Order, Vocation, and Redemption: Three Visions from the Bible Moralized MS 2554
Three extraordinary pages from the Bible Moralized MS 2554, a 13th century illuminated manuscript preserved at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, which recount three fundamental moments in the medieval reading of sacred history.
This bundle brings together three complementary visions of the medieval universe:
God, Geometer and Architect of the Universe
Creation as a divine plan. God measures the world with a compass, transforming chaos into order, light, and harmony.
La Chiamata di Abramo e la Liberazione di Lot
The path of vocation: detachment from the world, the trial, the spiritual struggle and liberation as an image of salvation.
The Blessing of Jacob and the Mystery of the Cross
Patriarchal history reinterpreted in the light of the Cross: promise, fulfillment, and redemption in a sequence of eight illuminated medallions.
Three pages, a single reading:
from the order of the Universe, to the journey of man, to the fulfillment of salvation.
Each work is made in facsimile with fine art printing, gold foil and hand-treated parchment paper, in full respect of the medieval original.
A unique journey through the Bible Moralized MS 2554: where the image does not illustrate the story… but interprets it.
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399,00 €
- Description
Description
Facsimile page from the Bible Moralized MS 2554 with eight illuminated medallions dedicated to the calling of Abraham, the story of Lot, the war of the kings, and the liberation from captivity. The gold background, narrative structure, and moralized reading transform the biblical story into a powerful image of vocation, spiritual choice, and salvation.
Limited edition facsimile, produced with fine art printing, gold foil, and hand-treated parchment paper.
Product Description
Before Abraham became the father of offspring, he had to hear a voice.
Before he received the promise, he had to leave his land.
Before the journey of faith took shape, there was a command: depart.
This facsimile page, taken from the Bible Moralized MS 2554, presents one of the great spiritual sequences of the Old Testament: the calling of Abraham, his departure by divine command, the story of Lot, the war of the kings and the liberation from a condition of captivity.
The composition is organized into eight historiated medallions, arranged in two columns and four registers. Each scene is not simply an illustrated episode, but part of a complex visual narrative. The page guides the gaze from vocation to journey, from detachment to trial, from battle to liberation.
As always in the Bible Moralized, the biblical narrative is not presented merely as a memory of the past. It is interpreted, explained, and transformed into teaching. Abraham’s story thus becomes an image of the soul’s journey: leaving behind what binds us to the world, following God’s voice, facing spiritual conflict, and finding salvation through liberating intervention.
Abraham is not just the patriarch who departs.
He is the model of the man who listens.
Lot is not just the relative caught up in the conflict.
He is the figure of the soul exposed to the risk of captivity.
The battle is not just a biblical episode.
It becomes an image of spiritual struggle.
Liberation is not just an earthly rescue.
It becomes a figure of redemption.
The gold that illuminates the medallions is not purely decorative. In medieval miniatures, gold signifies divine light, sacred space, and the eternal dimension of salvation history. On this page, the gold background transforms Abraham’s journey into a vision: history becomes a figure, the journey becomes a vocation, the battle becomes a struggle of the soul.
Product data sheet Facsimile page from the Bible Moralized MS 2554 – The Calling of Abraham and the Liberation of Lot
- Iconographic title: The Calling of Abraham and the Liberation of Lot
- Subject: God calls Abraham; Abraham leaves his land; Lot; war of the kings; liberation of Lot; moralization of the salvation of the soul
- Reference work: Bibbia Moralizzata, MS code 2554
- Location of the original manuscript: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna
- Original date: 13th century
- Cultural area: France, Capetian royal domain
- Category: Cards / Medieval Sacred Art / Bibles and Gospels
- Theme: Abraham, Lot, vocation, detachment from the world, Cross, spiritual struggle, liberation, salvation
- Main decorative element: gold background and illuminated medallions
- Original manuscript from which it is derived: 131 cards, 1032 miniatures
- Dimensions: 26 × 34.4 cm
- Edition processes: fine art printing, gold foil application, hand-treated parchment paper
- Edition: 199 copies
- Warranty: 24 months
Product data sheet Facsimile page from the Bible Moralized MS 2554 – The Blessing of Jacob and the Mystery of the Cross
- Iconographic title: The Blessing of Jacob and the Mystery of the Cross
- Subject: Jacob blesses his descendants; Crucifixion; Christ with the apostles; death and burial of Jacob
- Reference work: Bibbia Moralizzata, MS code 2554
- Location of the original manuscript: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna
- Period: 13th century
- Cultural area: France, Capetian royal domain
- Category: Cards / Medieval Sacred Art / Bibles and Gospels
- Theme: Jacob, patriarchal blessing, Cross, redemption, Old and New Law
- Main decorative element: gold background and illuminated medallions
- Original manuscript from which it is derived: 131 cards, 1032 miniatures
- Dimensions: 26 × 34.4 cm
- Edition processes: fine art printing, gold foil application, hand-treated parchment paper
- Edition: 199 copies
- Warranty: 24 months
Product data sheet Page from the Bible Moralized MS 2554
- Iconographic title: God Architect of the Universe
- Subject: God the Creator measures the world with a compass
- Reference work: Bibbia Moralizzata, MS code 2554
- Location of the original manuscript: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna
- Period: 13th century
- Cultural area: France, Capetian royal domain
- Category: Cards / Medieval Sacred Art / Bibles and Gospels
- Theme: Creation, divine architecture, universal order, sacred geometry
- Main decorative element: gold background and gold decorations
- Original manuscript from which it is derived: 131 cards, 1032 miniatures
- Dimensions: 26 × 34.4 cm
- Edition processes: fine art printing, gold foil application, hand-treated parchment paper
- Print run: 199
- Warranty: 24 months
The Morality of the Bible Moralized
In the Middle Ages, “morality” did not just mean behavior.
