Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Christi, Life of Christ, part 1, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

263 leaves, 355 mm. by 270 mm., complete, collation: i-xxxii^{8, xxxiii7 [of 8, blank viii cancelled], with horizontal catchwords, double column, 49 lines, ruled in dark red ink, written-space 230 mm. by 156 mm., written in dark brown ink in a very regular small gothic bookhand, headings in red, capitals touched in yellow, paragraph-marks throughout alternately blue or burnished gold with penwork in red or dark blue, 2-line initials in burnished gold on red and blue grounds with white tracery, about a hundred very large illuminated initials usually 5 lines high in two principal styles (a) in formal plant stem designs in many colours with white heightening (or sometimes diaper patterns) on highly burnished gold grounds, or (b) in very delicate scrolling leafy patterns in russet red and blue with heightening and shading in liquid gold, all with partial or full-length borders of burnished gold and coloured leaves on black hairline stems}, ninety-one small miniatures, column-width, mostly 16-17 lines high, painted in colours and liquid gold within illuminated frames sometimes including text in liquid gold capitals, all miniatures with full-length borders sprouting into panels of illumination in upper and lower margins, two very large miniatures, more-or-less half page, in gently arched compartments, with full illuminated borders of delicate coloured flowers and acanthus leaves, a few signs of use, some marginal notes, fol. 189 torn and repaired without loss of text, some creasing, outer blank half of fol. 261 cut away, first page rather rubbed especially in lower border, some retouching of faces and other spots of skilful restoration, the miniature on fol. 32r mostly repainted, generally in fine condition with wide margins, bound in early twentieth-century blind-stamped red-brown calf in late medieval style, clasps and catches, paper endleaves, gilt edges, by [Léon] Gruel (1841-1923), signed inside lower cover

provenance

(1) To judge from the script, the manuscript may have been written around 1400 but perhaps not illuminated until about 70 years later.   The arms of the patron are on fol. 1r, azure, a chevron gules between two stars or and a black cock proper, with a crest of a lion's head between raised blue wings; two supporters, possibly eagles, have been erased from either side of the arms or were lightly sketched and never added.

(2) Catalogue d'un riche collection de manuscrits et de livres provenant des bibliothèques d'un couvent dans le nord de la France, de feu M.-A. de Meunynck à Lille, et de feu M.-V. Borgen à Copenhageu, auxquelles est ajoutée une partie de la bibliothèque d'un collectioneur connu à Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 28 November 1905, lot 11, "d'une beauté excessive, remarquable aussi pour la fraîcheur de son coloris".

(3) Lardanchet, cat. 48 (1951), no. 2887 ; re-offered (or sold and reacquired) Lardanchet, cat. 60 (1967), no. 245.

(4) Bought in February 1968 from Jean Rousseau-Girard, Paris, by a private collector, and by descent to the present owner.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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text

This is probably the most influential medieval biography but, more than that, it offers an extraordinary insight into the understanding of Christian religion and iconography in late medieval Europe.  Ludolph of Saxony (d. 1378) joined the Carthusians in Strassburg in 1340, was prior of Coblenz in 1343, but resumed the status of a monk in 1348 and spent the rest of his life in the Carthusian houses of Mainz and Strassburg.   The Vita Christi is his greatest work.  "Approaching the spiritual life through practical asceticism, Ludolphus presents the life of Christ as an example and symbol of the life of man" (M. L. Ford, Christ, Plato, Hermes Trismegistus, 1990, p. 277).  It "is not a simple biography but a meditation on the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ harmonised from the Gospels.  It is built up with commentaries of the Fathers and the scholastics, as well as with dogmatic and moral reflections of the author.  Each chapter is recapitulated by means of a prayer which gives the quintessence of its thought" (M. I. Bodenstedt, The Vita Christi of Ludolphus the Carthusian, 1944, p. 16).  Classical sources cited include Cato, Horace, Josephus, Lucan, Ovid, Pliny, Sallust, Seneca, Cicero and Virgil.  Among later writers quoted are Elizabeth of Schönau and Bridget of Sweden.  According to H. Boehmer, Loyola und die deutsche Mystik, 1921, p. 305, this was the most influential work of north European mysticism of the late Middle Ages, ahead of the Horologium Sapientiae of Suso or the Imitatio Christi of Thomas à Kempis.  It was prescribed refectory reading in Carthusian monasteries.  It was recommended by Saint Theresa of Avila, and it was the text which converted Saint Ignatius Loyola (and in which he found the name 'Jesuits').  It became a luxury book for aristocratic delight, far better known than the Bible.  Its pictures influenced the history of art far into the renaissance.  It was first printed in Cologne in 1472, and reprinted nearly a hundred times before the seventeenth century.  Extraordinarily, there is no recent edition since that of L. M. Rigollet, Paris, 1878, and there is no census of manuscripts.  "The Vita Christi is such a striking work that one cannot help finding in it a wealth of ideas and motifs ...  This fact makes it the more surprising that the work should have suffered neglect by scholars in recent times" (C. A. Conway, The Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony (Analecta Carthusiana, 34), 1976, p. 145).  A modern study is urgently required.  "The resultant summa of words and ideas of past writers pulsates anew in the Vita, not only in the Middle Ages, but even for readers of today" (Bodenstedt, p. 147).

