Editing Quedlinburg Itala fragment (section)

{{short description|Bible fragment of 6th century}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Quedlinburg ''Itala'' fragment}}
[[File:QuedlinburgItalaFolio2rIllus1KingsChap15.jpg|thumb|270px|Scenes from Chapter 15 of [[1 Samuel]] from the Quedlinburg ''Itala'' fragment (the text illustrated given below)]]
[[File:Quedlinburg4.jpg|thumb|270px|A text page]]

The '''Quedlinburg ''Itala'' fragment''' (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Cod. theol. lat. fol. 485) is a fragment of six folios from a large 5th-century [[illuminated manuscript]] of an [[Vetus Latina|Old Latin ''Itala'']] translation of parts of [[1 Samuel]]<ref>another name is 1 King (there are several names for the same book)</ref> of the Old Testament. It was probably produced in Rome in the 420s or 430s. It is the oldest surviving illustrated biblical manuscript and has been in the [[Berlin State Library]] since 1875-76.  The pages are approximately 305 x 205&nbsp;mm large.<ref>Weitzmann, 27</ref>

The fragments were found from 1865 onwards (two in 1865, two in 1867, one in 1887) re-used in the bindings of different books that had been bound in the 17th century in the town of [[Quedlinburg]], home of [[Quedlinburg Abbey]], a large Imperial monastery, where the manuscript may well have spent much of its life.

The illustrations are grouped in framed miniatures occupying an entire page, with between two and five miniatures per page, with the corresponding text being on the other side of the pages; there are fourteen miniatures in total. One folio contains only text.  The illustrations, although much damaged, are done in the illusionistic style of [[late antiquity]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=EqGvw5G-BOkC&dq=Quedlinburg+Itala&pg=PA16 Calkins, 21; also]</ref>