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Details
PRAYERBOOK, in German, lluminated manuscript on vellum
[Nuremberg, c.1490]
118 x 78mm. A fragment of 21 leaves, each with a miniature on one side and, on the other, 15 lines of an elegant hybrid gothic bookhand written in brown-black ink between two verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in ink, justification: 81 x 51mm, capitals touched red, rubrics in red, ELEVEN ILLUMINATED INITIALS of between three- and seven-lines height made up of flamboyant, tightly curled acanthus, the staves of pink or blue against gold or coloured grounds and infilled with vari-coloured foliage, the seven-line initials in moulding frames and accompanied by THREE ACANTHUS BORDERS WITH FINCHES AND GAME-BIRDS in the lower margins, TWENTY-ONE FULL-PAGE MINIATURES (lacking all folios without miniatures, borders cropped, a few miniatures with tiny pigment losses, occasional spotting or minor thumbing of margins, a few leaves loose, leaf 3 misbound). 19th-century panelled brown morocco stamped in blind, vellum interleaving, gilt edges (very slight rubbing of extremities). Brown cloth box.
THE REAPPEARANCE OF 'ONE OF THE BEST PRODUCTS OF LATE GOTHIC BOOK ILLUMINATION': AN EXCEPTIONAL SERIES OF GERMAN MINIATURES FROM THE FIRMIN-DIDOT COLLECTION
PROVENANCE:
1. The style of illumination places the manuscript in southern Germany, more particularly in the region of Nuremberg. There are close analogies with miniatures in a prayerbook in Augsburg (Universitätsbibliothek Cod.I.3.8°.1) that is localisable to Nuremberg on the basis of dialect, the Litany and the inclusion of a view of the city in the background of one of the miniatures: K. Schneider Deutsche mittelalteriche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg, 1988. It seems likely that the present manuscript was produced in the same area, and the prominence of St Aegidius, one of the patrons of Nuremberg, in the miniature of All Saints (f.16) supports this view. The inclusion of the Vision of St Bernard may indicate a Cistercian connection on the part of the intended owner.
2. Ambrose Firmin-Didot: his bookplate inside the upper cover and no 22 in his 1884 sale. The leaves with miniatures had been separated from the text by the time that they were acquired by Firmin-Didot, and 20 of them were bound together in the present morocco binding. Firmin-Didot subsequently purchased the miniature of St Catherine, apparently originating from the same prayerbook, and this was pasted on to the rear endleaf: Catalogue illustré des livres précieux manuscrits et imprimés faisant partie de la bibliothèque de M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1884.
3. Henri Vever: his bookplate inside upper cover.
CONTENT:
These are the leaves with miniatures from a remarkable manuscript in German. It contained prayers and devotions to the Virgin, Christ and the Passion of Christ, suffrages to individual and All Saints, and the Prayers of St Gregory. Unusually the text of the prayerbook, with the exception of the suffrages, appears to have been written continuously, with the scribe leaving a blank page to receive a miniature immediately after the opening of a prayer or devotion, irrespective of whether it was a recto or verso. Consequently in only nine instances does the text on the 'back' of a miniature include the beginning of a prayer or devotion. In only one instance, God the Father in Majesty, is the reverse blank.
ILLUMINATION:
The relationship between these mesmerising miniatures and those in two other prayerbooks, one that once belonged to Fürst Wallerstein-Wallerstein and another in the library at Wolfenbüttel, was already pointed out in the catalogue of the Firmin-Didot sale (these two prayerbooks are now Augsburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod.I.3.8°.1 and Herzog-August-Bibliothek Cod.87.10.Aug.12°). More recently Ulrich Merkl has discussed the three manuscripts -- the present one known only from the description and illustrations in the 1884 sale catalogue, and described as 'verschollen' -- in Buchmalerei in Bayern in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1999), pp.37-39. He treated them as a group, accepted the origin of all three as Nuremberg and dated them between 1490 and 1494. He classed them as 'among the best products of Late Gothic manuscript illumination'.
