FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE

DR. JRN GNTHER R ARE BOOKS AG

2 Petrus Lombardus. Glossatura magna in psalmos. Manuscript on vellum. Northern France, Paris?, c. 1200.

FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE

A SELECTION OF ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS MINIATURES EARLY PRINTED BOOKS

BROCHURE NO. 12

Dr. Jrn Gnther Rare Books AG Mosboden 1 6063 Stalden/Switzerland Phone +41 (0) 41 669 7000 Fax +41 (0) 41 669 7001 info@guenther-rarebooks.com www.guenther-rarebooks.com

Full descriptions of all items are available on request. All items in this catalogue are subject to prior sale. Printed in Switzerland Copyright 2011 Dr. Jrn Gnther Rare Books AG

1 Four Gospels with Kephalaia, Manuel Hagiostephanites: Poem in Honour of Archbishop John of Crete, Gospel Readings for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Illuminated manuscript in Greek on vellum and paper. Cyprus?, Manuel Hagiostephanites for John of Crete, archbishop of Cyprus, dated 1156(July, A.M. 6664) and 16th century (text 3). 224x162mm, i+342vellum + 11paper leaves, complete. Written by one scribe, Manuel Hagiostephanites. Numerous smaller illuminated initials, 3large decorated and 1large historiated initial, 4half page miniatures and 4full page miniatures. The Gospels contain the Byzantine recension, the added paper leaves at the end are 14th-century bombycine folios. This Tetraevangelion as well as a companion manuscript (Vatican Library, Cod. Barb. Graec. 449) were written by the same scribe and probably produced in Cyprus as both the scribes name as well as the patron John the Cretan were Cypriot. Manuel Hagiostephanites, and with him the present manuscript and its companion,

is the central and crucial figure in the tradition of Cypriot and Byzantine Book illumination in the second half of the 12th and at the beginning of the 13th century. The style of the painting is characterised by heavy outlines in deep colours, heavy brows and cheeks highlighted with dabs of red. Gold predominates as the background sky. A full range of colours tends to be rich and creamy with a pastel quality. A crenellated border, though not universally applied, is to some extent a mark of the school. Here our Gospel illustrations are especially valuable for they are mostly better preserved than their surviving counterparts. The portraits of the Evangelists are not without special interest in our manuscript, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are associated with symbols, rare in Byzantine miniature painting. It is not known when the manuscript left Cyprus to reach the monastic community of Zoodochos Pege or Hagia in the island of Andros, where it was kept probably until the early 20th century.

2 Petrus Lombardus. Glossatura magna in psalmos. Manuscript on vellum. Northern France, Paris?, c. 1200. 280x202mm. 204leaves, complete. Biblical text in red, commentary in dark brown ink in a fine early gothic hand. 18mostly 10-line illuminated initials and 2historiated initials in delicate designs. Peters Great Gloss, or Magna Glossatura, on the Psalms was not released for publication until the mid or late 1150s. From the 1160s it was disseminated from Paris to all parts of Europe. The microscopic and beautifully written sidenotes reveal a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew sources. The twenty fine initials belong to the first generation of clearly professional illumination in Paris. The miniatures of fol. 1and 131are comparable with that in Paris, BnF, ms lat. 16200, fol. 4(Ptolemy's Almagest) with a colophon attesting it to have been copied from an exemplar at St Victor in Paris in 1213.

3 Petrus Lombardus. Glossatura magna in psalmos. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by the Vie de Saint Denis atelier. Northern France, Paris, c. 1225-50. 442x315mm. 213leaves, complete, c. 335illuminated initials, 51pages with frame borders in burnished gold, 9historiated initials. Massive medieval binding. Peter Lombard (c. 1100-1160) was probably the first truly magisterial teacher of the emerging schools of Paris. The text is one of the first to use a system of citing sources by patterns of red dots. The 9miniatures are characteristic products of the Vie de Saint Denis atelier, one of the most prolific workshops in Paris from c. 1230-1250. The present manuscript shows all hallmarks of the style, including the distinctive colouring and neat curling hair lines. The full burnished gold borders are unusual. It is possible that these are contemporary Spanish additions.

