Ripoll Bible

Stored under the shelf mark ms. lat. 5729 in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the so-called Ripoll Bible is one of two complete codices, in addition to a fragment, produced by the monks of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll. This was an important center of Catalonian culture under the direction of the Bishop of Oliba. The Bibles were completed sometime ca. 1020 and contain 300+ miniatures. A groups of artists created these works, considered the most splendidly decorated European Bibles of the 10th and 11th centuries and important artifacts of Catalan miniature. The monk Guifré de Ripoll may have been the “team leader”, and used primary colors and imparted the scenes he illustrated with a sense of movement and dynamism. There is another anonymous artist associated with the work, who can be distinguished by his perfectionism, proportions, parallelism, and symmetry. His realistic schematization of figures both animal and human is surprisingly regular, as is his depiction of musical instruments and domestic objects. None of his scenes are colored, exposing his pen strokes for a glimpse into his creative process.