There is an incontrovertible stylistic relationship between the Augsburg manuscript (Merkl figs 22-24) and the present miniatures -- the mise-en-page, palette, common compositional motifs, and treatment of drapery and rocks demonstrate a close connection between the works. Yet there is a difference in quality and the Vever miniatures are the work of a greater artist. He paints with more control and subtlety: colours are subdued, often over dark underpainting, and are used to reinforce atmosphere and mood. Acid shades are used selectively, often to dramatic effect, for example in the garments of Christ's tormentors. This, like the restraint and coherence of composition, is in complete contrast to the bright and decorative profusion of the Augsburg scenes. In the present miniatures even the most complicated and crowded narratives imply recession and space, and focus upon expressive or narrative incident.
One of the extraordinary qualities of the artist is his ability to create images that are equally effective and impressive in a range of moods and approaches: the iconic isolated figures of saints have as great an impact as the many-figured and dramatic scenes from sacred history. While the explicitly tortured and wounded figure of Christ is in violent contrast to the sweet and charming Virgin and Child with music-making angels, both show the artist's apposite response to the texts, respectively the Passion of Christ and prayers to the Virgin.
There are novel and inventive interpretations: most remarkably perhaps the Presentation of the Virgin, where angels at the altar she approaches reveal to Mary her destiny as the mother of the sacrificed Son of God. The scene takes place in the narthex of a church: a row of fashionably dressed 15th-century spectators are seated in a balcony on the left wall as though watching a mystery play. Even when drawing upon the designs or ideas of other artists the illuminator does so in an imaginative manner. In the Carrying of the Cross he combines figures taken from three of Schongauer's engravings of the Passion (Lehrs 20, 24 and 26) and extends the setting and background events beyond anything in his source.
In spite of the illuminator's superb ability and individuality he remains anonymous. Nuremberg was at this date one of the greatest artistic and commercial centres of Europe and, in addition to resident artists, the freedom from guild restrictions encouraged other talented painters and illuminators into the city. Yet no suggested identification with a named artist, whether resident or incomer, is convincing. This is particularly tantalising because these miniatures are likely to have been painted during Dürer's early career in the city and apparent reflections of them can be found in later works by the greatest of German painters.
The miniatures are as follows:
f.1v God the Father in glory, seated on a golden throne, blessing and holding a crystal orb, surrounded by clouds and angels
f.2r Virgin and Child on a crescent moon, with four music-making angels
f.4v Annunciation, with the Virgin kneeling at a prie-dieu beneath a canopy, a castle and landscape visible through an opening
f.5r Nativity, with the Virgin and Joseph in adoration of the Christ Child, a castle and landscape visible through the window, arch and doorway of the stable
f.6v Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, the Virgin halfway up a flight of steps leading towards an altar where two angels hold a cloth with the Christ Child and the Instruments of the Passion, to the left of the stairway a gallery with six spectators
f.7v Temptation of Christ, with Christ standing beside a stream in a verdant but craggy landscape facing the winged and clawed devil
f.8v Flagellation, with Christ's bleeding slumped figure tied facing the column as three executioners birch him
f.9v Way to Calvary, Christ carrying the cross surrounded by a multitude of people, in the foreground St Veronica holding the vernicle, a rocky outcrop in the middle distance with the distant prospect of Calvary to the right, with a horseback procession leading the thieves towards the summit where executioners prepare the crosses
f.10r Christ waiting to be nailed to the cross, one executioner boring a hole in the vertical beam and another lashing rope around the cross beam; Calvary behind them with five crosses and corpses circled by crows
f.11r Vision of St Bernard, the Saint with his mitre and crosier on the ground beside him kneeling at the foot of the cross and being embraced by Christ who reaches down to him
f.12r Pietà, the Virgin with the body of Christ across her lap in the foreground, in the middle distance on the left Calvary with the crosses, a town and riverscape in the right distance
f.13v Angels retrieving souls from the flames of Purgatory
f.14v Transfiguration
f.15v Christ, and the Apostles, 'Pax vobis'
f.3r Marriage of the Virgin, the joining of Joseph's and Mary's hands taking place before a statue of Moses
f.16r All Saints, a group of male and female saints led by St Giles and St Catherine with St Christopher with the Christ Child at the rear
f.17r Mass of St Gregory, Gregory and a bishop kneeling before the altar where Christ appears as Man of Sorrows in his tomb
f.18v St Thomas, the saint carrying a spear shown as though walking in front of a blue background
f.19r St Sebastian, the tortured figure of the saint tied into the branches of a tree set against a blue background
f.20r St Helena, holding the true cross standing in front of a purple cloth of gold
f.21r St Catherine, holding a sword and standing in front of a cloth of honour
[Nuremberg, c.1490]
118 x 78mm. A fragment of 21 leaves, each with a miniature on one side and, on the other, 15 lines of an elegant hybrid gothic bookhand written in brown-black ink between two verticals and 16 horizontals ruled in ink, justification: 81 x 51mm, capitals touched red, rubrics in red, ELEVEN ILLUMINATED INITIALS of between three- and seven-lines height made up of flamboyant, tightly curled acanthus, the staves of pink or blue against gold or coloured grounds and infilled with vari-coloured foliage, the seven-line initials in moulding frames and accompanied by THREE ACANTHUS BORDERS WITH FINCHES AND GAME-BIRDS in the lower margins, TWENTY-ONE FULL-PAGE MINIATURES (lacking all folios without miniatures, borders cropped, a few miniatures with tiny pigment losses, occasional spotting or minor thumbing of margins, a few leaves loose, leaf 3 misbound). 19th-century panelled brown morocco stamped in blind, vellum interleaving, gilt edges (very slight rubbing of extremities). Brown cloth box.
