The Martyrdom of Saint Adalbert, the first Polish martyr, miniature on a leaf from the Prayer Book of Mary of Cleves, in German, illuminated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

2,000 - 3,000 GBP

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Description

a single leaf, 238mm. by 167mm., on the verso a miniature in an arched compartment 138mm. by 100mm. showing the saint as a bishop in a red cope standing with his hands raised looking towards a martyr’s wreath as a boy in a yellow tunic prepares to thrust a pike into him, tiled floor, above an illuminated initial and 2 lines of text, full border of burnished gold bezants and coloured flowers on pale brown penwork sprays and the gold initials ‘r.y’ repeated four times, recto ruled for 18 lines, written-space 150mm. by 95mm., with the end of another prayer in large gothic script, a bit faded and rubbed, extremities of the outer border slightly cropped, a few later scribbles on the text side

Catalogue Note

Illuminated for Mary of Burgundy, duchess of Cleves (c.1393-1473), eldest daughter of Jean sans Peur (1371-1419), duke of Burgundy, and of Margaret of Bavaria. In 1406, Mary married Adolph I of Cleves (1373-1448), duke of Cleves. She was the mother of Catherine of Cleves (1417-1479), the most famous manuscript patron of the Netherlands, who doubtless knew the present manuscript as a child. The largest surviving fragment of the present prayerbook, with 41 leaves, is in the British Library, Egerton MS. 859 (cf. J. Backhouse, The Illuminated Page, 1997, p.166). There is a single leaf with a miniature of Saint Bavo in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, Staatliche Museen, inv. 8517 (cf. R. Dückers in The Limbourg Brothers, Nijmegen Masters at the French Court, 1400-1416, ed. R. Drückers and P. Roelofs, 2005, pp.304-5, nos.53-54). Another single leaf showing Saint Walpurga emerged (unidentified) at Christie’s, 24 November 1993, lot 8, and is described in F.G. Zeileis, ‘Più ridon le carte’, Buchmalerei aus Mittelalter und Renaissance, II, 2002, pp.398-99, no.146. It was formerly in the Six collection in Amsterdam and had been sold in 1928. The dialect of the prayers is lower Rhenish. Many of the manuscript’s borders, including those here, include the initials ‘r.y’, as enigmatic and unexplained as the similar letters ‘e.d’ throughout the Hours of her daughter, Catherine of Cleves.

The miniature here illustrates the martyrdom of “Sent Wotiech”, the personal name of the saint, usually spelled ‘Voitech’ in Czech or ‘Wojciech’ in Polish, which was Latinised as ‘Adalbert’, bishop of Prague (983) and the apostle of Poland, Prussia and Hungary, martyred near Danzig in 997. He was presumably the patron saint of Mary of Cleve’s grandfather, Albert of Holland Wittelsbach (1336-1406).