Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Antiquitates Judaicae
France, Dijon, late 13th century
MS M.533 fol. 33v

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Within two registers of initial H:
1) Moses: Birth -- Infant Moses, horned, swaddled, reclines in basket atop capitals surmounting colonnettes. Jochebed, mother of Moses, reclines in draped bed; Amram, father of Moses, wearing hat, right hand on breast, extending left hand, stands next to the bed.
2) Moses: in Bulrushes -- Man places in water basket containing infant Moses, horned, swaddled.
3) Pharaoh: commanding Death of Children -- Pharaoh, crowned, raising right hand, holding scepter with left hand, is seated, looking toward one of two soldiers wearing mail, raising sword with right hand, holding with left hand infant by neck, arms bleeding where hands have been severed. The other other soldier holds with right hand infant by neck, bleeding from torso severed from lower half of body on ground below.
4) Moses: in Bulrushes -- One of two women, raising right hand, indicates with left hand, basket in water, containing Moses, horned and swaddled, grasped by both hands of second woman.
Beginning of Book 4, Chapter 1 of Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae.