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FESTAL ANTIPHONAL, for the use of St. Germain-des-Près, Paris, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM with printed OFFICE OF ST. BENEDICT on paper.
Paris, 1729
552 x 365mm. 2 paper + i + 89 leaves, paginated after the title-page + iii + i + 14 paper, COMPLETE, 17 lines of text or seven four-line staves ruled in red with music of a square notation or varying combinations of text and music, written in black ink in a rounded formal hand between lines ruled in grey, outer ruling in red, justification: 439 x 365mm, rubrics in red, headings in red, blue and burnished gold, the name of 'Jesus' in burnished gold, initials in burnished gold or red, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE LARGE BURNISHED GOLD INITIALS: 30 on painted grounds with frames of burnished gold, 25 against sprays of naturalistic flowers, fruit or plants, five against sprays of flowers within frames of burnished gold, 12 against landscapes, 91 against landscapes in frames of burnished gold; four large and five very large initials with painted staves on grounds of patterned burnished gold, FIVE LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS AND TWELVE VERY LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS, all with staves of burnished gold within frames of burnished gold, THIRTY-THREE MINIATURES as head- and tail-pieces, ILLUMINATED ARCHITECTURAL TITLE-PAGE in burnished and liquid gold, entwined with wreaths of delicately painted flowers (some small pigment losses, some leaves slightly marked, miniature p.137 cropped at top). Printed Office of St. Benedict of 11 leaves, 460 x 282mm, printed pagination pp.1-21, the page after p.19 unnumbered, pasted to paper mounts 552 x 365mm, with woodcut headpiece and decorated opening initial, rubrics and initials in red, preceded by a miniature on parchment with title in display script incorporating flowers, bound sideways. Contemporary French red morocco gilt-tooled in the style of Padeloup with patterns of leaves and flowers, basket and shell motifs among the corner ornaments, spine with bouquets of flowers in compartments, green silk endleaves (slight scuffing to extremities); red cloth box with leather lettering-piece.
A SUMPTUOUS ROCOCO ANTIPHONAL ILLUMINATED BY JEAN PIERRE ROUSSELET FOR THE ROYAL ABBEY OF ST. GERMAIN-DES-PRèS
PROVENANCE:
1. The Royal Benedictine Abbey of St. Germain-des-Près in Paris: written by Dom Charles Mercier, monk and priest of St. Germain in 1729 for the use of the Abbey, as stated on the title page, which bears the Abbey's arms; very specific commemorations of the founder and principal benefactor of the Abbey are included. St. Germain-des-Près, the centre of the reformed Benedictine Congregation of St. Maur, fostered outstanding scholarship and intellectual activity supported by a famed library which became a national repository for manuscripts. The antiquarian interests which might have encouraged the making of this great antiphonal are exemplified by Dom Bernard de Montfaucon and his Les Monuments de la monarchie française which began to appear in that same year, 1729. A later hand has recorded on an added paper leaf that the library was destroyed by fire in 1794 but that disaster befell the printed books only; most of the manuscripts eventually passed to what is now the Bibliothèque nationale de France. A significant number had been stolen in or before 1791, most being bought by the Russian collector, Dubrowsky, and so passing to St. Petersburg; the Antiphonal could well have attracted the thieves, who concentrated on the most splendid volumes. Alternatively, as a choirbook, it may have been kept separately from the library and so somehow preserved from the turmoil of the Revolution.
2. Purchased Dawson's Bookshop, Los Angeles, 1 November, 1943 -- donated to SMS 20 June 1946.
CONTENT:
Antiphonal for the use of St. Germain-des-Près for the highest ranking feasts, title-page and pp.1-175, including: St. Maur, patron of the reformed Benedictines pp.61-73, St. Vincent, to whom the Abbey had been originally dedicated pp.74-85, St. Benedict, founder of the Order pp.86-94, St. Germain, whose relics gave the Abbey its name pp.104-116, Translation of St. Benedict pp.127-130, Exaltation of the Cross pp.145-154, Translation of St. Germain pp.131-136, anniversary of King Childebert (c.558) who founded the Abbey, where he was buried, to house relics of St. Vincent and the True Cross pp.169-170; anniversary of Louis-César de Bourbon, comte de Vexin (1672-1683), son of Louis XIV and the marquise de Montespan, who was designated Abbot of St. Germain and buried there with rich endowments, at his father's wish p.171; prayers including one for the King, Louis, pp.171-5; Printed Office of St. Benedict with unnumbered title page with miniature, pp.1-21 (independently paginated).