The manuscript opens with the prologue on fol. 1r, "Fundamentum aliud nemo potest ..." [I Corinthians 3:11], Cum dicat augustinus ...", with Book I opening on fol. 5r, "Incipit liber de vita domini nostri ihesu xpisti in evangelio tradita ... De plenitudine itaque evangelii ...", and Book II on fol. 181r, "Incipit secunda pars libri de vita xpisti ... Et abiit iterum ihesus in galileam ...", ending on fol. 261r, "... et iusticie et salutis eterne, Amen", followed by tables of the 60 chapters in Book I and the 31 chapters in Book II.

illumination

The volume is ornamented with nearly a hundred miniatures, two of them as large as small panel paintings.  The style is engaging and lively.  It has many resemblances to that of the former Hamilton Palace Histoire Ancienne with 51 miniatures, last sold in these rooms, 6 July 2006, lot 64, made for Yves du Fou, of Poitou, now ascribed to the Master of Walters 222 (cf. E. König, Der Meister von Poitiers 30, Ein unbekanntes Gegenstück zum Studenbuch der Adelaide von Savoyen, Tenschert, 2006, p. 177 and fig. 91).  Walters 222 itself is a Book of Hours of the Use of Poitiers.  It is one of a group of little-studied manuscripts probably all made in Poitiers in a style which evolved out of the Loire manuscripts of the Master of Jouvenel des Ursins and the Master of the Geneva Boccaccio (cf. L. Randall, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, II, France, 1420-1540, i, 1992, p. 211; F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440-1520, 1993, pp. 104-27).  The best-known artist of the group is the Master of Poitiers 30, known also as the Master of Adelaide of Savoy.  The present manuscript is not by him, but may be by the hand of his follower, the artist of Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, LA 135 (cf. König, fig. 25, especially the border style, and fig. 43).

The two half-page miniatures are:

Folio 1r, The Holy Trinity, arched top, 128 mm. by 157 mm., the three persons of the Trinity looking similar and seated side by side on a great gold chair and draped beneath a single red and green robe, the Son on the left with a cross, the Holy Ghost on the right with a sceptre, the Scutum Fidei in front of the Father (the shield with the names of God in the centre and the persons of the Trinity in each corner, connected by bands to show that the Father is God but is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit but is God, etc.), a blue and gold tapestry behind it, little hills in the foreground with the Chalice and the Law (the Old and New covenants), a globe showing the world as sea with ships, land with cities and sky with clouds, scroll on either sides on the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, all set on a background of  blue sky; full border, including flowers and a coat-of-arms.

Folio 181r, Christ and the woman of Samaria, arched top, 156 mm. by 157mm., the fortified gates of Samaria to the right with a drawbridge over a moat, Jacob's well behind them, the woman emptying out her jar of water on hearing that Christ can give her water of everlasting life, all set in a landscape with a winding road along which the apostles travel back from buying food in the city; full border, including flowers and a peacock.

