Jacobus de Theramo: Belial

Speyer area, 1461
Parchment, illuminated by at least 3 illuminators, among them possibly the Master of the Housebook (Meister des Hausbuchs)
This is the only German language Belial manuscript on parchment that is richly adorned by opaque colour miniatures. The much-read juridical text of the Middle Ages contains the lawsuit brought by the forces of hell – represented by the juridically trained devil Belial – against the liberation of the patriarchs from limbo by Jesus Christ. At the end of the lawsuit, which strictly follows the formal requirements of canon law, the complaint is rejected. Hell is granted only the souls of those damned in the Last Judgement. According to the coat of arms on the first folio, the manuscript was made for Duke Louis I of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. Research has again and again associated the title miniature with the Master of the Housebook, the most important illuminator and graphic artist of the late Middle Ages in the Middle Rhine region. The miniatures are influenced by Dutch art, but were presumably not created in the Netherlands.
Fol. 1v: Duke Louis I of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, the principal who commissioned the manuscript, riding on a wildly galloping white horse through the landscape in front of Trifels castle. Below, a late medieval study room with the author of the Belial, Jacobus de Theramo, at the writing desk.