ILLUMINATION:
The splendid and lavish illumination is the work of Jean Pierre Rousselet, known for his signature use of burnished gold distinctively patterned with leaf motifs in lozenges. His style and career are discussed in relation to a Prayerbook in the J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ludwig V 8) in A. von Euw and J.M. Plotzek, Die Handschriften der Sammlung Ludwig, 1979, I, pp.253-256. Jean Pierre and his father Jean Baptiste were illuminators to Louis XIV and Louis XV and their work is found in manuscripts dated from 1677 to 1736, with Jean Pierre responsible for the later work. Among his masterpieces is the signed Prayerbook, dated 1723, which was given to Maria Leczcinska who married Louis XV in 1725 (Brussels, KBR, Ms II 3640); Rousselet also illuminated an Epistolary, with the initials M L, for the Chapel Royal, Versailles, possibly for the occasion of the marriage (ex Edmond de Rothschild Coll.). This Antiphonal for the Royal Abbey of St. Germain, burial place of the earlier kings, demonstrates on a spectacular scale all the qualities that attracted royal patronage.
Rousselet had a great gift for narrative, often combining headpiece and initial into a single subject, while some end- and tail-pieces are linked into a chronological or thematic sequence. The stories are conveyed by the interactions and evident emotions of their protagonists, who reveal a delight in the depiction of movement. Much play is made with light effects both in the miniatures, such as the Magi's journey by night, p.17, and the Last Supper, p.51, and in the historiated initials where landscapes, sometimes essentially monochromatic, are seen flushed with the rising or setting sun, with colours subdued by dusk or revealed by the fuller light of day. Alongside these initials with their evocative vistas, typical of the artist dubbed the 'Watteau of illumination', are others with detailed sprays of flowers, delicately portrayed against the vellum without the formality of gold framing. The same skill and variety are seen in the larger flower studies that form some of the tailpieces.
In the 17th century, illuminated manuscripts had enjoyed a renaissance at the French court with the famous calligrapher Nicolas Jarry (d. by September 1666), who produced books for Louis XIV, Cardinal Richelieu and others. Jarry and his associates evolved a new kind of illumination, which followed some of the forms of the printed book while exploiting to the full the potential of the manuscript where each page is individually designed and crafted. These traditions were developed by his Rousselet successors into the 18th century and are epitomized in the technical mastery and ebullient confidence evident in this volume.
The calligrapher, Charles Mercier, was born in Corbie, near Amiens, and joined the Congregation of St. Maur at St. Faron, Meaux, in 1700, aged 21; he died in 1759 at St. Germain-des-Près where he was noted for the regularity of his life (U. Berlière, Nouveau supplément à l'histoire littéraire de la congrégation de St Maur, II p.88). Mercier was able to dedicate much time to his craft, which was in demand outside his own Abbey. He completed a Gradual and Antiphonal for St-Rémy at Rheims, signing the third volume in 1734 and the fifth in 1741 (Rheims, Bibl. mun. Mss 271-273), and in 1738 Mercier signed a Gradual and Antiphonal for St. Eloi at Noyon, with elaborate decoration credited on the title-page to Jean Rousselet (Douai, Bibl. mun. Ms 1041). The present Antiphonal is an earlier and dazzling fruit of their collaboration.
