A bifolia, manuscript portable 13th-Century Preacher’s book in minute script, Germany

Two Bifolia from a Portable Sermon Collection In Latin, manuscript on vellum
Germany, 13th century

155mm x 100mm

Description
Four leaves (two conjoined bifolia), written in an exceptionally small and highly compressed Gothic cursive bookhand in brown ink, the script executed in a fine hairline ductus characteristic of portable pastoral books.

Text arranged in long lines across the page, with minimal margins. Paragraph divisions occasionally marked by slightly enlarged or stroked capitals; sporadic use of simple pen flourishes.

Condition
Recovered from reuse in a later binding, with resulting wear. Several circular and irregular holes (including one larger perforation affecting text), small tears at edges, surface abrasion, and cockling to the vellum.
Text generally remains legible throughout despite losses. Evidence of folding along central axes of bifolia.

Text
These leaves preserve portions of a sermon collection.

Script
The hand is rapid yet controlled, suggesting professional production for clerical use rather than monastic display. The extreme compactness of the script strongly indicates portability – a working preacher’s vade mecum, designed to be carried, consulted, and reused. These bifolia belong to the widespread tradition of compact sermon books produced in the 13th century, a period marked by the rapid expansion of preaching— particularly among mendicant orders such as the Dominicans and Franciscans. Such manuscripts are the practical counterparts to the great scholastic compilations of the same period: not luxury objects, but tools of intellectual and pastoral labour.