(Q2660)
Statements
Humbert of Romans
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Barbara Gwichtmacherin?
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Katharienconvent
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the convent catalogue entry describes the volume as having been made by the sisters.
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The Dominican convent of Sankt Katharina in Nuremberg (founded 1296, suppressed 1803), with their contemporary inscription inside the upper cover, "das puch gehort in das Closter zu Sant kath[ar]ein prediger orden in Nure[n]berg" (see below); Alexander Augustus Smets (1795-1862), of Savannah, GA, bought in February 1839 (signature on fol. 1r); his sale, Leavitt, New York, 25 May 1868, lot 1461.
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Catalogue of a Private Library, Containing an Exceedingly Valuable Collection of Fine-Art and Illustrated Books, Illuminated Manuscripts, Original Drawings, &c, &c [identified in the Grolier Club copy as being the library of E. Tasker], Leavitt, New York, 3 March 1880, lot 620; C. L. Ricketts; acquired by the Lilly Library with the Ricketts Collection in 1961.
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1458; s. XV(med); 1440-1460
15. century
1440Gregorian
1460Gregorian
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Binding: Contemporary binding of bevelled wooden boards sewn on 4 double thongs, covered with parchment, each cover double ruled in blind into 4 compartments enclosing saltires, blind-stamped with small lozenges with gothic letters resembling ‘e’ and ‘b’ (perhaps actually ‘s’ and ‘k’ for ‘sankt katherina’, although it is not certain that the nuns had a bindery, (cf. Kyriss 1940, pp. 35-36...
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Figurative details, ff. 1r-244v: 25 large historiated initials, showing a pelican in her piety (fol. 5r), a phoenix on a pyre (fol. 11v), “cirkarin”, the guardian, standing with her hand raised to her lips (fol. 14v), “schaffnerin”, the procurator, seated on a bench, windows behind (fol. 18r), “kellerin”, the cellarer, with jug and decanter, doors behind (fol. 20v), “küsterin”, the sacristan...
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Other decoration, ff. 1r-244v: Headings and rubrication in red, large and small initials throughout in red; a few initials in red and blue with penwork in both colors.
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Script, ff. 1r-244v: Cursive Book Hand.
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Layout, ff. 1r-244v: Collation: i–ix#^12#, x#^11# [of 12, lacking xii, after fol. 119], xi#^12#, xii#^12+1# [fol. 134 added, with full-page colored drawing], xiii–xv#^12#, xvi#^11# [of 12, lacking viii, after 187], xvii#^12#, xviii#^11# [of 12, lacking xii, after fol. 214, doubtless blank], xix–xx#^12#, xxi#^6# [perhaps of 12, perhaps lacking vii–xii at end], with horizontal catchwords; 2...
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Manuscript note: Some staining, parchment borders cut away, patches, some early patches over text.
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Bibliography: Ruf 1933, p. 574; De Ricci 1935, p. 648; Krochalis 1986, p. 34 and n. 23; H. B. Felleisen in ‘Catalogue’ 1988, pp. 68-75, no. 13; Krämer 1989, p. 615; Hamburger 1998, pp. 19, 21-22 and 44, figs. 1.2 and 1.3 and col. pl. 1; Green 2000, pp. 347-48; Green 2008, pp. 121-23 and fig. 3.1; Holcomb, Dale and Janis 2008, p. 180.
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ff. 1r-244v: The Katharinenconvent was notable for its number of active scribes who were members of the community itself. Upwards of two dozen manuscripts survive signed by the nuns, significant in the history of female literacy. The best documented artist at the Katharinenconvent was Barbara Gwichtmacherin, fl. c. 1450-70, and the splendid and spirited coloured drawings here of female...
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ff. 1r-244v: Latin.
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f. 1: Preface on fol. 1r, In dem namen unsers lieben herren explaining that this is a German translation made for the nuns by a Dominican brother of Basel [the reformer Johann Meyer, d. 1485] of the Latin book of monastic offices by Humbert of Romans (d. 1277, fifth Master General of the Order).
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f. 3v-4v: Second prologue and a table of chapters.
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f. 116r: Colophon dates the completion of the manuscript to the Friday within the octave of the Visitation in 1458 [i.e. 7 July], repeating again that the translation was done from a copy in Basel in 1454.
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f. 5v-115v: Text itself opening with the duties of the prioress with practical advice on the duties of newly-elected office-holders in a Dominican convent, from prioress to gardener.
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Incipit, f. 5v-115v: explicit oder ende dis buchs.
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Explicit, f. 5v-115v: Einer priorin.
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f. 118r-125r: For laybrothers and laysisters of Katharinenconvent in Nuremberg.
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ff. 135r-244v.: contains ten chapters to 1453, all ending on fol. 244v, where the text is dated on the eve of Saint Thomas Aquinas 1455 [i.e. 6 March]. Additions in the lower margins include notes on the re-opening of the cloister in Engelport in 1466 (fol. 163r) and the death of the prioress Gertrud Gwichtmacherin in 1469 (fol. 212v).
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Explicit, ff. 135r-244v.: Hie facht an die vorred in das buch der ersetzung, Audi filia . . .
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f. 116r: Sarah Glenn DeMaris has edited the text in the series Monumenta ordinis fratrum praedicatorum historica, in which this will be volume 31.
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28 June 2023
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28 June 2023
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