The title-page to the printed office, possibly reused from an even larger volume, shows a less polished hand, working with a charming directness. It could well have been produced by an amateur illuminator within the Abbey of St. Germain-des-Près.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
p.1 Nativity with Adoration of the Shepherds in a cartouche set against patterned burnished gold (head-piece)
p.16 Stoning of Stephen and St. John on Patmos separated in scrolled and fronded cartouches (tail-piece)
p.17 The Magi guided through the night by the Star of Bethlehem (head-piece) above the Adoration of the Magi (historiated initial)
p.25 A basket of flowers (tail-piece)
p.26 The resurrected Christ (head-piece) above the sleeping soldiers round the tomb (historiated initial)
p.33 The Ascension (head-piece)
p.41 The Pilgrims to Emmaus within a fictive picture frame (tail-piece)
p.42 The Dove of the Holy Spirit (head-piece) forming a Pentecost scene with the Virgin and Apostles in the historiated initial below
p.50 Sts Peter and John the Evangelist setting forth on their mission (tail-piece)
p.51 The Last Supper, dramatically lit by a single candle (head-piece); the Lamb of God on an altar (historiated initial)
p.60 The Adoration of the Sacrament by two angels flanked by grapes and wheat (tail-piece)
p.61 St. Maur rescues St. Placidus from drowning (head-piece); St. Maur (historiated initial)
p.73 Four roses (small tail-piece)
p.74 Martyrdom of St. Vincent (head-piece); St. Vincent as a deacon (historiated initial)
p.86 St. Benedict as a hermit at Subiaco, with St. Romanus lowering his food in a basket (head-piece); St. Benedict (historiated initial)
p.94 St. Benedict mortifying the flesh by rolling naked in thorns (tail-piece)
p.95 A bishop processes towards a church (head-piece); an altar with reliquaries (historiated initial)
p.103 The west façade of a great gothic church, in a landscape (tail-piece)
p.104 St. Germain giving alms (head-piece)
p.116 Large vase of flowers (tail-piece)
p.117 The Conversion of St. Paul (head-piece); St. Peter freed from prison by an angel (historiated initial)
p.126 Cherubs with the Keys of St. Peter, the Sword of St. Paul, palms of martydom and victors' wreaths (tail-piece)
p.127 Benedictine monks in procession, perhaps to fetch St. Benedict's relics (head-piece)
p.130 The procession returns from Monte Casssino to Fleury-sur-Loire with the relics (tail-piece)
p.131 The Translation of St. Germain (head-piece)
p.136 Bouquet of flowers (tail-piece)
p.137 The Assumption of the Virgin (head-piece) above the Apostles round her empty tomb (historiated initial)
p.144 Angels holding a picture of the Virgin (tail-piece)
p.145 The Brazen Serpent, a prefiguration of the Crucifixion (head-piece); Heraclius bearing the Cross (historiated initial)
p.154 A silver reliquary of the True Cross incorporating angels, executed in grisaille on a pink base (tail-piece)
p.155 All Saints, Catherine, Lawrence and Benedict recognisable, around the Trinity, heavenly clouds 'overlapping' the burnished gold surround (head-piece)
p.164 The Cross held by angels flying over a landscape (tail-piece)
p.165 Funeral Mass celebrated by Benedictine monks (head-piece); skeletons draw back a curtain to reveal the letter form (historiated initial)
Before p.1 Two Benedictine monks and two nuns seated around a table in a book-lined room (title-page)
The smaller historiated initials are as follows:
An angel p.11, a Benedictine approaching a church p.63, three initials with skeletal forms p.166.
Paris, 1729
552 x 365mm. 2 paper + i + 89 leaves, paginated after the title-page + iii + i + 14 paper, COMPLETE, 17 lines of text or seven four-line staves ruled in red with music of a square notation or varying combinations of text and music, written in black ink in a rounded formal hand between lines ruled in grey, outer ruling in red, justification: 439 x 365mm, rubrics in red, headings in red, blue and burnished gold, the name of 'Jesus' in burnished gold, initials in burnished gold or red, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE LARGE BURNISHED GOLD INITIALS: 30 on painted grounds with frames of burnished gold, 25 against sprays of naturalistic flowers, fruit or plants, five against sprays of flowers within frames of burnished gold, 12 against landscapes, 91 against landscapes in frames of burnished gold; four large and five very large initials with painted staves on grounds of patterned burnished gold, FIVE LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS AND TWELVE VERY LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS, all with staves of burnished gold within frames of burnished gold, THIRTY-THREE MINIATURES as head- and tail-pieces, ILLUMINATED ARCHITECTURAL TITLE-PAGE in burnished and liquid gold, entwined with wreaths of delicately painted flowers (some small pigment losses, some leaves slightly marked, miniature p.137 cropped at top). Printed Office of St. Benedict of 11 leaves, 460 x 282mm, printed pagination pp.1-21, the page after p.19 unnumbered, pasted to paper mounts 552 x 365mm, with woodcut headpiece and decorated opening initial, rubrics and initials in red, preceded by a miniature on parchment with title in display script incorporating flowers, bound sideways. Contemporary French red morocco gilt-tooled in the style of Padeloup with patterns of leaves and flowers, basket and shell motifs among the corner ornaments, spine with bouquets of flowers in compartments, green silk endleaves (slight scuffing to extremities); red cloth box with leather lettering-piece.
