CHAPTER 1
 INTTRODUCTION

 The National Library in Madrid, Spain, holds one of the most interesting

illuminated manuscripts produced in Castile and Leon during the Middle Ages: The Bible

ofAvila (Bibl. Nac. Cod. Vit. 15-1).1 This thesis investigates the three illuminated folios

depicting the Cycle of the Life and Pa~ssion of Christ that were inserted into the Bible of

Avila at an unknown date. What is unusual about these three folios is that they seem to be

unrelated to the other illuminated aspects of the Bible of Avila. The rareness of the folios

opens a number of interesting questions regarding the chronology, style and function of

these folios. In this chapter, I discuss the general characteristics of the Bible of Avila. In

Chapter 2, I discuss the iconography of the Cycle of the Life and Pa~ssion of Christ with

an emphasis on the uniqueness of the iconography. In Chapter 3, I discuss the style of the

artist in rendering the Cycle. Chapter 4 explores the possible sources that the artist, the

Master of the Cycle of the Life and Pa~ssion of Christ in the Avila Bible, could have used.

Finally, in Chapter 5, I conclude with a new tentative dating and the possible function of

the three folios.

 The large Avila Bible (630 x 430 x 162 mm--closed) has its origins in the

Umbro-Roman region in Italy but it also contains traces of Tuscan influence.2 The Avila




SThe Bible of Avila has a long history of unresolved issues. Some of these issues are
addressed in this study, but others will need further investigation.

SGarrison, E. B., Studies in the History of2~edieval Italianl~t~tl~t~tl~t~tl~ Painting, vol. 4, London:
Pindar Press, 1993, pp. 59-60, states "The Avila Bible Master was thought, on the basis