At the headquarters of the British Library in Padua, those managers of the London institution, the president of the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation of Padua and Rovigo, Professor Gilberto Muraro, the vicar Don Lorenzo Celi representing the bishop of Padua Monsignor Claudio Cipolla, was officially announced the exhibition. “The illustrated Bible
Padovana. The city and its frescoes “which can be admired in Padua, in the Salone dei Bishops of the Diocesan Museum from 17 October 2025 to 19 April 2026. An authentic masterpiece of the fourteenth century.
The exhibition is made possible by the loan exceptionally granted by British Library of the portion kept there of what is one of the most famous medieval illustrated bibies in the world. For the first time it will be possible to present all the 871 Vignettes of the precious miniata bible, those kept in London and those that are the heritage of the Academy of Concordi of Rovigo.
It is a expected and difficult cultural event: the return to Padua, albeit for the short space of an exhibition, of the “Paduan Bible”, a fans of the fourteenth -century era of great importance and originality. This masterpiece of the miniature is the work of artists operating at the Court of the Carrara, who were the lords of the city until 1405, when Padua entered the Serenissima Republic of Venice. It is not known whether the plan to tell the entire biblical story has ever gone through. Certainly the company presented itself as cyclopean and required very large sums, as well as long times.
After falling the lordship, the traces have been lost. Two detached portions came on the market probably in seven-eighteenth-century era. To make sure it was the powerful Rodigina dei Silvestri family, large bibliophiles as well as art collectors; The second was acquired by the Duke of Sussex. The Silvestri tied their entire library, and therefore also their part of the Bible, at the Academy of Concordi; The Sussex Bible instead came to the British Library.
There is no trace of any further parts of the miniative manuscript to date.
The meeting of the two well -known parts of the Paduan Bible Bible was suggested and promoted by the Cariparo Foundation, which asked for and obtained the decisive collaboration of the two institutions that keep it.
To welcome the Bible so brought together, thanks to the collaboration of the diocese of Padua and the bishop Monsignor Claudio Cipolla, a home of great prestige – the magnificent salon of the bishops – now included in the Diocesan Museum, a non -random location, given that The Bible History shows many stylistic assonances with that treasure of the Urbs Picca Patavina, UNESCO heritage, which is the baptistery of the cathedral frescoed by Giusto de ‘Menabuoi.
To make the Paduan -made Bible unique is its set of miniatures in perfect dialogue with the development of the biblical story. It is precisely these fascinating images that give strength to the text that seems to almost become a didactic compared to them. In fact, it is not uncommon to read the postponement to “Como here is deposited”, as if it were a story more entrusted to the miniata scenes than to words, almost to anticipate a wonderful comic. A Bible for images, therefore, in the tradition of the French illustrated Bibbies of the time.
The biblical story is written in the vulgar with Venetian and Paduan inflections, a rare example, given that the bibbies of that era were mainly in Latin language. The portion of the minted manuscript preserved in Rovigo contains the incipit of the Holy Text, namely Genesis, in addition to the history of Ruth. The Londonian one reports the central part of the Pentateuch (exodus, levitic, numbers, deuteronomy) and the book by Giosuè.
86 illustrated cards are kept in the British Library Bible Library, embellished with 529 mini images. A sudden rejection of the sheets, which took place in an unknown moment, took away a part of the numbering of pages and notes. The London sheets are contained by a blue and nineteenth -century gold binding, with a royal coat of arms.
“The illustrations of the Paduan Bible show that they look to the great pictorial cycles that Giotto, Altichiero, just de ‘Menabuoi had created for the Carraresi and for the powerful religious communities of the city,
According to a particularly sober and realistic style “underlines Alessia Vedova, curator of the exhibition.
In the hall of the bishops, the two parts of the Bible can be admired alongside, protected by a maximum security display case. To precede them, in the exhibition itinerary, an immersive room where visitors will be led to relive the historical and artistic environment of Padua of the fourteenth century, to understand the cultural climate in which the Bible company matured and ascertain how the presence in Padua, in those years, of Giotto and other great artists influenced the miniators engaged in the great company. These are the years in which the city also welcomes the greatest poet of the moment, Francesco Petrarca, indicating one of the highest cultural environment in the continent.
“The visit to the exhibition is an opportunity not to be missed”- underlines Federica Toniolo, professor at the University of Padua of medieval art history “to appreciate the quality achieved by the miniators and see reflections in the cartoons, as in a mirror, the uses and customs, the architectural spaces and the rural territory of the late medieval Padua”.
In the elegant, large “veranda” of the Vescovile Palace, visitors will once admired the original, the opportunity to enjoy the vision of all the pages of the Bible, reproduced in facsimile, thus being able to follow the performance of the “stories” illustrated in it.
Visiting will then be able to forward to the rich diocesan museum, directed by Andrea Nante, in which works are preserved by the Middle Ages in Canova. And visit, with a single ticket, the Baptistery of the Cathedral, admiring the famous cycle of frescoes by Giusto de ‘Menabuoi, whose scenes painted, especially in the drum of the dome, were iconographic models for the Bible.
Carlo Franza