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      • Manuscript Studies: Contents List
    • International Congress on Medieval Studies
      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
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      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
  • Bembino
    • Multi-Lingual Bembino
  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
      • Abstracts Listed by Author
      • Abstracts Listed by Year
    • Kalamazoo Archive
    • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
  • Events
    • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
    • Receptions & Parties
    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
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      • “Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge” (1997)
        • Mildred Budny, ‘Catalogue’
        • The Illustrated Catalogue (1997)
      • The Illustrated Handlist
      • Semi-Official Counterfeiting in France 1380-1422
      • No Snap Decisions: Challenges of Manuscript Photography
    • History and Design of Our Website
  • Galleries
    • Watermarks & the History of Paper
    • Galleries: Contents List
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2023 Pre-Symposium Call for Papers: Intrepid Borders Lightning Talks
Barbara Heritage on Charlotte Brontë’s Fair Copy of “Shirley”
ShelfMarks Issue 2 (Volume 2, Number 1 for Winter 2022–2023)
Two Pages from a Roman Breviary in Gothic Script
Donncha MacGabhann at work on his close study of letter forms in the Book of Kells. Photograph via his publisher, Sidestone Press (Leiden 2022)
Donncha MacGabhann on the Making of “The Book of Kells”
2022 Autumn Symposium Program Booklet
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How to Be Tarzan in the Catalog, Or, Tarzan-Moves of the Mind
Verso of Leaf from the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, Book III, chapter 7. Photography by Mildred Budny
2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Preparations
The Weber Leaf from “The Warburg Missal” (Otto Ege Manuscript 22)
Folio 4 with Latin Blessings for Holy Water and an Exorcism for Salt
Portfolio 93 of Ege’s “Famous Books in Eight Centuries” in the Collection of Richard Weber
A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 214’ in the Collection of Richard Weber
Two Ege Leaves and Two Ege Labels in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez
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Two Old Testament Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ at Smith College
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I Was Here . . .
Lead the People Forward (by Zoey Kambour)
The Curious Printing History of ‘La Science de l’Arpenteur’
A Leaf in Dallas from “Otto Ege Manuscript 14” (Lectern Bible)
How to Be Indiana Jones in the Catalog
Southern Italian Cuisine Before Columbus
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Anonymous, Still Life of an Illuminated Book, German School, 15th century. Oil on Wood. Opened book with fanned pages. Image via Wikimedia, Public Domain.
Barbara Williams Ellertson and the BASIRA Project, with a Timeline
An Illustrated Leaf from the Shahnameh with a Russian Watermark
2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report
J. S. Wagner Collection, Leaf from Ege Manuscript 22, verso, bottom right: Ege's inscription in pencil.
Another Leaf from the Warburg Missal (‘Ege Manuscript 22’)
More Leaves from a Deconstructed Sinhalese Palm-Leaf Manuscript
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, FOL Set 3, MS 40, Specimen 1: folio '1'r, Top Left. Photography Mildred Budny.
Specimens of Ege Manuscript 40 in the Ege Family Portfolio
