Accession number
MS M.1232
Object title
Cutting from a Gradual.
Created
Germany, Cologne, ca. 1320-1340
Credit line
Purchased as the gift of Virginia M. Schirrmeister, Marguerite Steed Hoffman, William M. Voelkle, Sean Hayes, an anonymous donor, and an anonymous donor in memory of Melvin R. Seiden, 2022.
Description
1 item : parchment, illuminated ; 275 x 245 mm
Provenance
Georg Hartmann (1870-1954); Ernst Vischer (1884-1962), by descent; an anonymous owner, by descent; Hamburg, Ketterer Kunst, 30 May 2022, lot 1).
Notes
The cutting preserves the opening historiated initial "A" of a now-lost deluxe gradual.
On recto: fragmentary text from the aspersions liturgy, "...seculu[m] misericordia..."; Rubric "In die penthecostes v[ersiculus]"; "Emitte...creabuntur et reno[vabis]...". For comparable texts, see Cologne, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek, Cod. 1173, fols. 4v-5r; and Idem, Cod. 156, fol. 1r.
On verso: Initial A[d te levavi], which marks the introit for the First Sunday of Advent.
Decoration: An historiated initial A (for Ad te levavi; "To you I lift my spirit"). Set within an elaborate golden frame evoking the architectural magnificence of a Gothic cathedral, the main scene depicts King David offering up his soul to Christ, who sits enthroned in the upper register. Two praying lay-women kneel on either side of David; they are likely the patrons of the manuscript. The cutting also features a variety of marginalia, including birds, dragons, faces, and a hybrid monster with lance and shield. The small red disc to the left of the lower-most leaf likely represents a crypto-signature. Such discs were used by the artist-nuns at the Poor Clares workshop in Cologne.
Artist: Workshop of the Convent of Poor Clares in Cologne.
Closely related to surviving fragments of the Gertrudis Gradual (e.g. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Inv.-Nr. M 67); may also be related to another gradual cutting at Art Institute of Chicago (1919.980).
On recto: fragmentary text from the aspersions liturgy, "...seculu[m] misericordia..."; Rubric "In die penthecostes v[ersiculus]"; "Emitte...creabuntur et reno[vabis]...". For comparable texts, see Cologne, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek, Cod. 1173, fols. 4v-5r; and Idem, Cod. 156, fol. 1r.
On verso: Initial A[d te levavi], which marks the introit for the First Sunday of Advent.
Decoration: An historiated initial A (for Ad te levavi; "To you I lift my spirit"). Set within an elaborate golden frame evoking the architectural magnificence of a Gothic cathedral, the main scene depicts King David offering up his soul to Christ, who sits enthroned in the upper register. Two praying lay-women kneel on either side of David; they are likely the patrons of the manuscript. The cutting also features a variety of marginalia, including birds, dragons, faces, and a hybrid monster with lance and shield. The small red disc to the left of the lower-most leaf likely represents a crypto-signature. Such discs were used by the artist-nuns at the Poor Clares workshop in Cologne.
Artist: Workshop of the Convent of Poor Clares in Cologne.
Closely related to surviving fragments of the Gertrudis Gradual (e.g. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Inv.-Nr. M 67); may also be related to another gradual cutting at Art Institute of Chicago (1919.980).
Script
textura quadrata
Language
Latin
Century
Catalog link
Classification
Department