Otto F. Ege: Fifty Original Leaves From Medieval Manuscripts

Items

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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 50. The following text is taken verbatim from the information card, written by Ege: This beautiful manuscript leaf was written and illuminated about the year 1535 A.D. At this late date Books of Hours were also being printed in great numbers by such famous French printers as Vostre, de Colines, and Tory. These were elaborately illustrated and frequently hand-colored. The cursive gothic script used in this leaf, with its boldly accented letters and flourished initials, borrowed heavily from the decorative chancery or legal hands of the XIIIth and XIVth centuries.
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 16th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 46. "The laymen who ordered and purchased theses books would at times stipulate the style of ornament and the amount of burnished gold to be used, and could even, to a certain extent, select the saints they esteemed most and wished to glorify. In this example, the border reveals by its wayside flowers entangled with the heavy acanthus motif of the North and by the use of the "wash" gold that it was executed in Northern France about 1475 A.D." (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 45. "This manuscript leaf came from a Book of Hours, sold probably at one of the famous shrines to which wealthy laymen made pilgrimages. To meet the demand for these books, the monastic as well as the secular scribes produced them in great numbers. The freely drawn, indefinite buds here entirely supplant the ivy, fruits, and realistic wayside flowers which characterized the borders of manuscripts of the preceeding half century. The initial letters of burnished gold on a background of old rose and blue with delicate white ine decorations maintain the tradition of the earlier period. The vellum is of silk-like quality that often distinguished the manuscripts of France and Italy" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 36. "Books of Hours, beautifully written, enriched with burnished gold initials, and adorned with miniature paintings, were frequently the most treasured possessions of the devout and wealthy laymen" (Ege). "Books of this small size, two and one-half by three and one-half inches, are comparatively rare. The craftsmanship in this example imitates and equals that in a volume of ordinary size, about five to seven inches. Recently, these small "pocket" editions have been given the nickname "baby manuscripts."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Writings of St. Jerome (Sanctus Hieronymus, Contra Jovinianum)

  Leaf 35. "Jerome, the father of the Latin Church and translator of the Bible, shows in his writings his active participation in the controversies of his day (c. 332 to 420 A.D.)" (Ege). "This fine book hand, lettre de somme, obtained its name from the fact that Fust and Schoeffer used a type based on it for the printing of their Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas in 1467." "Simplicity and dignity are maintained by omitting all enrichment around the burnished gold letters.The first printed books followed the practice seen here of marking off by hand and with a stroke of red the capitals at the beginning of each sentence. Fifteenth century ink frequently had a tendency to fade to a gray tone as in this example."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 31. "The first printed and illustrated Book of Hours appeared in 1486. It was a crude work, but later noted printers such as Verard, Du Pre, Pigouchet, and Kerver issued in great numbers Books of Hours with numerous illustrations and rich borders. The decorations were frequently hand colored and further embellished with touches of gold" (Ege). "By this time the ivy spray had a variety of forms. It might be seen springing from an initial letter, from the end of a detached bar, in a separate panel in company with realistic flowers, or forming a three- or four-sided border intermixed with acanthus leaves and even birds, animals, and hybrid monsters which are neither man or beast."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 30. "The text of a Book of Hours consists of Gospels of the Nativity, prayers for the Canonical Hours, the Penitential Psalms, the Litany, and other prayers. The beauty of the rich borders found in some of these books frequently claims our attention more than the text. In these borders it is easy to recognize the ivy leaf and the holly, but is usually more difficult to identify the daisy, thistle, cornbottle, and wild stock" (Ege). "Because of the translucency of the vellum, the flowers, stems, and leaves of the border were carefully superimposed on the reverse side in order to avoid a blurred effect."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 29. "The treatment of the [manuscript's] ivy spray with the single line stem and rather sparse foliage is characteristic of the work of the French monastic scribes about the year 1450. The occasional appearance of the strawberry indicates that the illuminating was done by a Benedictine monk. Fifty years earlier the stem would have been wider and colored, and the foliage rich; fifty years later the ivy would be entangled with flowers and acanthus foliage" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 28. "This Book of Hours shows definite characteristics of the manscript art of France and the Netherlands of about 1450 A.D. It was probably one of the many copies prepared for sale at a shrine to which devout pilgrims came to worship or to seek a cure. The spiked letters and the detached ornamental bar are unmistakably Flemish in spirit, while the free ivy sprays are distinctively French. The burnished metal in the decorations shows the use of alloyed gold (oro di meta) as well as silver" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 15th c.
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  Psalter: Psalterium

  Leaf 25. "In the earlier periods there was generally a harmonious unity between the spirit of the ornament and the character of the writing. This unity is exemplified in this leaf. The three-lobed, gracefully drawn symmetrical fronds of leaves in the ornament are usually accepted without question as representing the ivy plant. In the Middle Ages many magical and medicinal qualities were attributed to this plant" (Ege). "Some pages of this manuscript book show the effect of having been exposed to dampness."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 14th c.
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  Book of Hours: Horæ Beatae Mariæ Virginis

  Leaf 24. "This particular Book of Hours, a devotional prayer book for the layman, was made for the use of Sarum, the early name of Salisbury, England. This text was accepted throughout the province of Canterbury. This manuscript was written about the time Chaucer completed his Canterbury Tales, but evidently by a French monk, who might have been attached as was often the case, to an English monastery. Again, the book could have been specially ordered and imported from abroad. The initial letter and the coloring and the treatment of the ivy are unmistakably French" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 14th c.
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  Breviary: Breviarium

  Leaf 23. "While the script of this leaf is almost certainly French, the initial letters and filigree decoration might easily be of Italian workmanship, and the greenish tone of the ink suggests English manufacture. The dorsal motif in the bar ornament is again decidely French, and the lemon tone of the gold is a third indication of French origin" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 14th c.
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  Hymnal: Hymnarium

  Leaf 21. "Much of the material incorporated in the hymnals was based on folk melodies. Hymns, like the other chants of the Church, varied according to their place in the liturgy" (Ege). "The initial letter design of this leaf persisted with little or no change for a long period, but the simple pendant spear was used as a distinctive motif for not more than twenty-five years."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 14th c.
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  Breviary: Breviarium

  Leaf 16. "Brevaries were seldom owned by laymen. They were service books and contained the Psalter with the versicles, responses, collects and lections for Sundays, weekdays, and saints' days. Other texts could be included. A Breviary, therefore, was lengthy and usually bulky in format. Miniature copies like the one represented by this leaf were rare" (Ege). "This manuscript was written on a fine uterine vellum, i.e., the skin of an unborn calf."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
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  Bible: Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata

  Leaf 14. "This copy of the Latin version by St. Jerome was made during the period when France stood at the height of her medieval glory" (Ege). "The bar borders came to be exectued in rich opaque gouache pigments, with ultramarine made of powdered lapis lazuli predominating. The foliage scroll work inside the inital frame created a style that persisted with little or no change for nearly two hundred years."
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.
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  Psalter: Psalterium

  Leaf 12. "This small Psalter leaf illustrates the fact that, although skilled scribes were available in many monasteries in the XIIIth century, some of the monks who attempted to apply and burnish the gold leaf were still struggling with many problems of illumination. The famous treatise De Arte Illuminandi and Cennino Cennini's Trattato were both of a later date. These works gave directions on how to prepare and use the glair of egg, Armeninan bole, stag-horn glue, and hare's foot, and on how to burnish gold with a suitable wolf's tooth" (Ege).
  Original medium: Manuscript
  Date: 13th c.