Ottheinrich Bible

Ingolstadt, after 1430/before 1443
Parchment, today 8 volumes, illuminated in Regensburg by several artists around 1430/40 and by Mathis Gerung, Neuburg an der Donau, 1530/32
The Ottheinrich Bible is the earliest richly illustrated New Testament in the German language. Written around 1430 commissioned by Duke Louis VII of Bavaria-Ingolstadt (1368–1447), the illumination process was immediately after started by various illuminators from Regensburg, illuminating a large part of the first two volumes. The rest remained unfinished until the time of Ottheinrich (1502–1559) who inherited the Bible. He commissioned the illuminator Mathis Gerung who completed the illuminations in 1530-1532.
Fol.12r: The murder of children in Bethlehem by the so called Matthew illuminator. Protected by two guards, Herod, seated, watches the killing done by his soldiers. Whereas all newborn children are killed, Jesus can escape fleeing to Egypt. In the miniature of the infanticide the quotes of Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni chapel in Padua are striking: the mother tumbled to the floor and the woman in a view from the back.