The smaller miniatures show: 1, folio 5r, the Father and Son seated together in the void in a blaze of colour before the Creation of the world, 70 mm. by 69 mm.; 2, folio 6v, the annunciation to Joachim, the meeting at the Golden Gate, and Joachim and Anne at the temple, 67 mm. by 67 mm.; 3, folio 9r, the betrothal of the Virgin to Joseph, who holds the flowering staff to distinguish him from the failed suitors on the right, whose staves did not flower, set in a gothic temple, 70 mm. by 69 mm.; 4, folio 10r, Zacharias censing an altar in the Temple, two priests watching and disputing, 69 mm. by 70 mm.; 5, folio 11v, the Annunciation, the Virgin seated beside her bed, Gabriel on the right, in an interior opening onto a landscape, 71 mm. by 67 mm.; 6, folio 18r, the birth and circumcision of John the Baptist, Elizabeth in bed on the left with her breasts bare, Joachim writing down the child's name, the priest with the child laid on an altar on the right, attendants on either side, 69 mm. by 68 mm.; 7, folio 21r, a Jesse tree, Jesse asleep, his descendants in blue in braches above his head, two prophets in the foreground, both with quotations from Isaiah, 69 mm. by 68 mm.; 8, folio 23r, the Virgin reassuring Joseph, who leaves the house on hearing that his wife is pregnant, and meets and angel in the wilderness, 70 mm. by 69 mm.; 9, folio 25r, the Nativity of Christ, Joseph and the Virgin in prayer before the Child lying on the ground in a stable, 69 mm. by 68 mm.; 10, folio 30r, the Circumcision of Christ, the Child lying on a circular table in a temple, five priests gathering round, 70 mm. by 68 mm.; 11, folio 32r, the Adoration of the Magi, the Virgin seated below a canopy in an interior, one king kneeling, two standing (considerably retouched), 65 mm. by 69 mm.; 12, folio 36r, the Presentation in the Temple, the Virgin passing the Child to Simeon, attendants on either side, 69 mm. by 66 mm.; 13, folio 40r, the Flight into Egypt, Joseph leading the donkey to the left past a field of corn which has miraculously grown up, soldiers killing babies behind, 73 mm. by 68 mm.; 14, folio 43r, the Holy Family returning from Egypt on foot through the wilderness, the boy John the Baptist pulling off his robe and praying naked on a rock, 71 mm. by 67 mm.; 15, folio 44v, Christ among the Doctors, the Child seated at the top of steps in the Temple, disputing with the elders and being found by his parents, 70 mm. by 66 mm.; 16, folio 47v,  the Holy Family at home, a domestic interior, the Virgin weaving, Joseph chopping kindling, the Child feeding sticks to the fire, 71 mm. by 66 mm.; 17, folio 51r, John the Baptist in the wilderness beside a lake, predicting the coming of the lamb of God, his dubious audience on the left, Christ and his mother just visible between the cleft of the hills on the right, 68 mm. by 68 mm.; 18, folio 55r, the Baptism of Christ, John the Baptist pouring water over his head as he stands up to his knees in the Jordan, saints on the left, God above declaring this to be his beloved son, 74 mm. by 67 mm.; 19, folio 57v, John the Baptist preaching, the Pharisees asking him whether he is the Christ and John replying that he is the voice crying in the wilderness, 70 mm. by 68 mm.; 20, folio 59v, John the Baptist preaching penitence, naked figures scourging themselves, rich men turning away disdainfully, 65 mm. by 69 mm.; 21, folio 64v, John the Baptist baptising people in the Jordan, with angels helping them undress, 75 mm. by 68 mm.; 22, folio 68r, the Temptation of Christ, the Devil trying to persuade Christ to turn stones into bread and to throw himself off the roof of a gothic church, and Christ rejecting him, 73 mm. by 67 mm.; 23, folio 74v, John the Baptist with a group of followers pointing to Christ who is about to cross a bridge over the Jordan and saying that one is coming who is even greater than him, 74 mm. by 69 mm.; 24, folio 76r, Christ being recognised by Philip and Nathaniel, who says 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel' and Jesus replying that here is an Israelite without guile, 77 mm. by 67 mm.; 25, folio 78r, the wedding feast at Cana, Christ seated with his mother and others at table, the guests entering from the right to find three jars full of wine, 74 mm. by 68 mm.; 26, folio 80v, Christ turning the merchants and money-lenders out of the Temple, overturning their tables and scattering coins, 73 mm. by 67 mm.; 27, folio 83r, John the Baptist thrust into prison by two soldiers in gothic armour, 65 mm. by 68 mm.; 28, folio 84r, Christ beginning to preach, saying 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand', and an angel leading forward to penitents dressed only in netting, 70 mm. by 68 mm.; 29, folio 85r, the calling of Peter and Andrew, Christ standing in one of two boats with a net of fish between them, declaring that he will make the disciples fishers of men, 72 mm. by 68 mm.; 30, folio 87r, the calling of Matthew, who sits behind his desk counting gold coins as Christ enters and says 'Follow me', 75 mm. by 67 mm.; 31, folio 