The Zwolle bible

In 1464, on the commission of Herman Droem, dean of the chapter of St. Mary in Utrecht, a man named Jacobus van Enckhuysen, librarian of the Brethren of the Common Life in Zwolle, began with the production of this massive bible. Twelve years later he had finally completed his work: more then 1700 leaves measuring c. 530x390 mm, in six volumes. It brought the Brethren’s House the appreciable amount of fifty gold guilders.

The volumes were put on display in the church of St. Mary and many came from far and wide to admire them – thereby not refraining from scribbling their names on the parchment… Nothing remained untouched with these tourists around: from the original 125 decorated and historiated initials, almost 50 were cut or just torn out. Some of these resurfaced in later years and so in 1983 the University Library, where the Zwolle Bible is located since 1840, could finally join one of these initials (ms. 15 C 11) with its original text on f. 243 of volume four.

Utrecht, UB : Cat 31 and 15.C.11