The Anjou Bible at KU Leuven figures in a new historical card game where the players compete against each other for illustrating a new Bible using the original images.
“All the images in the game are from the Anjou Bible which is considered a Flemish masterpiece,” Bram De Ridder, a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven who invented the game, told The Brussels Times. He came up with the card game when he started playing games during the COVID pandemic.
In fact, the Bible, named after the Anjou dynasty which ruled Naples in the 14th century, originates from Italy and ended up in Leuven in the beginning of the 16th century. Since 1969, the rare manuscript is kept safely at the Maurits Sabbe Library of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.
According to the story, the Bible was commissioned by King Robert I of Anjou around 1340 as a wedding gift for his granddaughter Joanna and her intended husband Andreas of Hungary. Later research has disclosed a coat of arms of a powerful family in Naples at the time that probably was the first owner of the manuscript.
It did not start well for the couple. Andreas was murdered and the suspect Joanna had to flee to France where she was assassinated after a tumultuous life.
© KU Luven - RS
Luckily, the beautiful Bible survived and remains a feast for the eyes. Besides miniatures and decorated initials, there are lavish decorations in the margins of the pages, showing musicians and hunters, angels and acrobats, and all kinds of fantasy creatures.
Last time the Anjou Bible was shown to the public for a longer period was in 2010 after a thorough restoration. The Bible, consisting of 344 folios of goatskin parchment, is a fragile manuscript and seldom shown, even for experts. It will be exhibited again in 2025 in connection with the 600th anniversary of the founding of Leuven university.
In the meantime, we can enjoy the colorful and mythological images in the Bible while playing the card game. “We are playing with history,” Bram says, “although the purpose of the game is not educational.” Learning history is an extra bonus of playing the game. The images give a flavor of life in mediaeval times and what people believed in.
How do you play the game? “It’s a funny game and takes ca 20 minutes to play,” Bram replies. It can be played by 2 – 4 players (8+) and requires only some basic math. There are 112 cards, almost all of them illustrated with images from the Anjou Bible. The players are asked to choose a text page from the Bible and illustrate it with suitable images.
The pages are connected with the images. Some of them are from the margins of the pages and not linked to any biblical story, other images inside the pages refer to the text. The rule book warns parents that some cards show nude angels and one card depicts a man who has been executed. Besides that, the game is child-friendly, Bram assures.
"To many people, the Middle Ages seem like a dark and gloomy period, but the beautiful images from the Anjou Bible prove that there was also room for fun and relaxation.”
The game became a success from the very start and a new batch had to be ordered from a local producer. For the time being, it can be found in KU Leuven shops or ordered on-line but it will soon also be distributed by toy shops and bookstores.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
