Breviary, of Dominican Use, in Latin and German, illuminated manuscript on vellum

240 leaves, plus original endleaf, 172 mm. by 129 mm., complete, collation: i^{6, ii-xxiv10, xxv4, with traces of catchwords, 20 lines, ruled in ink, written-space 120 mm. by 75 mm., written in dark brown ink in a very fine formal gothic liturgical hand with flamboyant calligraphic flourishes in the upper and lower margins of very many leaves, rubrics in bright red, one- and 2-line initials throughout in red and blue with many ornamental flourishes, sometimes with faces}, twenty large illuminated initials either in bright colours and highly burnished gold or in softer colours with liquid gold often enclosing naturalistic flowers, four 5-line (fols. 136v, 169r, 173v and 195v), twelve 4-line and four 3-line, large initial and three-quarter historiated border on opening page, the initial 7 lines high, the border including naturalistic flowers (thistle, cornflower, violet, strawberry, etc.) and a bas-de-page vignette of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, with the apostles asleep, eight pages further ornamented with illuminated borders cut to shape and pasted in, some of them now partly peeled away, traces of further pieces once pasted to fols. 31r and 208r (a bird), negligible wear, generally in excellent condition mostly with original margins, contemporary blind-stamped binding of calf over wooden boards sewn on 3 double thongs, panelled and stamped with floral tools and concentric roll-tooled borders, stubs (only) of clasps on edge of lower cover, corresponding metal pins on upper cover, vellum pastedowns, spine worn, upper joint cracked, in a full red morocco fitted case, title gilt

provenance

Probably written at the celebrated Katharinenkloster of Nuremberg, the Dominican convent founded in 1295 and suppressed in 1596.  It is the setting of the opening act of Wagner's Meistersinger.  The text is Dominican.  Saint Sebald, patron saint of Nuremberg, is in red in the Calendar (19 August), as is Saint Katherine.  The volume concludes with extensive additional offices for SS. Katherine and Dominic (fols. 220r-225r, with further prayers to Saint Katherine on fols. 226v-227r).  The nuns had a considerable scriptorium, and the names of many scribes there are known (Barbara Pfinczingen, Anna Gewichtmacherin, Elisibet Ygeltalerin, and many others).  Nuns were often less able to illuminate manuscripts.  Using a technique characteristic of Nonnenarbeit, but not datable, eight pages here are further ornamented with delicate illumination on separate pieces of vellum cut exactly to shape and pasted in.  They include the arms of Hieronymus Haller, zu Kalchreuth (c.1470-1519), of Nuremberg, and his wife Katharina Wolff, von Wolffsthal, whom he married in 1491 (fol. 186v).  He was a merchant in his father-in-law's business, and was on the ruling council of Nuremberg.  In 1502 he was appointed counsellor and paymaster to the Emperor Maximilian.  His portrait was painted by Bernhard Strigel in 1503.  He was the subject of a eulogy by Conrad Celtis.

From a private collection; and by descent to the present owner.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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text

A Calendar, of Dominican use, with some headings in German, graded, including Saint Dominic as "patris nostri" (5 August), with his translation (24 May), and the feasts of SS. Thomas Aquinas and Peter Martyr, both with their translations, all as totum duplex; and the feast of benefactors of the Dominicans (10 October); the Temporal, from the first Sunday in Advent (fol. 7r) to the eve of Easter; a hymnal (fol. 90v), with some rubrics in German (fols. 134v-135r); the Sanctoral, from the eve of Saint Andrew (fol. 136v) to SS. Tibertius and Valerian, 14 April; the Common of saints (fol. 195v); and further offices (fol. 215v), including long entries for SS. Katherine and Dominic, some with rubrics in German, and Matins of the Virgin (fol. 231r).

illumination

The illumination of the opening page is in the Flemish style practised in Nuremberg by members of the Glockendon family, perhaps closest to that of Jörg Glockendon the younger (d. 1547/8); cf. U. Merkl, Buchmalerei in Bayern in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, 1999, pl. 138).   The added illuminations are: a bird flying through foliage (fol. 25r), a swag of coloured leaves and bunches of grapes (fol. 140r), foliage (fol. 146v), white rabbits playing in the grass (fol. 147v), foliage (fol. 153v), the arms of Haller and Wolff, held by putti (fol. 186v), musical instruments (fol. 190r, partly peeled away), and foliage, a scroll and a string of beads (fol. 200r, partly peeled away).