THE REAPPEARANCE OF 'ONE OF THE BEST PRODUCTS OF LATE GOTHIC BOOK ILLUMINATION': AN EXCEPTIONAL SERIES OF GERMAN MINIATURES FROM THE FIRMIN-DIDOT COLLECTION
PROVENANCE:
1. The style of illumination places the manuscript in southern Germany, more particularly in the region of Nuremberg. There are close analogies with miniatures in a prayerbook in Augsburg (Universitätsbibliothek Cod.I.3.8°.1) that is localisable to Nuremberg on the basis of dialect, the Litany and the inclusion of a view of the city in the background of one of the miniatures: K. Schneider Deutsche mittelalteriche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg, 1988. It seems likely that the present manuscript was produced in the same area, and the prominence of St Aegidius, one of the patrons of Nuremberg, in the miniature of All Saints (f.16) supports this view. The inclusion of the Vision of St Bernard may indicate a Cistercian connection on the part of the intended owner.
2. Ambrose Firmin-Didot: his bookplate inside the upper cover and no 22 in his 1884 sale. The leaves with miniatures had been separated from the text by the time that they were acquired by Firmin-Didot, and 20 of them were bound together in the present morocco binding. Firmin-Didot subsequently purchased the miniature of St Catherine, apparently originating from the same prayerbook, and this was pasted on to the rear endleaf: Catalogue illustré des livres précieux manuscrits et imprimés faisant partie de la bibliothèque de M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1884.
3. Henri Vever: his bookplate inside upper cover.
CONTENT:
These are the leaves with miniatures from a remarkable manuscript in German. It contained prayers and devotions to the Virgin, Christ and the Passion of Christ, suffrages to individual and All Saints, and the Prayers of St Gregory. Unusually the text of the prayerbook, with the exception of the suffrages, appears to have been written continuously, with the scribe leaving a blank page to receive a miniature immediately after the opening of a prayer or devotion, irrespective of whether it was a recto or verso. Consequently in only nine instances does the text on the 'back' of a miniature include the beginning of a prayer or devotion. In only one instance, God the Father in Majesty, is the reverse blank.
ILLUMINATION:
The relationship between these mesmerising miniatures and those in two other prayerbooks, one that once belonged to Fürst Wallerstein-Wallerstein and another in the library at Wolfenbüttel, was already pointed out in the catalogue of the Firmin-Didot sale (these two prayerbooks are now Augsburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod.I.3.8°.1 and Herzog-August-Bibliothek Cod.87.10.Aug.12°). More recently Ulrich Merkl has discussed the three manuscripts -- the present one known only from the description and illustrations in the 1884 sale catalogue, and described as 'verschollen' -- in Buchmalerei in Bayern in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1999), pp.37-39. He treated them as a group, accepted the origin of all three as Nuremberg and dated them between 1490 and 1494. He classed them as 'among the best products of Late Gothic manuscript illumination'.
There is an incontrovertible stylistic relationship between the Augsburg manuscript (Merkl figs 22-24) and the present miniatures -- the mise-en-page, palette, common compositional motifs, and treatment of drapery and rocks demonstrate a close connection between the works. Yet there is a difference in quality and the Vever miniatures are the work of a greater artist. He paints with more control and subtlety: colours are subdued, often over dark underpainting, and are used to reinforce atmosphere and mood. Acid shades are used selectively, often to dramatic effect, for example in the garments of Christ's tormentors. This, like the restraint and coherence of composition, is in complete contrast to the bright and decorative profusion of the Augsburg scenes. In the present miniatures even the most complicated and crowded narratives imply recession and space, and focus upon expressive or narrative incident.