4 Biblia Latina. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by the workshop of the Bible moralise. France, Paris, c. 1220-30. 292x197mm. 385leaves, complete, 59decorated initials, 81historiated initials of heights between 5-37lines. The manuscript contains the Latin Vulgate Bible with the prologues by St Jerome. The standardized version of the text of the Vulgata emerged in Paris and took its final shape by about 1230, prefigured in a group of Bibles copied between 1200and 1230. Apparently, the present Bible is one of these rare prefiguring copies. We find all the texts in the order which became canonic for the Paris Bible, but a few signs of the painstaking efforts it took scholars and theologians to propel these changes are still visible in it. The illumination is definitely related to one of the most famous workshops of the early 13th century in Paris, the atelier of the so-called Vienna Bible

Moralise (Vienna, NB, 1179and 2554). It is probably among the assistants from the exuberant illumination of the Vienna Bible Moralise that we can find the makers of the present miniature cycle. Figures are outlined elongated and elegant, their gestures eloquent while their faces mostly remain motionless. Cloaks and tunics appear with vivid and irregular hemlines, blue and red predominate the palette, while an unusual yellowish green is used for the clothes of minor characters. The outline and design of the folds is representative of the so-called Muldenfaltenstil, which flourished and declined in the first half of the 13th century. Comparing the miniatures in the present manuscript to particular folios of NB 2554, we may suggest to attribute them to the artist or group of artists whom Stork names C1and C2(cf. Stork 1992, p. 83), thus the 8th and 9th painters of the Vienna Bible Moralise.

5 The Courtenay Compendium. Decorated manuscript on vellum. England, Breamore Abbey or Glastonbury Abbey?, late 14th century. 272x190mm. 219leaves, complete. A collection of English and Near- and Far-Eastern historical accounts in Latin, among which Marco Polos Description of the World has been considered the greatest travel account of the medieval world. In addition, it contains Gildas Ruin and Conquest of Britain, William of Tripolis State of Saracens and Mohammedans, and many more. The manuscript is of monastic origin, and was probably produced by the Augustinian canons of the priory of Breamore in Hampshire. It contains a very rare substantial Marco Polo text, as well as the only medieval manuscript of the Encomium Emmae (a contemporary biography of the wife of King Cnut) in the version revised for her son Edward the Confessor, and a number of other important and rare historical texts including accounts and assessments of medieval Islam and the Near-East.

6 Federigo Da Venezia (c.1350-after 1401). Commentary on the Apocalypse, in Italian. Illuminated manuscript on vellum. Venice, c.1420. 168leaves, 272x205mm, complete, 52large illuminated initials, one historiated initial, title page miniature in colours and liquid gold and frontispiece miniature with evangelists symbols and prophets in six medallions in brown ink and yellow wash. Written in a literary version of Venetian dialect, Federigos commentary was one of the very first biblical commentaries composed directly in the Italian vernacular. About 16Italian manuscripts of the text are recorded. The title page miniature showing the evangelist having fallen to the ground at the sight of the Son of Man seems to refer to a manuscript copied in Candia, the chief town of the Venetian colony in Crete, and hence to a Byzantine model, whereas the ink and wash frontispiece appears to depend on an earlier northern European model. A fascinating example of cross-cultural influence in a medieval manuscript owned by William Morris.

7 Book of Hours in Latin and French for the use of Paris. Manuscript on vellum illuminated by the Master of the Policratique of Charles V and the workshop of the Boucicaut-Master. France, Paris, c. 1395and c. 1415. 172x121mm. 161leaves, complete. 15large miniatures accompanied by delicate bas-de-pages with grotesques or drolleries. With figurated calendar borders, each text page decorated with a three sided bar and tendrils. Neither the calendar nor the lavish miniature with a portrait of a female patron gives sufficient information to name the first owner of the manuscript. While the mise-en-page and the very fine execution of the first 14miniatures identify an artist who was held in high esteem at the French court, the last miniature, showing Christ as Man of Sorrows lifted by angels and surrounded by the instruments of the passion with a female patron kneeling in the fore-ground, was added later, commissioned at the leading workshop of the Boucicaut-Master in Paris shortly after 1400. The depiction of the Annunciation (fol.18)

with the characteristic architectural throne is surprisingly close to a small panel painting by an anonymous franco-flemish artist made around 1385(Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Inv.1954.393). Both technique and composition of other miniatures, such as the Crucifixion (fol.121) or the very early example of the Madonna with Child seated on a pillow in a garden, point to an artist who received various commissions from the royal court, and also by Jean Duc de Berry, as he gave a bible illuminated by the same artist to antipope ClementVII between 1388-90(Vatican Library, mslat.50-51): The Master of the Policratique of CharlesV. He was active in Paris for quite a long time, approximately from 1360to the first decade of the 15th century. The Boucicaut-Master and his workshop is to be counted among the leading book-illuminators in Paris after 1400.His compositions, his new sense for space, his palette and his findings strongly influenced book illumination in France for decades to follow.

8 Book of Hours for the use of Rome. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by the workshop of the Master of the Gold Scrolls. Flanders, Bruges, c. 1430-1440. 98x77mm, iii+222+iii leaves. 21(of 22) full-page miniatures on inserted singletons, decorated with full borders across openings with acanthus leaves, flower buds incorporating animals, angels and other figures in half length. Individually produced for a member of a noble family, as is indicated by the -yet unidentified- coat of arms that has been added to the borders of three miniatures. More often than not does border decoration not relate to the main miniature or the text, but here both are exceptionally close and show a concern of the illuminator to connect the else separated realms of text and image by means of decoration. The present book of hours is a remarkable piece by one of the major hands of the workshop.

9 Book of Hours for the use of Paris. Illuminated manuscript on vellum. France, Paris, c. 1415-20. 185x135mm. iv+197+iv leaves. 11(of 14) miniatures, 4additional miniatures from a later 15th-century cycle. The miniatures of the early cycle were executed by a yet unidentified follower of the Boucicaut Master. The latter, named after a manuscript he made for the Marchal de Boucicaut, was one of the most important Paris illuminators between 1400-1420, and his style shaped the works of almost a generation of book artisans. Some miniatures in this book however, like the Annunciation to the Shepherds, show that our illuminator had been in touch with the new style of the Limburg brothers. The younger miniatures by another anonymous artist were supposedly added to the manuscript at a time when the three miniatures from the original cycle were already missing to compensate for the loss.

10 Book of hours for the use of Sarum in Latin. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht. Flanders, Bruges, c.1430. 220x150mm, ii+112+ii leaves. 16full-page miniatures on inserted singletons. The intended market for the manuscript was English, for the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead are for the use of Sarum and the Calendar has many English feasts. The so-called Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht were a group of illuminators active in the Northern Netherlands between c. 1420- 1460. Their name derives from a manuscript that had been commissioned by Otto van Moerdrecht, canon of Utrecht cathedral, in 1424. Their style was easy to imitate, which might explain why it spread so quickly in the northern Netherlands. However, miniatures in the same style can be found in Flemish manuscripts, too. In fact, various details in

this manuscript point to Bruges: In the lower right corner of each miniature is a faint red stamp with the letter b. It bears witness to Bruges regulations requiring illuminators who sold single sheets to stamp them with a registered mark to identify them as a local product. Most likely, members of the Van Moerdrecht masters workshop moved to Bruges because of the 1427regulations enactment as it put an end to exporting single leaf miniatures from Utrecht to Bruges, where the book-market was boosting especially for English commissions. Stylistically speaking, they arrived when the style of the Beaufort masters was waning in popularity in Bruges in favour of the Masters of the Gold Scrolls. As the group must have worked in Bruges after 1427and probably left the city about 1436due to a severe crisis, it is reasonable to date the present book around 1430.

11 Book of Hours for the use of Rome. Manuscript on vellum illuminated by the workshop of the Master of the Gold Scrolls. Flanders, Bruges, c. 1430-50. 127x92mm. ii+146leaves, complete. 12full-page miniatures with full borders across openings. In 15th-century Italian binding. The illumination is in astonishingly fresh condition. The arrangement of the texts implies an Italian commissioner, perhaps a merchant who was based in Bruges. The present book is again by one of the major hands of the Gold Scrolls Group. The atelier was named after the typical delicate feathered scrolling foliage painted with liquid gold on burgundy-red grounds. The artisans influenced illumination in Flanders immensely. Nowadays it is commonly assumed that this workshop consisted of a group of illuminators who cultivated a particular style in Bruges of the 1420s to 1450s, rather than of one single master and his assistants.

12 Book of Hours in Latin for the use of Rome. Illuminated manuscript on vellum. France, Tours or Poitiers?, c. 1450. 188x136mm. i+137+i leaves. 20large arch-topped miniatures with full-page borders. The choice of saints in the calendar refers to the arch-diocese of Tours, but some saints point to the west of France like Angers and further west to Nantes and Dol. Iconographic models seem to be compositions the Jouvenel-Master had assimilated in Angers about 1440/50. Those miniatures concerning the Passion of Christ are simplified manifestations of what had been adopted in western France from the Boucicaut-circle in Paris. The style is that of artists who painted manuscripts made for use in Poitiers, Tours and Angers. The closest similarities to our manuscript are with one of the best of these artists, the Master of Marguerite dOrlans. Though this Book of Hours is not by him or by any of his assistants, it shares the same rich colours and carefully delineated figures.

13 The Bible of Wouter Grauwert. Biblia Latina, vol. I + II. Illuminated manuscript on vellum. Northern Netherlands, Utrecht, 1443-45, signed and dated by the scribe Jacob Teuer. 2volumes, 294x204mm. 408and 444leaves, complete. Approx. 124large illuminated initials, 13large historiated initials, all with full-length borders. In extremely fine and fresh condition with bright and sparkling gold. The scribe records that he made it for Wouter Grauwert, Dean of the Chapter of Saint Salvator, Utrecht. In the present Bible, the order of the biblical books differs radically from any other medieval Bible. Quire signatures, catchwords and the beginning of books in midpage all confirm that the present order of book is as it was written. There may be a theological explanation, attempting a new grading of scriptural texts which rejected the historically sequential order of 13 th-century Paris. The

mixing of Old and New Testaments is quite unexpected at any period of biblical history. With the Hours of Catherine of Cleves (New York, Morgan Library, M. 917), Dutch illumination reached its apogee in Utrecht in the middle third of the 15th century. This Bible is of great artistic refinement and sophistication, of precisely the same period, important not least for being documented and dated. It is the work of an illuminator whose hand is found in various manuscripts in public collections, especially in a Book of Hours in Rostock (U.B. cod. theol. 24). The whole group of his manuscripts is strongly influenced by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, and the border decoration especially of the Hours of Catherine itself may include work by the present illuminator. At least, the same pattern sheets must have been available to both artists.

14 Book of Hours for the use of Rome. Illuminated manuscript on vellum. Italy, Lombardy, probably Milan, c. 1450. 125x88mm. 172leaves, apparently complete but without a calendar. 21large illuminated initials, 19full-page miniatures above bas-de-page with animals on verdant hillocks, with full borders. The manuscript probably dates shortly after 1450, the year of the canonisation of Bernardino of Siena who is included in the litany. The style of illumination indicates an origin in Lombardy, most likely in Milan. The origins of the luxury book trade in Milan lay in manuscripts made for members of the Visconti court. The miniatures are peopled by compact, little doll-like figures in fluid curving drapery set against busy backgrounds with gold-lit hills and rocks, distant trees or brightly coloured architecture. Miniatures, borders and bas-de-pages are the work of an illuminator whose style

was formed in the orbit of the favourite artists of Filippo Maria, the last Visconti duke of Milan (d. 1447). The rich palette and the sombre backgrounds recall Belbello da Pavia but other details show the influence of an illuminator, sometime collaborator of Belbello, known as the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum. The animals in the bas-de-pages of the Hours demonstrate direct contact with the workshop of the Imperatorum Master. They are clearly drawn from the same patterns that served for identical beasts in the Breviary for Marie of Savoy, the dukes wife, (Chambry, Bibl. Ms 4) and other of the Masters works, such as the Pizolpasso Pontifical in Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Museum, Ms 28). It is probable that our illuminator spent some time or, maybe, even trained in the workshop of the Master.

15 Book of Hours for the use of Rome. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by the Master of the Yale Missal. France, Tours or Bourges, c. 1460-70. 195x134mm. ii+187+i leaves. 37(of 38) large, arch-topped miniatures with full borders. The compositions of most images are deeply rooted in the oeuvre of Jean Fouquet (Tours, c. 1420-1478-81). Closest relations are to be found with the rather late Hours of Rauguier-Robertet (New York, Morgan Library, M 834) produced between 1460-70. However close this manuscript is to Jean Fouquet, our artist is not identical with him. In fact, the palette and all stylistic elements point to an illuminator who is known as the Master of the Yale Missal (ms 425, Beinecke Rare Books collection, Yale, made between 1470-75), known also as the Master of the Vienna Mamerot (Vienna NB, cod. 2577-8). It is difficult to define whether he is to be located

in Tours or in Bourges. He had collaborated with Jean Colombe on various commissions, which would speak in favour of Bourges, however, most of his liturgical manuscripts are conceived for use in Tours. Whether our painter is to be identified with the Master of Christophe de Champagne (see no. 18), must remain an open question also. Doubtless, we find surprising parallels in the depiction of the evangelists including the typical expressive physiognomies, and, above all, in the composition of personified Death as a half-decomposed skeleton seated on an open coffin. The present manuscript is a surprising discovery from the artistic milieu of Jean Fouquet, with astonishing depictions also in the suffrages. For lack of evidence to identify the present painter with the Master of Christophe de Champagne, the illumination of the manuscript may safely be attributed to the Master of the Yale Missal.

16 Book of Hours for the use of Utrecht, in Dutch. Illuminated manuscript on vellum. Netherlands, Arnhem and Zwolle, c.1470. 133x99mm. i+224+iii leaves. 24very large initials with full borders, 14(of 21) inserted full-page miniatures with full borders . The pen flourishing and striking style of the illuminated text pages show that the manuscript was written and decorated in Arnhem, probably by the Augustinian Canonesses of the convent of Bethany, also known as the Masters of Margriet Uutenham, named from her Book of Hours. There was no miniaturist among them so that many of their books were illustrated by paste-in prints. This volume though is far more luxurious, since it has miniatures and their borders by the Masters of the Zwolle Bible (see no. 17), active in Zwolle. Women painters are known to have been active throughout the Netherlands but their work can seldom be identified.

17 Book of Hours for use of Utrecht, in the Dutch translation of Geert Grote. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated in the circle of the Masters of the Zwolle Bible. Netherlands, Zwolle, c. 1465-1470. 154x117mm. iv+153+iv leaves. 5(of 6) large fully decorated and historiated 10-11line initials accompanied by full borders incorporating half-length angels. A hitherto unrecorded manuscript of the Sarijs group. The refinement of the figures as well as the delicate borders with acanthus leaves, sometimes incorporating half length angels who play with the floral elements of decoration or who carry the instruments of the passion bear witness to an expertly executed illumination in a charming, typical book of hours that was produced in the milieu of the Devotio Moderna, among the famous Masters of the Zwolle Bible, named after the six-volume Latin Bible kept in Utrecht (UB, ms 31).

18 Book of Hours for the use of Angers. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by the Master of Christophe de Champagne. France, Tours, c. 148090. 167x104mm. iii+198+iii leaves, complete. 24calendar miniatures, 24large, arch-topped miniatures with full borders. Made for a member of the Angevinian family of Pierre I de Champagne, first Baron of Maine, vice-king of Naples and Sicily. The familys coat of arms on two pages. Stylistically, partly even iconographically, we find the closest parallels with a book of hours that was illuminated by the Master of the Yale Missal (see no. 15). Maybe due to agreements with the commissioner, the number of colours was restricted in no. 15, which the painter compensated for by excessive hatching, but it is exactly the same pattern of hatches that we find back in the structuring of garments, buildings and architectural frames of the present manuscript.

The illumination here is especially distinguished by the architectural borders for 11of the miniatures. These, as well as the refined faces of younger figures, bear witness to the eminent influence Jean Colombe must have had on our artist in the meantime. A tempting hypothesis may be: The Master of the Yale Missal could be identical with the Master of Christophe de Champagne. He could have set aside the majority of Fouquets models later, although he never dismissed his ideas completely. Moreover, he seems to have become familiar with Bourdichons findings when he illuminated the present book. In any case, the present manuscript is a magnificent example of the peak of French book illumination before 1500from the inner circle around the famous names of Jean Fouquet, Jean Colombe, George Trubert and Barthlemy dEyck.