Otto F. Ege: Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, Leaf 40, Printed Label, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries.
Otto Ege Manuscript 40, Part II: Before and After Ege
rivate Collection, Koran Leaf in Ege's Famous Books in Nine Centuries, Front of Leaf. Reproduced by permission.
Otto Ege’s Portfolio of ‘Famous Books’ and ‘Ege Manuscript 53’ (Quran)
J. S. Wagner Collection, Early-Printed Missal Leaf, Verso. Rubric and Music for Holy Saturday. Reproduced by Permission.
Carmelite Missal Leaf of 1509
Grapes Watermark in a Selbold Cartulary Fragment.
Selbold Cartulary Fragments
Smeltzer Collection, Subermeyer (1598), Vellum Supports Strip 2 Signature Surname.
Vellum Binding Fragments in a Parisian Printed Book of 1598
Church of Saint Mary, High Ongar, Essex, with 12th-Century Nave. Photograph by John Salmon (8 May 2004), Image via Wikipedia.
A Charter of 1399 from High Ongar in Essex
Opening of the Book of Maccabees in Otto Ege MS 19. Private Collection.
A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices
2020 Spring Symposium: Save the Date
At the Exhibition of "Gutenberg and After" at Princeton University in 2019, the Co-Curator Eric White stands before the Scheide Gutenberg Bible displayed at the opening of the Book of I Kings.
“Gutenberg and After” at Princeton University Library
J. S. Wagner Collection. Leaf from from Prime in a Latin manuscript Breviary. Folio 4 Recto, Initial C for "Confitimini" of Psalm 117 (118), with scrolling foliate decoration.
A Leaf from Prime in a Large-Format Latin Breviary
J. S. Wagner Collection. Detached Manuscript Leaf with the Opening in Latin of the Penitent Psalm 4 or Psalm 37 (38) and its Illustration of King David.
The Penitent King David from a Book of Hours
Coffee Break at our 2002 British Museum Colloquium. Our Director, Dáibhí Ó Cróinin, and Giles Constable. Photograph by our Associate, Geoffrey R. Russom.
Revisiting Anglo-Saxon Symposia 2002/2018
The red wax seal seen upright, with the male human head facing left. Document on paper issued at Grenoble and dated 13 February 1345 (Old Style). Image reproduced by permission
2020 ICMS Call for Papers: Seal the Real
Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 1183. Photograph courtesy Kristen Herdman.
2019 Anniversary Symposium Report: The Roads Taken
Detail of illustration.
Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts
Thomas E. Hill stands at the entrance to the Vassar College Library. Photography by Mildred Budny
Another Visit to The Library Cafe
Leaf 41, Recto, Top Right, in the Family Album (Set Number 3) of Otto Ege's Portfolio of 'Fifty Original Leaves' (FOL). Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’
Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.
Say Cheese
Verso of the Leaf and Interior of the Binding, Detail: Lower Right-Hand Corner, with the Mitered Flap Unfolde
A 12th-Century Fragment of Anselm’s ‘Cur Deus Homo’
Reused Leaf from Gregory's Dialogues Book III viewed from verso (outside of reused book cover) Detail of Spine of Cover with Volume Labels. Photograph © Mildred Budny.
A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues Reused for Euthymius
Detail of the top of the verso of the fragmentary leaf from a 13th-century copy of Statutes for the Cistercian Order. Reproduced by permission.
Another Witness to the Cistercian Statutes of 1257
Initial d in woodcut with winged hybrid creature as an inhabitant. Photography © Mildred Budny
The ‘Foundling Hospital’ for Manuscript Fragments
Decorated opening word 'Nuper' of the Dialogues, Book III, Chapter 13, reproduced by permission
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’
Close-Up of The Host of 'The Library Cafe' in the Radio Studio. Photography © Mildred Budny
A Visit to The Library Café

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Another Leaf from the Warburg Missal (‘Ege Manuscript 22’)

April 25, 2021 in Manuscript Studies, Reports

J. S. Wagner Collection, Ege Manuscript 22, Folio clvi, recto, within its frame.

J. S. Wagner Collection, Ege Manuscript 22, Folio clvi, recto, within its frame.

The Wagner Leaf

from Ege Manuscript 22

***

“The Warburg Missal”

Folio CLVI in the Temporale

with Part of the Mass for Corpus Christi

Latin Missal made in Germany circa 1325 Written in Gothic Script (Textualis)

Double columns of 31 lines

Circa 360 × 257 mm < written area circa 289 × 190 mm >

with Rubrications, Inset Initials in Red or Blue, and Musical Notation in Hufnagelschrift (“Horseshoe-Nail Notes”) on 4-Line Staves

With thanks to the collector, J. S. Wagner, we examine a newly identified leaf from one of the manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951). It comes from ‘Ege Manuscript 22’, a Latin Missal written in double columns of 30–32 lines in Gothic Script, with musical notation.

This blogpost by Mildred Budny and the companion Report Booklet (2021) by Leslie J. French examine the Leaf, set it in context of its former manuscripts, and re-assess the attribution of the book.

The ‘Ege’ Number comes from the position of this manuscript (and its portions) in Ege’s distribution within one of his Portfolios of specimen leaves forcibly extracted from manuscripts and printed books. The Portfolio in question exhibits Fifty Original Leaves (FOL) from Medieval Manuscripts, Western Europe, XII–XVI Century. In this case, Leaf Number 22. The numbering system is defined and enshrined in Scott Gwara’s “Handlist” of Otto Ege’s Manuscripts (2016).

In the FOL Portfolio, specimens from the manuscript travelled, in their individual windowed mats, in the company of other Ege manuscript leaves. The Wagner Leaf, however, travelled on its own, through a different highway of circulation. It arrived in a glass-fronted ornamental frame. Behind that frame, Ege’s handwritten note on the recto, and the accompanying printed slip (see below), directly establish the Ege connection. All the features of text, script, musical notation, and folio numeration manifest a place within Ege’s Manuscript 22, as the collector readily discerned.

J. S. Wagner Collection, Leaf from Ege Manuscript 22, verso, bottom right: Ege's inscription in pencil.

J. S. Wagner Collection, Leaf from Ege Manuscript 22, verso, bottom right: Ege’s inscription in pencil.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: 'Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts', Benedictine Missal, Bergendal Collection, Bergendal Manuscript 69, Binding History, Ege Manuscript 22, Ege's FOL Portfolio, Fragmentology, Leander van Ess, Measure Theory, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Missal Herbipolensis, Missale Coloniense, Otto Ege, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Parochial Church of St John the Baptist Warburg, Reused Binding Fragments, Sales Catalogues, Sir Thomas Phillipps, Sothebys, The Warburg Missal
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Selbold Cartulary Fragments

July 4, 2020 in Manuscript Studies

 

Grapes Watermark in a Selbold Cartulary Fragment.

Selbold Cartulary Fragments

3 Leaves on Paper

Single columns of 38 lines
Circa 28.3 × 210 cm < written area of circa 20.6 × 15.5 cm>
Presumably Stift Selbold or its Region (Hessen) in Germany
Late 14th or early 15th Century
Watermark of Grape Cluster

[Posted on 3 July 2020, with updates]

Continuing our blog on Manuscript Studies (see its Contents List), we publish images and descriptions of a set of three leaves from the dismembered paper copy of a Latin cartulary (or codex diplomaticus or Kopialbuch, in Latin and German) of the former Premonstratensian monastery-and-then-abbey of Selbold in Hessen, Germany.  The set presents a now-disrupted series of uniform transcriptions in book form of individual dated documents issued by ecclesiastical and secular rulers confirming, or reconfirming, rights and privileges pertaining to that institution and its dependencies.

Purchased from Boyd Mackus in the United States some years ago and now in a private collection, the fragments comprise 1 single leaf and 1 bifolium.  We identify them here as folios “1” and “2–3”, using inverted commas or quotation marks to indicate a non-original sequence and location within the former volume.  Written by a single scribe with a uniform layout, the leaves contain a late-medieval copy of the texts of 8 documents (not all complete) issued by various authorities in a range from the 12th to 14th centuries.  Upon the original pages, even apart from the subsequent disruptions to the text through dispersal of leaves, the transcriptions are set out in sequences that are only partly chronological according to the issued dates of the documents.

Written in ink with elements of red pigment, the text is laid out on the leaves in single columns of 38 lines.  One leaf has a watermark.

These leaves deserve to be considered in the contexts not only of the transmission of the documents which they represent, but also of the preservation and circulation of Selbold Cartularies or Kopialbucher, insofar as they are known or survive.  Here we distinguish in red such historical records as the Selbold Cartulary Fragment(s) showcased here, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, one or more Selbold Kopialbuche (or Copialbuche) reported in German by various observers.  We indicate one or other of those  books known to have survived to the early modern or modern periods, but subsequently lost, or presumed to be lost, by a prefixed asterisk (*). Also recorded in some notices or copies thereof is a late-medieval [*]Liber privilegiorum et libertatum ecclesie Selboldensis (“Book of the Privileges and Rights of the Church of Selbold”), presumed to be lost.

Among the challenges, we might wonder to what extent one or other of those recorded  [*]Selbolder Kopialbucher corresponds to this dismembered one.  This post includes some detailed examinations of published editions of its texts and related texts.  Why this detailed work is useful, and can yield strikingly significant results even for only a few leaves from a dispersed manuscript otherwise inaccessible, is revealed in the PostScript. 

The subtitle for this post could be Manuscript Studies in a Time of Bibliographical ‘Lock-Down’.  [Now see also the Addendum below.]

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archbishop Heinrich I of Mainz, Birstein, Briquet Number 13003, Büdingen, Conrad III, Frederick II, Gustav Simon, Heinrich Reimer, Helfrich Bernhardt Wenck, History of Documents, History of Watermarks, Integrated, Isenburg, Karl IV, King Adolf of Germany, Langenselbold, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Prince Bruno of Ysenburg-Büdingen, Royal Bible of St. Augustine's Abbey Canterbury, Selbold, Selbold Cartulary, Selbold Cartulary Fragment, Selbold Kopialbuch, Selbold Monastery, Ysenburg
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 214’?

April 13, 2018 in Anniversary, Manuscript Studies

Part of a 22-Line Prayerbook in Dutch
From the Collection of Otto F. Ege?

Single leaf from a small-format Prayerbook
Circa 166 × 177 mm <written area circa 128 × 82 mm>
Single column of 22 lines in Gothic Bookhand, with embellishments in red pigment

Pencil inscription ‘X . 43  Flanders 1525’ at the bottom of the recto

Perhaps formerly part of Ege Manuscript 214 (Gwara, Handlist 214)

Flanders, circa 1330

Lower Half of the Original Verso of a Single Leaf detached from a prayerbook in Dutch made circa 1530, owned and dismembered by Otto F. Ege, with the seller's description in pencil in the lower margin. Image reproduced by permission.

Private Collection. Leaf from a prayerbook in Dutch, detail.

[Published on 13 April 2018, now with updates with thanks to Peter Kidd.]

Continuing our series on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny (see Her Page) adds new evidence to her earlier reports about some medieval manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951).  See our Contents List.

This time we showcase a leaf recently acquired for a private collection.

Its online seller did not cite provenance nor identify the text and any source manuscript.  The new owner, dedicated to the acquisition of manuscript fragments (conditions permitting), having acquired several Ege manuscript fragments already, opined that this leaf would have come from “Otto Ege Manuscript 214”.  Could be.

So, what is that little-known “Ege Manuscript  214”, and what are its surviving fragments?  How might we find out enough from the scrappy sources about those scraps to figure out whether or not the “source manuscript” — AKA the former manuscript of this specific remnant — is that book from which the New Leaf came?

Wait and See.  Read On, Dear Reader, Read On.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Dutch Prayerbook, Ege Manscript 61, Ege Manuscript 214, Ege Manuscript 41, Ege Manuscript 51, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Otto Ege Portfolios, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Papal Indulgences, Simon Bening
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2016 M-MLA Report

March 14, 2017 in Announcements, Conference Announcement, Manuscript Studies, Reports

Border States:
Marginalia in North American Manuscripts and Printed Books

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)Two Panels
Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
and Organized by Justin Hastings
(Department of English, Loyola University Chicago)

at the Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M-MLA)
held on 10-13 November 2016 at St. Louis, Missouri

[Report for our Panels on Marginalia in Books for 2016 M-MLA]

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for 24 June 1994.

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for ‘Marginalia in Manuscripts’, 24 June 1994

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in keeping with the M-MLA conference’s theme of “Border States,” sponsored its pair of Special Session Panels examining materials in North American collections. The responses to the Call for Papers for our sponsored Special Session yielded two panels rather than one, and extended their scope both temporally and geographically.

The subjects, and their range, accord well with the Research Group’s long-term interest in the physical characteristics of books, their modes of production, and their processes of use across time. The subject of “Marginalia in Manuscripts” formed the focus of one of the Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” in our early years based in the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College. Our blog on “Manuscript Studies” — plus some printed books — includes reports of discoveries grounded in close analysis of their surfaces, marginalia often included.

Do we practice what we preach? Well, we prefer to refrain from writing in books belonging to others, as we recommend to you, but our own pages? That might be different. Witness the Master Copy of the Invitation Letter to that Seminar (see here). Marginalia Lives On!

For the 2016 Panels, we publish the Abstracts for the Papers.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Aesop's Fables, Book of Hours, California Gold Rush, Curricular Romulus, Dance of Death, Danse Macabre, J H Gybon Spilsbury, John Ker Duke of Roxburghe, John Ldgate, Justin Hastings, Manuscript Marginalia, Manuscript studies, Marginalia, Midwest Modern Language Association, Newberry Library, Office of the Dead, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M 359, Thomas Hoccleve
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Marginalia in Books for 2016 M-MLA

May 10, 2016 in Conference, Conference Announcement

Border States:
Marginalia in North American Manuscripts and Printed Books

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)Two Panels
Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
and Organized by Justin Hastings
(Department of English, Loyola University Chicago)

at the Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M-MLA)
to be held on 10-13 November 2016 at St. Louis, Missouri

[Posted on 10 May 2016, with updates. A further update appears in the 2016 M-MLA Report.]

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for 24 June 1994.

Invitation Letter, Plus Marginalia, for ‘Marginalia in Manuscripts’, 24 June 1994

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in keeping with the M-MLA conference’s theme of “Border States,” announces the following pair of Special Session Panels examining materials in North American collections.  The responses to the Call for Papers for our sponsored Special Session yielded two panels rather than one, and extend their scope both temporally and geographically.

The subjects, and their extended range, accord well with the Research Group’s long-term interest in the physical characteristics of books, their modes of production, and their processes of use across time. The subject of “Marginalia in Manuscripts” formed the focus of one of the Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” in our early years based in the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College.  Our blog on “Manuscript Studies” — plus some printed books — includes reports of discoveries grounded in close analysis of their surfaces, marginalia often included. Do we practice what we preach?  Well, we prefer to refrain from writing in books belonging to others, as we recommend to you, but our own pages?  That might be different.  Witness the Master Copy of the Invitation Letter to that Seminar (see here).  Marginalia Lives On!

For the 2016 Panels, we publish the Abstracts for the Papers in stages, starting now.  The publication of the Convention timetable allows us also to report the schedule for our Sessions.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Aesop's Fables, Book of Hours, California Gold Rush, Curricular Romulus, Dance of Death, Danse Macabre, J H Gybon Spilsbury, John Ker Duke of Roxburghe, John Lydgate, Justin Hastings, Manuscript Marginalia, Manuscript studies, Marginalia, Midwest Modern Language Association, Newberry Library, Office of the Dead, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M 359, Thomas Hoccleve
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2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’

February 1, 2016 in Bembino, Conference Announcement, Events

Initial C of 'Concede'. Detail from a leaf from 'Otto Ege Manuscript 15', the 'Beauvais Missal'. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission

Initial C of Concede. Detail from a leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 15’, the ‘Beauvais Missal’. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission

Words & Deeds

Actions Enacted, Re-Enacted & Restored

From Late-Antique Theater to the Legacy of Otto Ege
by way of, inter alia, Saint-Denis and Gutenberg

A Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Friday & Saturday, 25–26 March 2016
106 McCormick Hall
Princeton University

Sponsors

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
The Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University
The Index of Christian Art at Princeton University
James Marrow & Emily Rose
Barbara A. Shailor
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

We announce a Symposium to be held at Princeton University on 25 & 26 March 2016.  Organized by our Director, Mildred Budny, this event launches our activities for 2016.  Next in line come our Sessions and Activities, both sponsored and co-sponsored, at the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies in May. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archaeology of Manuscripts, Beauvais Missal, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Department of Art & Archaeology, Gutenberg Press, Index of Christian Art, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege MS 14, Otto Ege MS 15, Otto Ege MS 35, Otto Ege MS 41, Otto Ege MS 44, Otto Ege MS 61, Otto Ege MS 8, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Princeton University, Saint-Denis, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies
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Leaf from a Tiny Book of Hours

October 22, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Leaf Within the Hours of the Virgin
From an Unknown Manuscript

Detached Vellum Leaf
Circa 76 × 54 mm < written area circa 40 × 36 mm >
Single column of 12 lines in Latin in Gothic rotunda script, with polychrome embellishments

Budny Handlist 11

Detail of Verso from a Detached Leaf from a tiny Book of Hours, with the decorated initial I of 'In' within the Hours of the Virgin. Photography © Mildred BudnyIn our series on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny reports on items in the Illustrated Handlist, among other specimens.

