A Silesian Missal Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on paper,...
A Silesian Missal
Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on paper, with some music and an inserted full-page miniature on vellum [Central Europe (Silesia?), third quarter 15th century]
A handsome volume from a region rarely found on the market, with a large full-page miniature and other fine illumination, in an unusual dated binding.
310 × 205 mm. 209 leaves, complete: collation: 1–510, 611 (of 10, i added), 7–2010, 218, ff.1–199 foliated in 16th(?)-century arabic numerals in ink, with at least two watermarks: (i) a bull’s head, with eyes, ears, and horns but no mouth or nostrils, above which rises a serpent overlapping a cross (of which hundreds of examples are recorded), and (ii) a similar bull’s head, above which is a five-petalled flower, and below which is a line terminating in a triangular shield with a chevron and three dots, very similar to Piccard nos. 65941–43, typically with 34 lines (16 for the Ordinary and Canon), ruled space: c. 240–45 × 140–45mm, 48 large illuminated initials, most accompanied by foliate borders, and an inserted full-page crucifixion miniature (some wear and thumbing, but overall in good condition).
Binding:
Sewn on five bands and bound in wood boards covered with lavishly blind- and gilt-tooled polished leather dated 1549, both covers with metal corner-pieces, the front lettered in large capitals ‘Missale / renovatum / anno domini / MDXLIX’ in gaps between panels of Renaissance ornament including roundels with portrait profiles, busts, standing figures, acorns, cherub heads, and a central stamped gilt panel signed ‘F P’ at the top (perhaps depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds: apparently three men playing woodwind instruments, perhaps behind the crib), with a legend in capitals ‘Nudus egressus sum ex utero matris et nudus revertar’ (Job 1:21), the back cover with different tools and a central boss, several of the tools (including those depicting David, Goliath, Appolo, Thalia, and Caliope, identified by captions) are represented in the online Einbanddatenbank (workshop ID w004639) from a binding of a book published in 1554 and owned by the Premonstratensians of Windberg, Bavaria, near the border with Czechia), two clasps (one strap missing, the other modern), marker tabs at the fore-edge (somewhat worn and scuffed, the blind tools often indistinct, the gilding often worn, but sound and impressive).
Provenance:
(1) Several feasts in the Sanctorale point to the region around present-day Czechia, and the special treatment of St Hedwig, Duchess of Silesia (‘ducisse Slesie’), as a major feast, suggests an origin in Silesia.
(2) The additions at the very end of the volume suggest use at an abbey, somewhere where St Oswald was venerated: despite being a Northumbrian king, he was venerated in southern Germanic areas, being the patron of Zug, in Switzerland, and with a village named after him, Sveti Ožbalt, in Slovenia.
(3) Rebound in 1549, probably still in the area of Czechia (see the description of the binding).
(4) Acquired ‘from the hands of heretics’ in 1699 for 15 silver coins: ‘Hoc Missale 17 Octobr. 1669 ex manibus hæreticorum redemi 15 argenteis. [signed:] J:H: ab Oberg’(?) (front flyleaf).
(5) Bruce P. Ferrini (1949–2010), of Akron, Ohio: acquired in December 1988 by:
(6) The Schøyen Collection, MS 195.
