A finely illuminated Breviary dated 1488, exemplifying the mature phase of the Augsburg–Salzburg Group, an influential network of scribes and illuminators who flourished during the Melk reforms.

135 mm × 190 mm, i (vellum) + 168 + i (vellum) leaves, foliated in a modern hand in pencil 1–168, [collation: binding too tight to permit full collation, generally gathered in quires of eight], modern thumb tabs added to major text divisions, ruled in brown ink in one column of thirty-five lines (justification: 142 mm × 95 mm), written in a gothic bastarda script with looping descenders and ascenders reaching margins, later devotional additions in a cursive hand to end matter, rubrics in red, capitals of one, two, and three lines in alternating red and blue ink, SIX ILLUMINATED INITIALS of eight lines, five of these in blue and green ink embellished with swirling acanthus vines on tooled and punched gold ground framed with particolored borders, one of these in tooled gold leaf on crimson ground embellished with white penwork, accompanied by acanthus border decoration in green, pink, lilac, and vermilion, some embellished with tooled gold, terminating in floral patterns and gold bezants, ONE HISTORIATED INITIAL of nine lines in blue and green with acanthus filagree on tooled gold ground and particolored frame, accompanied by acanthus border decoration in green, red, and lilac, with floral terminals and gold bezants, a naturalistic flower painted in lower margin, flyleaf with modern sketch likely copied from incunable frontispiece showing a man seated on a cathedra amidst a crowd. Bound in modern quarter morocco over inwardly beveled wooden boards, minor cockling, stains, and discoloration throughout. Dimensions 135 mm × 190 mm.

Provenance
(1) The manuscript is dated in red ink at the end of f. 167v: “...Ostende nobis faciem tuam et salvi erimus. 1488.” The calendar includes several saints characteristic of the Bavarian regions, including Udalricus of Augsburg (4 July), Willibald of Eichstätt (7 July), and Kilian of Würzburg (8 July).

(2) Sotheby’s, London, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, 19 June 1979, lot 51.

(3) Sotheby’s, London, purchased privately 2 February 1987.

(4) Dr. Scott Schwartz, New York, his bookplate and catalog number “MS 25” on front pastedown.

Text
The Breviary is misbound, with portions of the Psalter, Temporale, and Sanctorale dispersed intermittently. Key liturgical moments are embellished with decoration. These occur as follows: f. 1, Psalm 1 (“Beatus vir”); f. 19, Sanctorale: Feast of St. Ambrose (“Sapientiam omnium antiquorum exquiret sapiens”); f. 49, Temporale: Office for Easter Vigil (“Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. Laudate Dominum”); f. 87, Psalm 13 (“Dixit insipiens in corde suo”); f. 106v, Psalm 38 (“Dixi: Custodiam vias meas, ut non delinquam in lingua mea”); f. 143v, Psalm 68 (“Salvum me fac Deus”); f. 143v, (“Dixit Dominus Domino meo”); ff. 157–162, Calendar. Final folio containing later devotional additions in a cursive hand, probably sixteenth century, including protective prayers and invocations of Saint Basil written on a previously blank page.

Illumination
Dated 1488 on f. 167v, this Breviary was most likely produced in Augsburg by the so-called Augsburg–Salzburg Group, a closely interconnected network of scribes, illuminators, binders, and booksellers whose manuscripts circulated widely throughout southern Germany and Austria during the second half of the fifteenth century. The calendar includes the feasts of Udalricus of Augsburg (4 July), Willibald of Eichstätt (7 July), and Kilian of Würzburg (8 July), among others, indicating production for a Bavarian patron, probably an ecclesiastical institution, although its precise liturgical use remains uncertain. Stylistically, the manuscript belongs firmly within the Augsburg tradition at a time when the city stood among the principal centers of manuscript production in southern Germany. The Augsburg–Salzburg Group supplied books to numerous Benedictine and Dominican communities, including Tegernsee, Melk, and Scheyern, as part of the broader manuscript culture fostered by the Melk Reform and its demand for renewed liturgical books.

Characterized by vibrant gouache painting, lavish use of gold, and luxuriant floral border decoration, the Augsburg–Salzburg style has traditionally been associated with the scribe and illuminator Heinrich Molitor, whose manuscripts for Tegernsee and Scheyern established a decorative vocabulary long regarded as foundational. These models were subsequently adapted and transformed by a younger generation of artists, including Johannes Franck (active c. 1450–1480s), Georg Beck (active c. 1470–1495), and Johannes Bämler (1430–1503), the printer who introduced typography to Augsburg. More recently, Christine Beier has demonstrated that these figures are best understood not as isolated masters but as participants in a highly collaborative and interconnected system of manuscript production whose precise organization remains difficult to reconstruct. Additionally, while Salzburg undoubtedly played an important role within this milieu, Beier has argued that the surviving evidence increasingly points to Augsburg as its principal center, particularly during the flourishing of manuscript production in the final decades of the fifteenth century.

The present manuscript is closely related to a legal manuscript now preserved at Harvard University (Houghton Library, MS Ger 142; Hamburger et al. 2016, no. 175), copied by Johannes Waltpurger of Friedberg, a town just east of Augsburg. Whether Waltpurger was responsible solely for the text or also participated in the illumination remains uncertain. Both manuscripts share a closely comparable decorative program characterized by initials enriched with white filigree ornament in particolored frames, naturalistic acanthus scrolls intertwined with flowering vines and gold bezants, and extensive tooled gold within the initials. The historiated initial of King David in the present manuscript likewise bears notable similarities in its modeling and facial type to the figure of Christ (f. 5) in the Harvard manuscript. However, the aesthetic ubiquity of the Augsburg–Salzburg style makes a firm attribution to a specific illuminator or workshop difficult. Nevertheless, the manuscript remains a superb example of the artistic innovation and sophistication of late fifteenth-century Augsburg illumination.

The historiated initial on f. 1 depicts King David with a harp in an initial ‘B’ (beginning Psalm 1, Beatus Vir).

LITERATURE
Unpublished; Related literature: Eberhard König, “Augsburger Buchkunst an der Schwelle zur Frühdruckzeit,” in Augsburger Buchdruck und Verlagswesen: Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Helmut Gier und Johannes Janota, Wiesbaden, 1997, pp. 173–200; Christine Beier, “Missalien massenhaft: Die Bämler-Werkstatt und die Augsburger Buchmalerei im 15. Jahrhundert,” in Codices Manuscripti 48/49 (2004), pp. 55–78; John T. McQuillen, “Fifteenth-Century Book Networks: Scribes, Illuminators, Binders, and the Introduction of Print,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 107 (2013), pp. 495–515; Jeffery Hamburger et al., eds., Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections, Chestnut Hill (MA), 2016, p. 210, no. 175.

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale and John T. McQuillen for consultation on this entry.

Collection of D. Scott Schwartz