88v, Christ at table with a rich man, and the Pharisees asking the disciples why their master was eating with publicans and sinners and Christ replying that the healthy do not need a physician but the sick do, 73 mm. by 68 mm.; 32, folio 91v, Christ among his apostles, 75 mm. by 67 mm.; 33, folio 93r, the Sermon on the Mount, Christ on a hill turning to his disciples and pointing to a crowd of beggars in prayer and declaring that theirs is the kingdom of God, 73 mm. by 68 mm.; 34, folio 97r, Christ preaching to his apostles, telling them not to swear oaths, watched by a seated group of kings and secular rulers, 78 mm. y 69 mm.; 35, folio 101r, Christ telling his disciples to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors, as a swordsman beheads a kneeling victim in the foreground and an amorous couple kiss (these are those that only love those who love them), 68 mm. by 68 mm.; 36, folio 105r, Christ advising his disciples not to give alms publicly, like the man here giving a coin to a one-legged beggar, 68 mm. by 69 mm.; 37, folio 107v, the Pater Noster, Christ teaching his disciples the Lord's Prayer, 73 mm. by 69 mm.; 38, folio 111v, Christ telling his disciples not to store up treasure on earth, like the men here with their coins and folded textiles in a castellated fortress, 82 mm. by 68 mm.; 39, folio 117r, Christ urging his disciples to judge not, lest they shall be judged, pointing to two poor men in rags, set in a pastoral landscape, 76 mm. by 68 mm.; 40, folio 120v, Christ pointing to the narrow gate which leads to heaven, across a bridge, while a bonfire burns in the foreground, 75 mm. by 69 mm.; 41, folio 125r, the curing of the leper, Christ and his disciples coming down through a rocky ravine to find the stout leper kneeling near a lake, telling Christ that if he wished he could make him clean, 712 mm. by 67 mm.; 42, folio 127v, curing the centurion's servant, who lies in bed in a landscape, the centurion telling Christ that he is not worthy that he should come under his roof and Christ replying that he has not found such faith in Israel, 68 mm. by 68 mm.; 43, folio 129v, Christ curing the sick, healing Simon's wife's mother from a fever and removing madness from a beggar, 73 mm. by 68 mm.; 44, folio 132r, Christ raising the son of the widow in Nain, the boy lying among his companions outside the city gate, 75 mm. by 68 mm.; 45, folio 134r, Christ rebuking the man who said he would follow him but had to bury his father first, pointing to the body in a bed visible through the door of a house in a street, 76 mm. by 67 mm.; 46, folio 136r, Christ calming the storm at sea, in a boat lurching in the waves, 67 mm. by 67 mm.; 47, folio 138v, Christ casting out devils from the Gadarenes, two kneeling men asking if Christ has come to torment them, demons flying upwards, and pigs which the demons have entered drowning in the sea, 74 mm. by 68 mm.; 48, folio 140r, the curing of the man with palsy, the patient being lowered on a rope from a dormer window in the roof of a house and then carrying his own bed as Christ tells him to rise up and walk, 77 mm. by 70 mm.; 49, folio 142r, the woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years touching Christ's robe (he is asking 'Who touched me?') and the ruler of the synagogue with his daughter, raised from the dead, 76 mm. by 68 mm.; 50, folio 144r, Christ curing the two blind men, who kneel before him, 72 mm. by 70 mm.; 51, folio 145v, Christ sending out the apostles to preach, telling them to take nothing for their journey, 65 mm. by 66 mm.; 52, folio 148v, Christ telling his apostles that he is sending them like sheep among wolves, as in the foreground, and a saint among thorns behind, inscribed "Mundus, caro, demonia", 'the world, the flesh, and the devil', 73 mm. by 68 mm.; 53, folio 153r, Christ warning his disciples not to fear those who kill the body (the tormentors and torturers on the left) but rather to fear the demons who destroy body and soul in hell (in the foreground), 74 mm. by 70 mm.; 54, folio 155r, a son rejecting his family for Christ, throwing his clothes on the ground, as Christ says that anyone who does not take up the cross and follow him is not worthy of him, 69 mm. by 67 mm.; 55, folio 159r, a woman welcoming two disciples into her house, as Christ says that whoever receives them, receives him, 75 mm. by 67 mm.; 56, folio 161r, John the Baptist in prison sending two disciples to ask Christ if he really is the one who will come, and Christ replying, 73 mm. by 68 mm.; 57, folio 165v, Christ disputing with the crowd, saying that if John the Baptist ate and drank nothing, people said he had a devil, but if the Son of Man eats and drinks, they say he is a glutton, 75 mm. by 68 mm.; 58, folio 167v, Christ telling the apostles that God has hidden things from the wise but revealed them to babies, 80 mm. by 68 mm.; 59, folio 171r, Christ replying to the scribes who have asked which is the greatest commandment, 73 mm. by 69 mm.; 60, folio 174r, Martha serving Christ at table and pointing ruefully at her sister