Bible Historiale, 2 vols.
This is a fourteenth-century illuminated manuscript of the Bible Historiale, a French vernacular history of the Bible compiled from scripture and commentary, produced in France around 1360 and held by the J. Paul Getty Museum. Its miniatures are framed in gold with blue and red grounds, and the pages show dense gothic text columns in black ink with decorated initials. A designer might take its jewel-toned blues, gold leaf frames, and compact narrative scenes as a model for layered, ornamented page layouts.