A SUMPTUOUS ROCOCO ANTIPHONAL ILLUMINATED BY JEAN PIERRE ROUSSELET FOR THE ROYAL ABBEY OF ST. GERMAIN-DES-PRèS
PROVENANCE:
1. The Royal Benedictine Abbey of St. Germain-des-Près in Paris: written by Dom Charles Mercier, monk and priest of St. Germain in 1729 for the use of the Abbey, as stated on the title page, which bears the Abbey's arms; very specific commemorations of the founder and principal benefactor of the Abbey are included. St. Germain-des-Près, the centre of the reformed Benedictine Congregation of St. Maur, fostered outstanding scholarship and intellectual activity supported by a famed library which became a national repository for manuscripts. The antiquarian interests which might have encouraged the making of this great antiphonal are exemplified by Dom Bernard de Montfaucon and his Les Monuments de la monarchie française which began to appear in that same year, 1729. A later hand has recorded on an added paper leaf that the library was destroyed by fire in 1794 but that disaster befell the printed books only; most of the manuscripts eventually passed to what is now the Bibliothèque nationale de France. A significant number had been stolen in or before 1791, most being bought by the Russian collector, Dubrowsky, and so passing to St. Petersburg; the Antiphonal could well have attracted the thieves, who concentrated on the most splendid volumes. Alternatively, as a choirbook, it may have been kept separately from the library and so somehow preserved from the turmoil of the Revolution.
2. Purchased Dawson's Bookshop, Los Angeles, 1 November, 1943 -- donated to SMS 20 June 1946.
CONTENT:
Antiphonal for the use of St. Germain-des-Près for the highest ranking feasts, title-page and pp.1-175, including: St. Maur, patron of the reformed Benedictines pp.61-73, St. Vincent, to whom the Abbey had been originally dedicated pp.74-85, St. Benedict, founder of the Order pp.86-94, St. Germain, whose relics gave the Abbey its name pp.104-116, Translation of St. Benedict pp.127-130, Exaltation of the Cross pp.145-154, Translation of St. Germain pp.131-136, anniversary of King Childebert (c.558) who founded the Abbey, where he was buried, to house relics of St. Vincent and the True Cross pp.169-170; anniversary of Louis-César de Bourbon, comte de Vexin (1672-1683), son of Louis XIV and the marquise de Montespan, who was designated Abbot of St. Germain and buried there with rich endowments, at his father's wish p.171; prayers including one for the King, Louis, pp.171-5; Printed Office of St. Benedict with unnumbered title page with miniature, pp.1-21 (independently paginated).
ILLUMINATION:
The splendid and lavish illumination is the work of Jean Pierre Rousselet, known for his signature use of burnished gold distinctively patterned with leaf motifs in lozenges. His style and career are discussed in relation to a Prayerbook in the J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ludwig V 8) in A. von Euw and J.M. Plotzek, Die Handschriften der Sammlung Ludwig, 1979, I, pp.253-256. Jean Pierre and his father Jean Baptiste were illuminators to Louis XIV and Louis XV and their work is found in manuscripts dated from 1677 to 1736, with Jean Pierre responsible for the later work. Among his masterpieces is the signed Prayerbook, dated 1723, which was given to Maria Leczcinska who married Louis XV in 1725 (Brussels, KBR, Ms II 3640); Rousselet also illuminated an Epistolary, with the initials M L, for the Chapel Royal, Versailles, possibly for the occasion of the marriage (ex Edmond de Rothschild Coll.). This Antiphonal for the Royal Abbey of St. Germain, burial place of the earlier kings, demonstrates on a spectacular scale all the qualities that attracted royal patronage.
Rousselet had a great gift for narrative, often combining headpiece and initial into a single subject, while some end- and tail-pieces are linked into a chronological or thematic sequence. The stories are conveyed by the interactions and evident emotions of their protagonists, who reveal a delight in the depiction of movement. Much play is made with light effects both in the miniatures, such as the Magi's journey by night, p.17, and the Last Supper, p.51, and in the historiated initials where landscapes, sometimes essentially monochromatic, are seen flushed with the rising or setting sun, with colours subdued by dusk or revealed by the fuller light of day. Alongside these initials with their evocative vistas, typical of the artist dubbed the 'Watteau of illumination', are others with detailed sprays of flowers, delicately portrayed against the vellum without the formality of gold framing. The same skill and variety are seen in the larger flower studies that form some of the tailpieces.
In the 17th century, illuminated manuscripts had enjoyed a renaissance at the French court with the famous calligrapher Nicolas Jarry (d. by September 1666), who produced books for Louis XIV, Cardinal Richelieu and others. Jarry and his associates evolved a new kind of illumination, which followed some of the forms of the printed book while exploiting to the full the potential of the manuscript where each page is individually designed and crafted. These traditions were developed by his Rousselet successors into the 18th century and are epitomized in the technical mastery and ebullient confidence evident in this volume.
