection and on the market. For full details, see Peter Kidd, 'Leaves and Cuttings from the Hastière Bible', in Medieval Manuscripts Provenance blog, 2016.

260:7