Usually those items have some evidence, internal and/or contextual, which enable or imply the identifications of their places or regions of origin, the original manuscripts to which the dispersed fragment belongs, and/or their routes of transmission to the current owner.  Various of our blogposts in the series prove these possibilities.  Not in this case.

Here we focus on a fragment of a tiny Book of Hours which strayed into the group without any record of its provenance. We illustrate this fragment as an opportunity for recognition among its peers.

In Perspective

The scale of this leaf leaf comes into perspective when set among some of its companions in the Handlist.  As in the set of Group Portraits, front and back. The Leaf had its debut among our Manuscript Groupies.

Within those collective Photo Opportunities, Views 1 and 2, this Leaf appears at bottom right, respectively with its Verso and Recto.

6 leaves in the 'Handlist', shown variously in their rectos or versos, by chance as the occasion arose. Photography by Mildred Budny

Group Portrait View 1

6 leaves in the 'Handlist', shown variously in their versos or rectos, by chance as the occasion arose. Photography by Mildred Budny

Group Portrait, View 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiny, right?  A lovely shape to clasp in the hand.  The original manuscript must have been a joy to hold and to behold.

Text and Context

The Leaf, turned to the Verso, alongside the small-format envelope used to 'contain' the leaf, shown from its front with the owner's handwritten inscription in blue ink 'Ms leaf', as well as a color guide and scale for reference. Reproduced by permission of the photographer.The thin Leaf turns its yellowed hairside of the animal skin toward the recto, and the whitish fleshside to the verso.  An unevenly undulating cut severed the leaf from its former conjoint stub or, more probably, conjoint leaf of a bifolium, with some traces remaining along the inner margin of marks for the former stitching of the volume.  The marks of dirt accumulated along the upper, lower, and outer edges attest to a period of storage as a closed volume.

The smudged, darkened stain aligned about midway down the outer edge probably derives from contact with a metal clasp oxidized over time.  Such a closure would have helped to embrace firmly a small, fat volume of the sort which a full Book of Hours in such a compact layout would have required.

At present, the leaf measures circa 76 × 54 mm, with a written area of circa 40 × 36 mm.  The single column of 12 lines is written in Latin in Gothic rotunda script, with embellishments.  Although somewhat perfunctory in the execution, the embellishments and their colorful materials add an element of luxury.

Recto of leaf from a tiny 12-line Book of Hours, with in-line initials decorated with red pen-flourishing. Budny Handlist 11. Photograph © Mildred Budny

Recto

The embellishments include rubricated titles, in-line initials with pen-flourishes, and enlarged polychrome initials with ornamental frames.  On the recto, the 1-line initials for sections beginning within the lines are alternately blue and gold respectively with red or purple penline extensions comprised mainly of undulating lines resembling pulled sugar ripples.

Recto of leaf from a tiny 12-line Book of Hours, with 2 polychrome opening initials in gold leaf and other pigments Budny Handlist 11. Photograph © Mildred Budny

Verso

On the verso, the polychrome decorated initials either stand alongside the column on the verso (6-line-high I for In of the Capitulum, that is, ‘Reading’, from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiasticus) or occupy a position inset within it (2-line-high F for Famulorum of the Oratio or ‘Prayer’).  For these enlarged initials, the letter itself is rendered in gold leaf, with bulbous tips, against an asymmetrical background frame with toothed or cusped edges and extended tips.  Each frame, filled with sections of rusty reddish and blue pigments, has an inset inner contour of white pigment.  Within the F, the 2 enclosed counters above and below its tongue have a surcharged pattern of white dots.

The Text

The text on the leaf both starts and ends mid-phrase.  It extends from within:

Psalm 127:3 ([la-/]teribus . . . Israel)

to within:

Prayer: Famulorum tuorum . . . ut [/ qui] .

