Early Medieval Bible Illumination and the Ashburnham Pentateuch

This book focuses on the Ashburnham Pentateuch, an early medieval illuminated manuscript of the Old Testament whose pictures are among the earliest surviving and most extensive biblical illustrations. Dorothy Verkerk shows how the lively and complex illustrations of Genesis and Exodus, which incorporate references to contemporary life, were used to explain important church teachings. She provides a key to understanding the relationship between the text and pictures. Verkerk also argues that the manuscript was created in Italy, thereby solving a mystery that has baffled scholars for the last century and demonstrating that early medieval Italian artists were capable of complex innovations in the field of the visual arts.

Dorothy Verkerk is Associate Professor of Art History and Fellow of the Institute for Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A scholar of early medieval art, she has contributed to The Art Bulletin, Journal for Medieval and Early Modern History and Mitteilungen zur Christlichen Archaolgie.