19 Book of Hours for the use of Rome. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by Jean Colombe and collaborators. France, Bourges, c. 1475. 152x93mm. ii+140+ii leaves, complete. 15full-page miniatures incorporating illusionist scrolls with four lines of text. This book of hours, so far unknown, contains many elements typical for the iconographic and stylistic repertory of Jean Colombe, e.g. those angels and putti and other figures holding script rolls within the image; Colombe had adapted them from his model Jean Fouquet. This splendid manuscript does in fact belong to the better part of Colombes overall production. Our codex is predominated by Colombe almost entirely. Few miniatures imply different hands, some of which could be close to the Master of Jean de Charpentier. Jean Colombe was most likely born between 1430 - 1435 in Bourges and had died there in 1493. Presumably, he started his business as illuminator about1463. At the beginning of his career he followed the works of Barthlemy van Eyck

and Jean Fouquet closely. He became famous when he, about 1485, completed two unfinished manuscripts for Duke Charles of Savoy: the Trs Riches Heures du Duc de Berry with illumination cycles by the brothers Limburg and Barthlemy dEyck, and the Apocalypse begun by Bapteur. The present manuscript does not yet reflect this painterly experience, which Colombe had assimilated in all his subsequent works. Next to the Savoy family, Louis de Chtillon Laval became an important patron, for whom he illuminated the extraordinary Hours of Louis de Laval (Paris, BnF,lat.920). Another famous manuscript, kept as Cod. Bodmer 144 in Geneva/Cologny, contains an allegorical religious text, Le Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisance by Ren dAnjou, and shows 8 magnificent full-page miniatures by his hand, made about 1470. An interesting detail here is the depiction of Crainte de Dieu, the young woman personifying Fear of God, on fol.65, which is absolutely identical with the Virgin Mary in the Coronation of the Virgin in the present manuscript.

20 The Elisabeta Peixo Hours, for the use of Rome, in Latin and Catalan. Illuminated manuscript on vellum. Italy, Naples c. 1480s and c. 1505. 193x130mm. 224leaves, complete. 14large historiated initials with full borders, 3full-page miniatures within borders and a bas-de-page as part of a further full-page border. The manuscript was written for Elisabeta, wife of Luis Peix or Peixo. The final section of prayers in Catalan are written in a different hand and the script has definite Spanish characteristics. The complete decoration is by at least three illuminators who worked in three campaigns. The earliest contributor was Cristoforo Majorana who illuminated books for the Aragonese court in Naples from 1480to 1492, and the miniatures here point to his early work. The other full-page miniatures on inserted singletons and all of the illumination on fol. 201and 221v, are by another

hand. The patterned gold fabrics reveal the Spanish origin of this illuminator who is associable with the painter of a retable of the collegiate church of Bolea in Huesca. His manuscript masterpiece is the Breviary-Missal of Ferdinand the Catholic (Vatican Library, Chigi VII C.205). Given the careers of Majorana and the second illuminator it would seem that there were two decades between their contributions to this manuscript. All of the additions emulate the decorative forms of the earlier campaign and provide a coherent and beguiling whole. The most arresting insertions by the later artist are the lively human figures who pursue one another or tussle among the foliage of Majorana-style borders in the Office of the Virgin. The accomplished putti added to the borders around Majoranas Man of Sorrows miniature appear to be the work of a third artist who was influenced by Gaspare da Padova.

21 Book of Hours for the use of Rome. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by Cornelia van Wulfschkercke. Flanders, Bruges, c. 1510-20. 128x86mm. i+208+i leaves. Every page with a flower-spray, bird or insect, 24full-page calendar borders, 15full-page miniatures framed by historiated borders facing full-page borders, 12large miniatures surrounded by borders, 1further full-page border with a unified scene. From the collection of Sir Robert Shafto Adair (1786-1869; 1st Baronet of Flixton Hall, Suffolk). The miniatures are by the Carmelite nun Cornelia van Wulfschkercke from the convent of Our Lady of Sion in Bruges, formerly known as the Master of the Van Hooff Prayer Book. All the manuscripts that could be attributed to her draw on a wide range of patterns current in Ghent-Bruges manuscript illumination around 1510. In this book, for instance, St Catherine derives

