Leaf with decorated initial P, from the Hastière Bible, Southern Netherlands, 14th century.
A duplicate number MS.216 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.

Recto: Decorated initial P, with angel holding a scroll with inscription ‘volui’. The initial introduces the prologue to the four Gospels.
Rubric: Item prologus Iheronimi super editionem quatuor evangeliorum. Plures fuisse qui evangelia scripserunt.
2 columns, 38 lines

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.

260:4