The Vulgate is a late fourth century Latin translation of the Bible, largely written by St. Jerome at the request of Pope Damasus I. During the thirteenth century, miniature or portable manuscript copies of the Vulgate Bible were nearly all written by young wandering friars of the newly founded Dominican Order. Using quills made from the wings of crows, wild geese, and eagles, the friars wrote in Gothic angular script on vellum or rabbit skins. The precision and beauty of the text executed in so small a scale, with letters less than one-sixteenth of an inch high, are among the wonders in book history. The size of the script made the bibles very difficult to read. Few people could afford to buy these volumes, which took two years to transcribe. It has been calculated that in the year 1250, it would have taken fifteen years of a day laborer’s earnings to purchase a manuscript Bible of this type.