Mary who is kissing Christ's feet and not helping, 73 mm. by 67 mm.; 61, folio 177r, Christ telling Mary Magdalene that her sins are forgiven, 68 mm. by 68 mm.; 62, folio 183v, Christ telling the nobleman of Capernaum that his apparently dead son is alive and, on the right, the man's servants showing him that the boy is indeed sitting up in bed, 72 mm. by 68 mm.; 63, folio 185r, the parable of the sower, a man scattering seed on stony ground where birds peck at it, or else it grows among thorns or on good ground behind, as Christ tells his disciples that those that have ears should hear, 67 mm. by 67 mm.; 64, folio 189v, Christ reading from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, 65 mm. by 66 mm.; 65, folio 191v, the beheading of John the Baptist, who leans out of the window of his prison as Salome waits with a dish, 55 mm. by 67 mm.; 66, folio 194v, the feeding of the 5000, the apostles distributing bread and fish, 72 mm. by 67 mm.; 67, folio 197r, a bad monk and a good monk, and a bishop addressing a layman outside a church, 76 mm. by 68 mm.; 68, folio 202r, Peter trying step from a boat onto the water and Christ walking over to sea to save him, saying 'o you of little faith, why did you doubt?', 74 mm. by 69 mm.; 69, folio 203r, Christ with his apostles telling the Jews that he brings true bread from heaven, unlike Moses, 68 mm. by 68 mm.; 70, folio 206r, the Pharisees criticising Christ and his disciples for plucking ears of corn and eating them on the Sabbath, and Christ replying that David had when hungry eaten bread meant for priests, 75 mm. by 68 mm.; 71, folio 208v, Christ curing the man with a withered hand, asking him to stretch it forth, 72 mm. by 68 mm.; 72, folio 210v, Christ casting the devil of out the man who was possessed, blind and dumb, as the Pharisees mutter that only Beelzebub can do that, 75 mm. by 70 mm.; 73, folio 215v, Christ pointing to the example of Jonah in the whale, when the Pharisees have asked him for a sign, 70 mm. by 69 mm.; 74, folio 217v, Christ saying that his disciples are to him his mother and his brothers, 79 mm. by 67 mm.; 75, folio 219r, Christ standing with his disciples at a table in a landscape, condemning the lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge (the word 'key', "clavem", expressed by a little drawing of a key), 64 mm. by 70 mm.; 76, folio 221r, the parable of the rich man with great wealth in his barns but Christ saying that his soul would be required from him this night, and he lies dead in the foreground, 74 mm. by 66 mm.; 77, folio 223v, the angel stirring the waters at the pool of Bethesda, as Christ cures the man who had been bedridden for 38 years, 73 mm. by 67 mm.; 78, folio 227v, the parable of the man who planted a fig tree which bore no fruit, here allowing the gardener to dig it around the roots, and Christ curing the woman who has been hunched up in infirmity for 18 years, 70 mm. by 69 mm.; 79, folio 231r, Christ dining on the Sabbath with one of the chief Pharisees and curing the man with dropsy, 72 mm. by 69 mm.; 80, folio 234r, the parable of the man who gives a great feast and invites all his rich friends, who make excuses, and so the man asks instead the poor instead, 75 mm. by 67 mm.; 81, folio 235v, Christ instructing his disciples to go up to the feast of tabernacles, although he will not himself go for his time has not yet come, 72 mm. by 68 mm.; 82, folio 238r, the woman taken in adultery, as Christ writes on the ground and confounds his critics by asking any without sin to throw the first stone, 70 mm. by 70 mm.; 83, folio 239v, the Jews taking up stones to cast at Christ because he has dared to say he that he has been around longer than Moses, 71 mm. by 70 mm.; 84, folio 243r, Christ curing the man who was blind from birth, and the man's parents being called to testify to this, 74 mm. by 68 mm.; 85, folio 244v, Christ as the shepherd who stands at the door where the sheep know him, and all that came before him as robbers climbing in through the windows, and the hireling in the fields leaving the sheep to a wolf, 76 mm. by 70 mm.; 86, folio 247v, the Jews again taking up stones against Christ, but he asks them not to believe him unless he is doing the works of his Father, which he is, 74 mm. by 69 mm.; 87, folio 250r, Christ at supper, telling his disciples and two men that blasphemies are more sinful than eating with unwashed hands, 75 mm. by 68 mm.; 88, folio 252v, Christ commending the faith of the woman from Canaan, who beseeches Christ to cure her daughter, 71 mm. by 69 mm.; 89, folio 254r, Christ curing the man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and the Jews saying that he does good things and makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, 80 mm. by 67 mm.; 90, folio 255v, Christ and the apostles looking at the baskets of food left over after the feeding of the 4000, 80 mm. by 70 mm.; 91, folio 259r, Christ telling his disciples of the blindness of his critics, warning against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, 84 mm. by 67 mm.