The calligrapher, Charles Mercier, was born in Corbie, near Amiens, and joined the Congregation of St. Maur at St. Faron, Meaux, in 1700, aged 21; he died in 1759 at St. Germain-des-Près where he was noted for the regularity of his life (U. Berlière, Nouveau supplément à l'histoire littéraire de la congrégation de St Maur, II p.88). Mercier was able to dedicate much time to his craft, which was in demand outside his own Abbey. He completed a Gradual and Antiphonal for St-Rémy at Rheims, signing the third volume in 1734 and the fifth in 1741 (Rheims, Bibl. mun. Mss 271-273), and in 1738 Mercier signed a Gradual and Antiphonal for St. Eloi at Noyon, with elaborate decoration credited on the title-page to Jean Rousselet (Douai, Bibl. mun. Ms 1041). The present Antiphonal is an earlier and dazzling fruit of their collaboration.
The title-page to the printed office, possibly reused from an even larger volume, shows a less polished hand, working with a charming directness. It could well have been produced by an amateur illuminator within the Abbey of St. Germain-des-Près.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
p.1 Nativity with Adoration of the Shepherds in a cartouche set against patterned burnished gold (head-piece)
p.16 Stoning of Stephen and St. John on Patmos separated in scrolled and fronded cartouches (tail-piece)
p.17 The Magi guided through the night by the Star of Bethlehem (head-piece) above the Adoration of the Magi (historiated initial)
p.25 A basket of flowers (tail-piece)
p.26 The resurrected Christ (head-piece) above the sleeping soldiers round the tomb (historiated initial)
p.33 The Ascension (head-piece)
p.41 The Pilgrims to Emmaus within a fictive picture frame (tail-piece)
p.42 The Dove of the Holy Spirit (head-piece) forming a Pentecost scene with the Virgin and Apostles in the historiated initial below
p.50 Sts Peter and John the Evangelist setting forth on their mission (tail-piece)
p.51 The Last Supper, dramatically lit by a single candle (head-piece); the Lamb of God on an altar (historiated initial)
p.60 The Adoration of the Sacrament by two angels flanked by grapes and wheat (tail-piece)
p.61 St. Maur rescues St. Placidus from drowning (head-piece); St. Maur (historiated initial)
p.73 Four roses (small tail-piece)
p.74 Martyrdom of St. Vincent (head-piece); St. Vincent as a deacon (historiated initial)
p.86 St. Benedict as a hermit at Subiaco, with St. Romanus lowering his food in a basket (head-piece); St. Benedict (historiated initial)
p.94 St. Benedict mortifying the flesh by rolling naked in thorns (tail-piece)
p.95 A bishop processes towards a church (head-piece); an altar with reliquaries (historiated initial)
p.103 The west façade of a great gothic church, in a landscape (tail-piece)
p.104 St. Germain giving alms (head-piece)
p.116 Large vase of flowers (tail-piece)
p.117 The Conversion of St. Paul (head-piece); St. Peter freed from prison by an angel (historiated initial)
p.126 Cherubs with the Keys of St. Peter, the Sword of St. Paul, palms of martydom and victors' wreaths (tail-piece)
p.127 Benedictine monks in procession, perhaps to fetch St. Benedict's relics (head-piece)
p.130 The procession returns from Monte Casssino to Fleury-sur-Loire with the relics (tail-piece)
p.131 The Translation of St. Germain (head-piece)
p.136 Bouquet of flowers (tail-piece)
p.137 The Assumption of the Virgin (head-piece) above the Apostles round her empty tomb (historiated initial)
p.144 Angels holding a picture of the Virgin (tail-piece)
p.145 The Brazen Serpent, a prefiguration of the Crucifixion (head-piece); Heraclius bearing the Cross (historiated initial)
p.154 A silver reliquary of the True Cross incorporating angels, executed in grisaille on a pink base (tail-piece)
p.155 All Saints, Catherine, Lawrence and Benedict recognisable, around the Trinity, heavenly clouds 'overlapping' the burnished gold surround (head-piece)
p.164 The Cross held by angels flying over a landscape (tail-piece)
p.165 Funeral Mass celebrated by Benedictine monks (head-piece); skeletons draw back a curtain to reveal the letter form (historiated initial)
Before p.1 Two Benedictine monks and two nuns seated around a table in a book-lined room (title-page)
The smaller historiated initials are as follows:
An angel p.11, a Benedictine approaching a church p.63, three initials with skeletal forms p.166.