One of the extraordinary qualities of the artist is his ability to create images that are equally effective and impressive in a range of moods and approaches: the iconic isolated figures of saints have as great an impact as the many-figured and dramatic scenes from sacred history. While the explicitly tortured and wounded figure of Christ is in violent contrast to the sweet and charming Virgin and Child with music-making angels, both show the artist's apposite response to the texts, respectively the Passion of Christ and prayers to the Virgin.
There are novel and inventive interpretations: most remarkably perhaps the Presentation of the Virgin, where angels at the altar she approaches reveal to Mary her destiny as the mother of the sacrificed Son of God. The scene takes place in the narthex of a church: a row of fashionably dressed 15th-century spectators are seated in a balcony on the left wall as though watching a mystery play. Even when drawing upon the designs or ideas of other artists the illuminator does so in an imaginative manner. In the Carrying of the Cross he combines figures taken from three of Schongauer's engravings of the Passion (Lehrs 20, 24 and 26) and extends the setting and background events beyond anything in his source.
In spite of the illuminator's superb ability and individuality he remains anonymous. Nuremberg was at this date one of the greatest artistic and commercial centres of Europe and, in addition to resident artists, the freedom from guild restrictions encouraged other talented painters and illuminators into the city. Yet no suggested identification with a named artist, whether resident or incomer, is convincing. This is particularly tantalising because these miniatures are likely to have been painted during Dürer's early career in the city and apparent reflections of them can be found in later works by the greatest of German painters.
The miniatures are as follows:
f.1v God the Father in glory, seated on a golden throne, blessing and holding a crystal orb, surrounded by clouds and angels
f.2r Virgin and Child on a crescent moon, with four music-making angels
f.4v Annunciation, with the Virgin kneeling at a prie-dieu beneath a canopy, a castle and landscape visible through an opening
f.5r Nativity, with the Virgin and Joseph in adoration of the Christ Child, a castle and landscape visible through the window, arch and doorway of the stable
f.6v Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, the Virgin halfway up a flight of steps leading towards an altar where two angels hold a cloth with the Christ Child and the Instruments of the Passion, to the left of the stairway a gallery with six spectators
f.7v Temptation of Christ, with Christ standing beside a stream in a verdant but craggy landscape facing the winged and clawed devil
f.8v Flagellation, with Christ's bleeding slumped figure tied facing the column as three executioners birch him
f.9v Way to Calvary, Christ carrying the cross surrounded by a multitude of people, in the foreground St Veronica holding the vernicle, a rocky outcrop in the middle distance with the distant prospect of Calvary to the right, with a horseback procession leading the thieves towards the summit where executioners prepare the crosses
f.10r Christ waiting to be nailed to the cross, one executioner boring a hole in the vertical beam and another lashing rope around the cross beam; Calvary behind them with five crosses and corpses circled by crows
f.11r Vision of St Bernard, the Saint with his mitre and crosier on the ground beside him kneeling at the foot of the cross and being embraced by Christ who reaches down to him
f.12r Pietà, the Virgin with the body of Christ across her lap in the foreground, in the middle distance on the left Calvary with the crosses, a town and riverscape in the right distance
f.13v Angels retrieving souls from the flames of Purgatory
f.14v Transfiguration
f.15v Christ, and the Apostles, 'Pax vobis'
f.3r Marriage of the Virgin, the joining of Joseph's and Mary's hands taking place before a statue of Moses
f.16r All Saints, a group of male and female saints led by St Giles and St Catherine with St Christopher with the Christ Child at the rear
f.17r Mass of St Gregory, Gregory and a bishop kneeling before the altar where Christ appears as Man of Sorrows in his tomb
f.18v St Thomas, the saint carrying a spear shown as though walking in front of a blue background
f.19r St Sebastian, the tortured figure of the saint tied into the branches of a tree set against a blue background
f.20r St Helena, holding the true cross standing in front of a purple cloth of gold
f.21r St Catherine, holding a sword and standing in front of a cloth of honour
Special notice
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