It means hidden interpretation of reality.
The Moralized Bible reads every event on two levels:
literal → what happens in sacred history
spiritual → what that history means for the soul
In this sense:
- God who measures the world → the Universe has an intelligible order
- Abraham leaves → man must leave the world for the promise
- Jacob and the Cross → history finds fulfillment in redemption
Morality is therefore not an abstract teaching, but a key to understanding the world.
Iconographic details
The three pages of the Bible Moralizzata MS 2554 share a visual structure typical of the manuscript: the division into illuminated medallions on a gold background, organised as true “narrative sequences”.
Each scene is not autonomous, but part of a system of correspondences:
God, Geometer and Architect of the Universe
The composition is dominated by the divine figure with the compass. The image is constructed as a synthesis of gesture, measurement, and light: the Creator does not observe the world, he orders it.
Abraham and Lot
The structure is divided into eight dynamic medallions: Calling, Departure, Journey, War, and Liberation. The scenes alternate narrative and allegorical moments, transforming the story into a spiritual journey.
Jacob and the Cross
The medallions become more symbolic: blessing, Crucifixion, apostles, death, and burial intertwine in a theological reading of the transition between the Old and New Testaments.
The common thread is gold: not a decorative background, but a sacred space outside of time, which unifies all the scenes in a divine dimension.
Historical insight
The Bible Moralized was born in the 13th century in France, probably in an environment linked to the Capetian court.
This is not a simple illustrated Bible, but a complex system of visual interpretation:
- each episode of the Old Testament is accompanied by a Christological or moral reading
- the sacred text becomes image
- the image becomes a theological commentary
The MS 2554 codex preserved in Vienna is one of the most important examples of this tradition: 131 cards and over 1000 miniatures that transform the Bible into a visual encyclopedia of salvation.
The three pages of the bundle represent three fundamental levels of this medieval thought:
- cosmological (God and the order of the world)
- anthropological (Abraham and the choice of man)
- theological (Jacob and the fulfillment in Christ)
Why buy it?
This set of three pages is not a simple collection of medieval miniatures.
It is a visual journey inside the Bible Moralized MS 2554:
- from Creation (order of the Universe)
- to the Vocation (order of human life)
- until Redemption (spiritual fulfillment)
God who measures the world
The man who answers the call
The story that is fulfilled in the Cross
Purchasing this bundle means entering a medieval vision in which the world is not fragmented, but coherent, legible and symbolic.
Each page is a fragment of a single discourse:
the Universe as a project, life as a journey, history as redemption.
An ideal work for collectors, scholars, and enthusiasts of illuminated manuscripts, sacred art, and Christian symbolism.
FAQ – God, Geometer and Architect of the Universe
Three facsimile pages from the Bible Moralized MS 2554: God the Geometer, Abraham and Lot, Jacob and the Mystery of the Cross.
Yes. They belong to the same manuscript and represent three levels of the same medieval vision: creation, vocation, and redemption.
It is a medieval manuscript in which the Bible is interpreted through images and symbolic correspondences between the Old and New Testaments.
In the Middle Ages, the compass was a symbol of order, measure, and the divine plan of the Universe.
They are both: they originated in a medieval Christian context, but they use a universal symbolic language.
For collectors, scholars, and enthusiasts of medieval art, Christian symbolism, and illuminated manuscripts.
Yes, these are facsimiles created using fine art printing techniques and processes that respect the aesthetics of the original.
Commentary Liber Abaci + Paper the Fibonacci sequence folio 124