Manuscript Cutting: Leaf with Historiated Initial ‘U’ showing Job and his Wife

Unknown Artist
Leaf from the Teutonic Knights Bible with an Historiated Initial ‘U’ showing Job and his Wife
Liege, about 1300
Pigment and ink on parchment
Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 9036T)

In this highly detailed leaf, the letter ‘U’ is shown with two figures within it. The seated figure is Job while the other figure is his wife. In her hands she holds a scroll inscribed ‘Benedic deo et morere’ (Bless God and Die). This leaf probably came from a Bible owned by the House of the Teutonic Knights in Nieuwe Biesen (‘New Rushes’), Maastricht, as indicated by an inscription on a related leaf now in the British Library. See: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-teutonic-knights-bible/.