36. Bible

France, 13th century
165 x 110 mm
Pluteo 3, capsula I

The codex is a typical example of a ‘hand’ Bible, i.e. a compact manuscript with the complete Latin text of the Old and New Testaments, intended for individual reading and study, and often associated with the preaching work of the mendicant orders. This one has become known as the ‘Bible of Marco Polo’ based on the testimony of the Jesuit Procurator General Philippe Couplet (1624–92), who gave it to Cosimo III, the grand duke of Tuscany. The latter was an inquisitive traveller, as demonstrated by some of the other works he owned, such as Il Viaggio di Cosimo (Med. Palat. 123) and the Carte di Castello. According to Couplet, the family of an eminent figure from Cham Xo, in Nanking Province, had jealously guarded the codex for 400 years, convinced that it was a Bible that had belonged to Marco Polo or some other European traveller. Despite scholars’ objections to this attribution—due to the fact that the biblical text is not cited in Marco Polo’s work, that he was quite young when he went to China, that he knew very little Latin and that Bibles were rarely used by merchants and laymen, together with uncertainty over the site where it was discovered—there is no decisive evidence for rejecting this fascinating hypothesis. Unfortunately, its extremely poor state of conservation makes additional study impossible. Nevertheless, one thing is certain: the codex is a Library treasure providing important documentation on the use of books, and it has never been displayed before. It seems likely that this Bible, which was made in France, was one of the accoutrements of a traveller, probably a Franciscan from the first mission that the order sent to China. When the missions were closed, it was brought to Italy wrapped in a precious cloth, an ancient piece of yellow silk that is unquestionably Oriental and was traditionally used to protect particularly valuable objects.