The text corresponds mostly to a portion of the Hours of the Virgin represented in a paragdigm online here (with an English translation), where the assigned location within the Hours (in that case, for the Use of Rome) is None, that is, the mid-afternoon prayer within the canonical periods for daily prayer.  Expanding the abbreviations in the text, the transcription here of the Leaf provides points of orientation as well as indications of its divergences from the paragdigm.

The preceding leaf apparently ended within Psalm 127:3

[3 Uxor tua sicut uitis abundans. in la-/]

[RECTO]

teribus domus tue Fi[-]
lii tui sicut nouclle [? sic for germina] oli[-]
arum in circuitu men[-]
se tue [4] Ecce sicut benedice[-]
tur homo [<uiro] qui timet do[-]
minum [5] Benedicat tibi
dominus ex syon et uideas bo[-]
na iherusalem omnibus diebus ui[-]
te tue [6] Et uideas filios
filiorum tuorum pacem super is[-]
rael Gloria A[ntiphon] pulcra es et de[-]
cora filia iherusalem terribi[-]

[RECTO] / [VERSO]

lis ut castrorum acies or[-]
dinata. Capittlu[m] [sic; = Ecclesiasticus 24:19–20].
In plateis sicut cynamo[-]
mum et balsamum arom[-]
tizans odorem dedi quasi
mirra decta electi dedi suaui[-]
atem odoris. deo gratias. V[ersiculus]
post partum uirgo. et. kyrie eleison
christe eleison. kyrie eleison. domine exaudi
et clamor. oremus Or[ati]o.
Famulorum tuorum quos
domine delictis ignosce. ut

[VERSO] / [qui tibi pacu . . . ]

The next leaf would have picked up from there.

Such a span of text occurs within various Books of Hours, and for various points within the Hours. The use of the Antiphon Pulchra es et decora filia Jerusalem terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata is recorded in a variety of sources for several occasions within the liturgical year.

Therefore, without fuller knowledge about the other parts of the original manuscript and its specific approaches, it seems difficult to determine to which place within the Hours the portion represented by this leaf would have specifically corresponded.

Without better evidence, we resist a temptation to assign this very reading in this specific manuscript to a particular part of the Office of the Virgin.

About that Manuscript

Haven’t identified it yet.

You may remember that some of our blogposts in the series on Manuscript Studies have identified fragments from manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (among others). So far, these have addressed ‘Ege Manuscripts’ 8, 14, 41, and 61.  So the nature of his dispersals and the resources for identifying some of them have become familiar.  You can find descriptions and references in those posts.

Scott Gwara’s Handlist (2013) of ‘Manuscripts Collected or Sold by Otto F. Ege’ does not apparently include any volume which corresponds neatly to the characteristics of this leaf. We were hopeful.

A somewhat similar manuscript, fragmented and dispersed, is represented in Ege’s Portfolio of Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, Number 36, a mid-15th-century French Book of Hours with a (not identical) comparable style, layout, and decoration.  But it has 13 lines per column, rather than the 12 on this Leaf, and includes some other approaches to decoration, such as interlace patterns and the use of double (rather than single) white outlines inside the frames for initials.

Date and Origin?

Wish we knew.  Suffice, perhaps, for now, to say that the rotunda script indicates an ‘Italianate’ element.  Not that this means that it is Italian script, or the work of an Italian scribe.  Just an element, important to register.

However, the style of the initials seems French instead.

Interesting combination of influences.

So, perhaps, this leaf and its original manuscript (if fully consistent) might have originated in Southern France, Italy, or (say) Spain, circa 1400 or later.

Transmission?  Forget It!

The owner reports, in responses to questions repeated over years, that this leaf was acquired at an unknown date, unframed, and from an unremembered source.  He confirms that the single-line inscription in ink on the envelope is his own handwriting.

It was probably a gift, but not sufficiently memorable as such, unlike another leaf from a different Book of Hours (Handlist 12) acquired as a wedding present.  It was presumably a gift, he observes, because its purchase is neither remembered nor recorded among the available papers.

So much for continuity.

Shucks

On a personal note.  Usually I am reluctant to say such.

Collectors Gonna Do Whatever.  Right.  They can.