Content:
Temporale, f.1, from Advent to Easter Saturday, following Palm Sunday are the Offices of the Passion, f.36, the Sorrows of the Virgin, f.37, the Name of Jesus, f.38v, the Joys of the Virgin, f.39v, the Virgin, f.40, and for Sundays and apostles, f.40v; Ordinary of the Mass, from ‘Suscipe sancta trinitas’, in much larger script, f.41, and noted prefaces, f.41v; f.51 blank, full-page miniature, f.51v; Canon of the Mass, f.52; Temporale continued, from Easter Day, f.60, with Ascension, f.68v, Pentecost, f.70v, Trinity Sunday, f.73, Corpus Christi, f.75, followed by the Dedication of a church, f. 95v, and votives masses f.96v, for the Holy Spirit, Cross, Five Wounds of Christ, Veronica’s Veil, for rain, for peace, etc.; Sanctorale, f.102, from St Andrew to St Saturninus (from 30 November to 29 November the following year), including Casaria (venerated at Wrocław and Kraków), King Sigismund (relics at Prague cathedral), Florian, Gotthard (venerated at Passau and Wrocław), Stanislaus (bishop of Kraków, also venerated in Silesia), Sophia and her daughters, the feast of relics, the translation of Hedwig, f.136v, Wenceslas, of Bohemia, Hedwig’s main feast, with an illuminated initial and border, f.147; Masses for the Sick, All Saints, Ludwig, Conception, etc., f.155, and an added (near-contemporary) Mass for St Onuphrius, f.161v; Common of saints, f.162; Mass of the Virgin, f.183v; Mass of the dead, f.186v; Votive masses, f.190v; added (near contemporary) Mass for St Anne, f.193v, an ‘Officium de Conceptione Sixtus papa IIII’, with 100 days’ indulgence for anyone who reads or hears it, f.194v, (in 1476 Sixtus IV established a mass and office for the feast of the Immaculate Conception); added in a significantly later hand is a mass against plague, f.195v; ff.196–209 ruled, otherwise blank; an abbreviated office for a bishop, contemporary with the main text, with added marginal notes adapting it for an abbot, f.209v; below this an added mass for St Oswald.
Illumination:
Facing the beginning of the Canon is a full-page miniature of the Crucifixion, with Mary and John, boldly coloured and with gold haloes; it is unusual in having a bare parchment background and no frame or border. The main draperies are delineated with dark lines for the folds, most of them fairly straight and with no pronounced curves, and two lighter tones to represent highlights and shadows: the effect is similar to coloured wood-engravings, a medium that may have influenced the illuminator.
A few of the large initials are accompanied by representational imagery: the face of Christ on Veronica's veil, f.57v; a Church, f.95v; a dove with an olive branch, f.135v; and a skull, f.186v.
Bid on this lot
A Silesian Missal
Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on paper, with some music and an inserted full-page miniature on vellum [Central Europe (Silesia?), third quarter 15th century]
A handsome volume from a region rarely found on the market, with a large full-page miniature and other fine illumination, in an unusual dated binding.
310 × 205 mm. 209 leaves, complete: collation: 1–510, 611 (of 10, i added), 7–2010, 218, ff.1–199 foliated in 16th(?)-century arabic numerals in ink, with at least two watermarks: (i) a bull’s head, with eyes, ears, and horns but no mouth or nostrils, above which rises a serpent overlapping a cross (of which hundreds of examples are recorded), and (ii) a similar bull’s head, above which is a five-petalled flower, and below which is a line terminating in a triangular shield with a chevron and three dots, very similar to Piccard nos. 65941–43, typically with 34 lines (16 for the Ordinary and Canon), ruled space: c. 240–45 × 140–45mm, 48 large illuminated initials, most accompanied by foliate borders, and an inserted full-page crucifixion miniature (some wear and thumbing, but overall in good condition).
Binding:
Sewn on five bands and bound in wood boards covered with lavishly blind- and gilt-tooled polished leather dated 1549, both covers with metal corner-pieces, the front lettered in large capitals ‘Missale / renovatum / anno domini / MDXLIX’ in gaps between panels of Renaissance ornament including roundels with portrait profiles, busts, standing figures, acorns, cherub heads, and a central stamped gilt panel signed ‘F P’ at the top (perhaps depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds: apparently three men playing woodwind instruments, perhaps behind the crib), with a legend in capitals ‘Nudus egressus sum ex utero matris et nudus revertar’ (Job 1:21), the back cover with different tools and a central boss, several of the tools (including those depicting David, Goliath, Appolo, Thalia, and Caliope, identified by captions) are represented in the online Einbanddatenbank (workshop ID w004639) from a binding of a book published in 1554 and owned by the Premonstratensians of Windberg, Bavaria, near the border with Czechia), two clasps (one strap missing, the other modern), marker tabs at the fore-edge (somewhat worn and scuffed, the blind tools often indistinct, the gilding often worn, but sound and impressive).