from an original design by Hugo van der Goes that was much used by illuminators. Similarly the Calendar layout and the labours of the months resemble those in the Mayer van den Bergh Breviary (Antwerp, Mus. Mayer van den Bergh, ms 946); they succeed in providing detailed evocations of contemporary life in spite of their small size. In the Crucifixion scene of the present manuscript Mary Magdalen, surprisingly, is depicted as a noble woman in a contemporary dress - maybe intended as a portrait of the patron. The elaborateness of technique and composition in the present as well as in another manuscript, kept today in Vienna (NB, cod. 1984), implies a certain maturity of the illuminator and would thus suggest that Cornelia van Wulfschkercke painted the miniatures between 1510and 1520. This jewel must be by far the richest manuscript by Cornelias hand.

22 Pierre Sala (c. 1457-1529). Moraulx dictz des philosophes. In French and Latin, manuscript on vellum, illuminated by Guillaume II Le Roy. France, Lyon?, c. 1515-1525. 230x150mm, ii+69+ii leaves, apparently complete. 20half-page miniatures by Guillaume II Le Roy (Lyon, active 1485-1528) introducing each chapter. This deluxe manuscript is testimony to the vivid cultural and artistic life in Lyon, where the Renaissance shone brightly. Its author, the famous humanist Pierre Sala, was a key figure in the transition from medieval to Renaissance culture. Salas treatise is known in only one other illuminated copy: a sister manuscript in New York (PML, M.277). The illustrious succession of owners adds considerable interest and informs us on the circulation of manuscripts in the age of print, often offered as gifts and tokens of friendship and cultural exchanges. The present manuscript must have been commissioned by the author himself.

23 Book of Hours in Latin. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated in the artistic milieu of Simon Bening. Flanders, Bruges, c. 1520. 171x110mm, 88leaves. 15small miniatures, one of them half page. The miniatures of this Book of Hours have been executed by 3different hands. While the first two painters were mainly responsible for the decoration of the typical Bruges borders including flowers, blossoms, animals and drolleries on golden grounds, the third and main artist of this manuscript is the closest to Simon Bening, both in iconography and style. There are many parallels to Bening and his atelier, regarding composition and also painting technique. For example, the figure of the Virgin Mary in the Nativity scene on fol. 37v is, though reduced in size, very similar to the same depiction in at least 9 manuscripts from the circle of Simon Bening. Bening, the famous master of the late flourishing Flemish Renaissance, was most influential in Bruges and Ghent, and perhaps we see some of his assistants or followers at work here.

24 The Hours of Anne de Montmorency, for the use of Rome. Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by the Master of Franois de Rohan. France, Paris, dated 1539. 230x135mm, 100leaves, complete. Written in an excellent humanistic hand. 21small miniatures, 14full-page miniatures by the Master of Franois de Rohan within elaborate architectural frames, some enclosing arms (overgilded). Made for Anne de Montmorency (14931567), Constable of France from 1538; his arms (now overgilded) on 6leaves. Anne was brought up with the future king, Franois I. The two were childhood friends, and when Franois acceded to the throne, Anne followed, rising to become the most important nobleman in the kingdom. In the 16th century illuminated manuscripts became rarer, and as they did so they were refined into dazzling jewels of books, produced for only the wealthiest aristocratic

patrons. Books were made to reflect the extravagant wealth lavished on them. The present manuscript is among the very finest of such productions to survive, and, it is an unrecorded sister manuscript of the socalled Hours of Franois I. The dates in the borderframes of both show that they were finished in the years 153940. The artist was named the Master of Franois de Rohan after an illuminated copy of La Fleur de Vertu translated by Franois Rohan (Paris, BnF fr 1877). The panels enclosing dates in his ornate borders allow us to trace his career from the 1520s to 1546. An origin for him has been suggested in Germany or Switzerland, but it is clear that he spent the majority of his career in Paris. There he worked for a number of court patrons, French noblemen and ecclesiastics, the booktrade in general, English patrons, and perhaps also servants of the Emperor.