But this situation makes me wonder.  I remember vividly, clearly, precisely, the gifts, and their circumstances, which ever I have received.  When I see — of course, because I place them in view — any gift, you know, I smile with recognition of the person, place and time of presentation (by whatever means, near or far), and even I the recall of the light or sunlight of the reception.  That is how I think, and remember.  Sensitive Creature, that’s me.

Detail of Recto of the leaf from a tiny Book of Hours, with 2 1-line in-line initials respectively in Gold or Blue pigment with pen-flourishes respectively of purple or red pigment. Photography © Mildred BudnyAnd so, this occasion with the necessity to encounter forgetfulness, amounting apparently to negligence or indifference (same difference), makes me wonder differently, and with increased appreciation, about the merits of Eastern habits of stamping materials in the stages of successive ownership and appreciation.  It seems a method worth considering for Western Stuff.

Seems more respectful.  I aim to label gifts to me even more precisely than before.

P. S.  You hear that?  I am the sort of person who appreciates gifts.

Hint?  You think?

Over to You

Do you know of any other leaves from this tiny book?  They could be anywhere.

******

We thank the owner of the leaf for permission to photograph, research, and publish it.  It is a pleasure also to record thanks to Adelaide Bennett, Gregory Clark, and James Marrow for their expert advice about the leaf.

*****

 

 

 

Tags: Book of Hours, Gothic Manuscripts, Otto Ege's Manuscripts
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

September 6, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Part of the ‘Interpretation of Hebrew Names’
from a 50-line Lectern Bible
in the Vulgate Version

Budny, Handlist Number 9
A Leaf From ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

Alcath – Ananias in the A-Group
From the Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum
In the partly alphabetized Version beginning Aaz Apprehendens (or a Variant thereof)
At the end of a large-format Bible used for lectern reading

Circa 312 × 212 mm <written area circa 225 × 157 mm >
Triple Columns of 50 lines written in Gothic Formata bookhand
Produced probably in Flanders or Northern France, circa 1325

In our series on Manuscript Fragments, Mildred Budny examines some leaves dispersed into various collections, both private and public, through the methods of Otto F. Ege. Earlier posts on those leaves considered Lost and Foundlings, A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’, and A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’.  Later posts considered A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’ and New Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’.

Now we focus on a large-format leaf which, despite its relatively unembellished contents, formerly belonged to a large-format single-volume Bible amply endowed with decoration, illustrations, and glittering gold.

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Tags: 'Aaz-Apprehendens' Version, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Bible Manuscripts, Budny Handlist, Gothic Manuscripts, Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum, Lectern Bible, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Parke Bernet Galleries, Sothebys
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’

August 15, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Processional for Nuns for Palm Sunday

Budny Handlist, Number 4

From a ‘Gradual’
Produced in England, circa 1275

In our series on ‘Manuscript Fragments’ within our blog (see its Contents List), we continue to examine some leaves dispersed into various collections, both private and public, through the methods of Otto F. Ege. Earlier posts on those leaves considered Lost and Foundlings, A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’, and A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’.  [Update: See also More Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’. Now we focus on a musical leaf for liturgical performance with Singing Nuns on a high holy day.

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Tags: Alison Altstatt, Edith of Wilton, Ege MS 14, Ege MS 41, Ege MS 51, Ege MS 61, Ege MS 8, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Otto F. Ege, Processional for Nuns, Processional for Palm Sunday, Wilton Abbey, Wilton Processional
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’

August 10, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Budny Handlist 7. Ezekiel Leaf Verso with the end of Chapter 10 and the beginning of Chapter 11. Photography by Mildred Budny

Ezekiel Leaf Verso

Part of Ezekiel from a
32-Line Latin Vulgate Pocket Bible from France

Budny Handlist 7

Single leaf from a pocket-sized Bible
Circa 186 × 126 mm <written area circa 119 × 81 mm>
Double columns of 32 lines in Gothic Bookhand, with embellishments in red, blue, and purple pigment

Pencil inscription ‘1310 French Bible’ at the bottom of the recto

Formerly part of Ege Manuscript 61 (Gwara, Handlist 61)

Southern France, circa 1325

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Tags: Dawson's Bookshop, Ege Manuscript 61, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Otto F. Ege, Pocket Bible
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