Provenance:
(1) Several feasts in the Sanctorale point to the region around present-day Czechia, and the special treatment of St Hedwig, Duchess of Silesia (‘ducisse Slesie’), as a major feast, suggests an origin in Silesia.
(2) The additions at the very end of the volume suggest use at an abbey, somewhere where St Oswald was venerated: despite being a Northumbrian king, he was venerated in southern Germanic areas, being the patron of Zug, in Switzerland, and with a village named after him, Sveti Ožbalt, in Slovenia.
(3) Rebound in 1549, probably still in the area of Czechia (see the description of the binding).
(4) Acquired ‘from the hands of heretics’ in 1699 for 15 silver coins: ‘Hoc Missale 17 Octobr. 1669 ex manibus hæreticorum redemi 15 argenteis. [signed:] J:H: ab Oberg’(?) (front flyleaf).
(5) Bruce P. Ferrini (1949–2010), of Akron, Ohio: acquired in December 1988 by:
(6) The Schøyen Collection, MS 195.
Content:
Temporale, f.1, from Advent to Easter Saturday, following Palm Sunday are the Offices of the Passion, f.36, the Sorrows of the Virgin, f.37, the Name of Jesus, f.38v, the Joys of the Virgin, f.39v, the Virgin, f.40, and for Sundays and apostles, f.40v; Ordinary of the Mass, from ‘Suscipe sancta trinitas’, in much larger script, f.41, and noted prefaces, f.41v; f.51 blank, full-page miniature, f.51v; Canon of the Mass, f.52; Temporale continued, from Easter Day, f.60, with Ascension, f.68v, Pentecost, f.70v, Trinity Sunday, f.73, Corpus Christi, f.75, followed by the Dedication of a church, f. 95v, and votives masses f.96v, for the Holy Spirit, Cross, Five Wounds of Christ, Veronica’s Veil, for rain, for peace, etc.; Sanctorale, f.102, from St Andrew to St Saturninus (from 30 November to 29 November the following year), including Casaria (venerated at Wrocław and Kraków), King Sigismund (relics at Prague cathedral), Florian, Gotthard (venerated at Passau and Wrocław), Stanislaus (bishop of Kraków, also venerated in Silesia), Sophia and her daughters, the feast of relics, the translation of Hedwig, f.136v, Wenceslas, of Bohemia, Hedwig’s main feast, with an illuminated initial and border, f.147; Masses for the Sick, All Saints, Ludwig, Conception, etc., f.155, and an added (near-contemporary) Mass for St Onuphrius, f.161v; Common of saints, f.162; Mass of the Virgin, f.183v; Mass of the dead, f.186v; Votive masses, f.190v; added (near contemporary) Mass for St Anne, f.193v, an ‘Officium de Conceptione Sixtus papa IIII’, with 100 days’ indulgence for anyone who reads or hears it, f.194v, (in 1476 Sixtus IV established a mass and office for the feast of the Immaculate Conception); added in a significantly later hand is a mass against plague, f.195v; ff.196–209 ruled, otherwise blank; an abbreviated office for a bishop, contemporary with the main text, with added marginal notes adapting it for an abbot, f.209v; below this an added mass for St Oswald.
Illumination:
Facing the beginning of the Canon is a full-page miniature of the Crucifixion, with Mary and John, boldly coloured and with gold haloes; it is unusual in having a bare parchment background and no frame or border. The main draperies are delineated with dark lines for the folds, most of them fairly straight and with no pronounced curves, and two lighter tones to represent highlights and shadows: the effect is similar to coloured wood-engravings, a medium that may have influenced the illuminator.
A few of the large initials are accompanied by representational imagery: the face of Christ on Veronica's veil, f.57v; a Church, f.95v; a dove with an olive branch, f.135v; and a skull, f.186v.
