Western Manuscripts and Miniatures

A lively illuminated leaf from the famous “1524 Hildesheim Prayerbook,” a fine example of German Renaissance illumination.

165 x 133 mm. Single leaf, unruled for one column of 18 to 20 lines (written space: 115 x 90 mm), written in brown ink in a compressed calligraphic bastarda, one-line initials in liquid gold or silver on blue, red, or brown ground, three-line initials in liquid gold or silver on green, red or blue ground, in-filled with flowers, the written space on the recto and verso enclosed within a full illusionistic border brushed with gold and framed with red and black, painted with flowers, strawberries, birds, and grotesques, accompanied with TWO HISTORIATED BAS-DE-PAGE (slight flakes in the paint and gold, slight oxidization of silver, the outer margin trimmed on either side, else in good condition). 

This richly illuminated leaf comes from a handsome German prayerbook probably made for Albrecht, count of Mansfeld (1480-1560). Originally the prayerbook contained a calendar, tables for calculating the date for Easter, the Hours of the Passion, the Psalter of the Virgin Mary, the Office of the Conception of the Virgin, and prayers to the Virgin and saints. Our leaf comes from the Psalter of the Virgin Mary, a devotional text composed in the thirteenth century by St. Bonaventure. The recto contains the end of Psalm 97, Psalm 98, and Psalm 99 (which continues on the verso), and the verso has Psalm 100 and the first half of Psalm 101. The Cleveland Museum of Art has a leaf with Psalms 80-83 from the same Marian text (not the ferial psalter, as stated in Fliegel 1999, pp. 67-69). The Marian psalms are closely modelled after their Davidian counterparts and begin with the same opening words.

A refined example of German Renaissance illumination, this manuscript originally had twenty-five large historiated initials, twenty-two large ornamental initials, and generously illuminated full ornamental borders on liquid gold grounds on nearly all pages. These alternate between elaborate flowers, fruit, animals, birds, playing putti, cornucopia, masks, satyrs and other mythological and fantastic figures. Our leaf includes a lively scene with a horn-blowing angel hunting a deer with dogs (recto) and a curious enthroned and armoured figure with a harp (verso). The illumination is related to the work of Nikolaus Glockendon (c. 1490/1495-1533/1534) and Jacob Elsner (1460-1517), artists influenced by Albrecht Dürer active in Nuremberg, though not by either of these. The manuscript may either have been commissioned from a follower of these artists in Southern Germany or made in Hildesheim with a strong influence of South German illumination.

Provenance
(1) Acquired from Charles Edwin Puckett by the present owner, his IM-725.

(2) Private collection, California, USA, MS 253.

Parent manuscript
1. The parent manuscript was last described as complete at the time of its sale at Sotheby’s, London, 23 June 1987, lot 99. Two of its borders bore the date 1524 (ff. 61v and 74), and another included an angel bearing a coat of arms of Mansfeld. The unusual depiction of St. Godehard (d. 1038), bishop of Hildesheim, suggests that it would have been illuminated in the city, not far from the castle of Mansfeld, between Magdeburg and Merseburg.
2. In France at an early stage, since rubrics in red were added in French throughout, as were the mid-sixteenth century arms of Adrienne de Louvignies on the first folio.
3. Count of Aspremont-Lynden in the nineteenth century, whose signature was described in the manuscript.
4. Acquired in 1892 by the city of Frankfurt for the Kunstgewerbemuseum, and by bequest in 1916 (see Kidd 2014). The parent manuscript was published in 1929 as MS L.M. 39 of Frankfurt’s Linel Sammlung of Frankfurt am Main (Swarzenski 1929, pp. 181-183, no 151).
5. Deaccessioned in July 1953, alongside other manuscripts of the Linel Sammlung, in exchange for works of art with local dealer W. Heinrich.
6. Sotheby’s, London, 23 June 1987, lot 99; acquired by “Pairvel.”
7. The manuscript last appeared as complete in Jorn Günther and Bruce P. Ferrini, Recent Acquisitions: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, 1997.
8. According to Peter Kidd (2014), it was dismantled by the next summer, when its leaves were offered by Phillip J. Pirages, Catalogue 41, no 67.

Sister leaves
Dispersed leaves of the 1524 “Hildesheim” Prayerbook are found in a number of public and private collections, with three at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Jeanne Miles Blackburn, 2006.15 and 1993.136; see Fliegel 1999, nos. 65-67); and one at Dekalb, IL (Northern Illinois University Library). Throughout the years, these have been offered regularly on the market. For instance, three leaves, including prayers for St. Oswald of Worcester, were sold at Christie’s on 7 December 2004 (lot 29), and one leaf with a miniature of St. Erasmus was sold at Christie’s on 14 December 2022 (lot 32).
 
LITERATURE
Published (parent manuscript and sister leaves): Georg Swarzenski, Die illuminerten Handschriften und Einzelminiaturen des Mittelalters und der Renaissance in Frankfurter Besitz, 1929, no. 151, pp. 181-183, pl. LXV; Sotheby’s, London, on 23 June 1987, lot 99; Jörn Günther, Handschriften und Miniaturen aus dem Deutschen Sprachgebiet, Katalog 5, Hamburg, 1997, no. 39, pp. 207-210; Stephen N. Fliegel, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, 1999, pp. 67-69, nos. 65-67; Peter Kidd, “The 1524 ‘Hildesheim’ Prayerbook,” Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, 2014.

Freeman’s | Hindman thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Elliott Adam for their assistance in preparing this sale.