.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Three Virgin Saints in an initial on a leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Germany, perhaps Westphalia or Strasbourg, c.1320]
Details
Anonymous German artist
Three Virgin Saints in an initial on a leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Germany, perhaps Westphalia or Strasbourg, c.1320]
A large attractive leaf illuminated in an unusual style, produced for a Cistercian nunnery dedicated to St Agnes.
c.435 x 290mm. A single leaf, ruled in leadpoint for nine lines of text and music written in gothic script, with rubrics in red, and square notation on four-line red staves, one initial in plain red, three larger puzzle initials in red and blue with penwork flourishing in both colours, one large painted historiated initial ‘G’(audeamus) formed of dragons enclosing three full-length female saints, each holding a palm of martyrdom, one wearing a crown, introducing the introit for the feast of the birth of a virgin in the common of Saints (slight thumbing and stains from previous mounts at the edges, a few medieval and 18th-century additions of text and music, the gutter edge is repaired using a strip of a 13th-century theological manuscript, its text unidentified but citing Ambrose).
Provenance:
(1) Among the sister-leaves, the two depicting Cistercian nuns, and the emphasis placed on St Agnes, suggest that the leaf comes from a Cistercian nunnery dedicated this saint; one possible candidate is the Kloster Sankt Agnes at Lauingen, on the Danube about half-way between Stuttgart and Munich.
(2) One of the 18th-century additions is for a 7th-century bishop of Strasbourg, ‘beati Arbogasti pontificis’, suggesting that the volume was in use in the diocese of Strasbourg by this date, if not earlier. Leaves that were in the collection of Victor Goldschmidt (d.1933) of Heidelberg were tentatively attributed to Marienthal, only about 15 miles or 25km north of Strasbourg.
(3) The parent manuscript was broken-up by 1928 when a leaf was bought by Arthur Jubelt (d. 1949) from Karl W. Heirsemann of Leipzig.
Seven other sister leaves are known to us:
(1) Advent: A priest raising his hands towards Christ enthroned, the border with four Cistercian nuns in an initial ‘A’(d te levavi)
(2) Christmas: The Nativity in an historiated initial
(3) Easter: The Resurrection in an initial ‘R’(esurrexi)
(4) St Agnes (21 January): A priest adoring St Agnes in an initial ‘M’(e expectaverunt)
(5) St Agnes (21 January): A priest adoring St Agnes in an initial ‘M’(e expectaverunt), above a panel of Zodiac-inspired roundels
(6) Common of Saints, Martyrs: The beheading of a bishop in an initial ‘L’(etabitur iustus)
(7) The Dedication of a Church: A bishop about to asperge a church, with Seven Cistercian nuns in an initial ‘T’(erribilis est), and four more nuns below.
The existence of two leaves both with the feast of St Agnes, with the text starting and ending at almost exactly the same places, suggests that they are from a pair of twin volumes, one intended for each side of the choir, as was famously the case for the twin sets of volumes of the Beaupré Antiphonary.
Illumination:
The initial depends on a palette of three bright colours, red, blue, and yellow, plus paler shades of blue, and shades of green presumably made by mixing the blue and yellow. The use of a bright yellow instead of gold supports the hypothesis of a Cistercian origin. The style of illumination is unusual; several places of origin have been suggested for the sister leaves. The most recent suggestion is Westphalia (Krone und Schleier: Kunst aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklöstern, exh. cat., Ruhrlandmuseum Essen, ed. by J. Frings et al., Munich, 2005, no 325), but this is based partly on an unconvincing comparison with the Gisela Codex; other suggestions have included the Upper Rhine and Hagenau, in Alsace, which seem more plausible.
Three Virgin Saints in an initial on a leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Germany, perhaps Westphalia or Strasbourg, c.1320]
A large attractive leaf illuminated in an unusual style, produced for a Cistercian nunnery dedicated to St Agnes.
c.435 x 290mm. A single leaf, ruled in leadpoint for nine lines of text and music written in gothic script, with rubrics in red, and square notation on four-line red staves, one initial in plain red, three larger puzzle initials in red and blue with penwork flourishing in both colours, one large painted historiated initial ‘G’(audeamus) formed of dragons enclosing three full-length female saints, each holding a palm of martyrdom, one wearing a crown, introducing the introit for the feast of the birth of a virgin in the common of Saints (slight thumbing and stains from previous mounts at the edges, a few medieval and 18th-century additions of text and music, the gutter edge is repaired using a strip of a 13th-century theological manuscript, its text unidentified but citing Ambrose).
Provenance:
(1) Among the sister-leaves, the two depicting Cistercian nuns, and the emphasis placed on St Agnes, suggest that the leaf comes from a Cistercian nunnery dedicated this saint; one possible candidate is the Kloster Sankt Agnes at Lauingen, on the Danube about half-way between Stuttgart and Munich.
(2) One of the 18th-century additions is for a 7th-century bishop of Strasbourg, ‘beati Arbogasti pontificis’, suggesting that the volume was in use in the diocese of Strasbourg by this date, if not earlier. Leaves that were in the collection of Victor Goldschmidt (d.1933) of Heidelberg were tentatively attributed to Marienthal, only about 15 miles or 25km north of Strasbourg.
(3) The parent manuscript was broken-up by 1928 when a leaf was bought by Arthur Jubelt (d. 1949) from Karl W. Heirsemann of Leipzig.
Seven other sister leaves are known to us:
(1) Advent: A priest raising his hands towards Christ enthroned, the border with four Cistercian nuns in an initial ‘A’(d te levavi)
(2) Christmas: The Nativity in an historiated initial
(3) Easter: The Resurrection in an initial ‘R’(esurrexi)
(4) St Agnes (21 January): A priest adoring St Agnes in an initial ‘M’(e expectaverunt)
(5) St Agnes (21 January): A priest adoring St Agnes in an initial ‘M’(e expectaverunt), above a panel of Zodiac-inspired roundels
(6) Common of Saints, Martyrs: The beheading of a bishop in an initial ‘L’(etabitur iustus)
(7) The Dedication of a Church: A bishop about to asperge a church, with Seven Cistercian nuns in an initial ‘T’(erribilis est), and four more nuns below.
The existence of two leaves both with the feast of St Agnes, with the text starting and ending at almost exactly the same places, suggests that they are from a pair of twin volumes, one intended for each side of the choir, as was famously the case for the twin sets of volumes of the Beaupré Antiphonary.
Illumination:
The initial depends on a palette of three bright colours, red, blue, and yellow, plus paler shades of blue, and shades of green presumably made by mixing the blue and yellow. The use of a bright yellow instead of gold supports the hypothesis of a Cistercian origin. The style of illumination is unusual; several places of origin have been suggested for the sister leaves. The most recent suggestion is Westphalia (Krone und Schleier: Kunst aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklöstern, exh. cat., Ruhrlandmuseum Essen, ed. by J. Frings et al., Munich, 2005, no 325), but this is based partly on an unconvincing comparison with the Gisela Codex; other suggestions have included the Upper Rhine and Hagenau, in Alsace, which seem more plausible.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts