Andrew Dunning, R.W. Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, writes: The Duke Humfrey New Testament (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Duke Humfrey c. 1) is an illuminated copy of the first complete Old French translation of the New Testament, known as the ‘version du xiiiᵉ siècle’. This translation is the work of Dominican scholars working in Paris between 1235 and 1260. The manuscript was unknown to researchers until the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art stopped it at export in November 2023, recognising it as a ‘national treasure’ for its importance to Anglo-French cultural exchange and its association with key historical figures.
King Jean II of France (Jean le Bon) owned the manuscript – possibly until the English took him hostage at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, during the Hundred Years’ War. A succession of Lancastrian princes then owned the book, and by the 15th century, it entered the library of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, one of England’s most eminent royal bibliophiles. In the 1430s and 1440s he gave almost 300 books to the University of Oxford library, housed in what is now known as ‘Duke Humfrey’s Library’. The New Testament never arrived at the university library, which accounts for its survival after 16th-century reformers dispersed the collection. The manuscript is now only the sixth of Duke Humfrey’s books in the Bodleian.
The manuscript is a masterpiece of late-13th-century Parisian illumination, attributed to the Cholet Master. This artist is associated with 12 other manuscripts, particularly the Missal of Cardinal Jean Cholet (Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS D.34). The book’s initials, though made for a vernacular text, are more characteristic of those usually associated with Latin Bibles. Based on the evidence of books such as Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.52, art historians have assumed that French vernacular Bibles, distinct from Latin traditions, more often employed narrative-focused visual languages. This juxtaposition challenges assumptions about the relationship between text and visual style in medieval manuscripts and the status of biblical translations.
The manuscript was the subject of a symposium at the Weston Library, the home of Bodleian Library Special Collections, on 21 March 2025. It will also feature in the Treasured exhibition, opening on 6 June. It will be available via the Digital Bodleian platform, ensuring global access for scholars and the public. It will also support Bodleian initiatives to bring public collections to diverse audiences and inspire interdisciplinary scholarship. This addition to the collections is particularly significant as the Bodleian celebrates the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Weston Library.
Alongside FNL, the purchase was made possible by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund with a contribution from The Wolfson Foundation, the Friends of the Bodleian, and private donors. This remarkable manuscript serves as a witness to the intertwined histories of England and France and the enduring power of the written word.
