Bible of Moutier-Grandval

Few biblical manuscripts from antiquity and the Early Middle Ages have survived in their entirety to this day. Surprisingly, the impressive Carolingian Bible of Moutier-Grandval has been largely unaffected by the ravages of time, despite its turbulent history of ownership. It was created almost 1,200 years ago in the Abbey of Saint Martin in Tours – one of the most important cultural centers of the Carolingian reform movement, known as the Carolingian Renaissance. Established in the 8th century under Charlemagne and his influential advisor Alcuin, this movement continued into the 9th century. In the Bible of Moutier-Grandval, it is evident in the calligraphic precision with which the texts of the Old and New Testaments, including several prefaces by Jerome and poems attributed to Alcuin, were realized in Carolingian minuscule and a half uncial script, developed in Tours, by probably more than 20 scribes. The manuscript also contains a version of St. Jerome's Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, revised by Alcuin. Together with its magnificent illumination, it is a rare masterpiece of Carolingian scholarship and artistry.