MS. Germ. g. 1
Summary Catalogue no.: 30050
Prayer book with calendar and Short Hours of the Cross, in German; Germany (Aachen), 1495
Contents
Language(s): German with a little Latin
Table for determining the days of the week in any year of the Metonic cycle
Double-page opening consisting of (verso) two circular diagrams, the upper one with 1–19 around the edge, the lower one with the dominical letters a–g; facing (recto) a table with 19 rows numbered 1–19, and 7 columns headed A–G. In the lower diagram the number ‘96’ has been written next to the pair of dominical letters ‘c’ (inner ring, for ordinary years) and ‘b’ (outer ring, for leap years); these are the dominical letters for the leap year 1496, the first full year after the completion of the writing of the manuscript.
Ungraded; major feasts (in red) include ‘S. Karl keyser’, i.e. Charlemagne, buried at Aachen (28 Jan. and 27 July), Servatius, of Tongeren (13 May), Lambert, of Maastricht and Liège (17 Sept.).
Each month is headed by a note on the number of days, e.g. ‘Der haerd moent hait xxxi daeghe’ (the other months are ‘spurkille’, ‘meirtzs’, ‘aprille’, ‘mey’, ‘brae’ [sic for ‘brac’], ‘heu’, ‘aust’, ‘even’, ‘herffst’, ‘slaich’, and ‘advent’ maent/moent), and including notes on the length in hours of day and night e.g. ‘der daich ix vren lanth. die naicht .xv’.
Ending with a note in Latin on the Ember Days: ‘Post crux. Post cineris. Post spiritus. Postque Lucye. Quarta sequens feria. semper ieiunabitur illa’.
A series of nine prayers, the first seven each beginning ‘O heirre … cruce’ as above.
Cf. M. Meertens, De godsvrucht in de Nederlanden naar handschriften van gebedenboeken der XVe eeuw, II (Antwerp, 1931), pp. 86–89 (most individual prayers here are similar, some are not).Consisting of 15 prayers, usually known in English as The Fifteen Oes when they appear in Latin manuscripts (e.g. MS. Lat. liturg. g. 4 and MS. Lat. liturg. g. 5).
Cf. U. Montag, Das Werk der heiligen Birgitta von Schweden in oberdeutscher Überlieferung (Munich, 1968), 25-34Devotion consisting of seven prayers on the suffering of Christ
Divided into about 45 sections by coloured initials.
Incomplete due to the excision of a leaf.
A long series of prayers, many with rubrics indicating when they should be said e.g. ‘Alsmen dat hilge sacrament. up heyfft. soe sprecht dir gebet.’, ‘Alss der priester spricht Pater noster. soe val up dinen kneyen. inde maich eyn cruce vur dich. inde spreich dit gebedt’.
Fol. 70r blank; fol. 70v, full-page miniature (see Decoration)
A series of about 40 prayers, each preceded by an Ave Maria, except every tenth, which is instead preceded by a Pater noster.
Five prayers, interspersed by Ave Marias. Cf. Achten and Knaus, Deutsche und niederländische Gebetbuchhandschriften, 148 (no. 33, fol. 208v).
Seven short passages, followed by a collect.
Similar texts pr. H. Eis, 'Ein mystisches Reimgebet aus dem 14. Jahrhundert' Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 63/3 (1962), pp. 148-154 at 152-3; see Gisela Kornrumpf and Paul-Gerhard Völker, Die deutschen mittelalterlichen Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek München (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1968), 216.Seven short prayers.
A series of eight prayers with rubrics, e.g. ‘Nu spreich zu der slincker hant …’, ‘Nu sprech zu der rechter handt …’.
Full-page colophon in Latin
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Frame-ruled in purple ink for 22 lines per page. Ruled space 100 × 60 mm.
Hand(s)
Gothic textualis, by Theodericus Clocker alias Dietrich Klocker
Decoration
One full-page miniature of the Virgin of the Apocalypse: she suckles the infant, has a crescent moon at her feet, and is flanked by two music-making angels; within a full border; facing a page with a five-line champie initial and full border (fols. 70v–71r). There are stubs of excised leaves before many of the major textual divisions, suggesting further miniatures have been removed.
One nine-line and seven six- to eight-line initials merging into full borders with flowers, thistles, birds, butterflies, etc., at the main textual divisions (fols. 15r, 21r, 23r, 33r, 35r, 54r, 72r, 81r). Five similar three-line initials and borders at lesser divisions (fols. 16r, 17r, 18r, 19r, 20r). Five- or six-line champie initials, accompanied by a three-sided border (fols. 30r, 82v). Two- to six-line champie initials at individual prayers.
One-line initials alternately gold with black penwork or blue with red penwork.
Borders are of the ‘strewn flower’ type derived from Flemish models.
Binding
19th century leather (straight-grained morocco?) over pasteboards, each cover framed by a blind-tooled ornamental border, the spine lettered ‘missal’ in gilt black-letter characters; blue-grey endpapers; the edges of the leaves gilt; worn and extensively restored.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Written in 1495 by Dietrich Klocker / Theodericus Clocker, canon of Aachen, for Johannes Munten, city councillor of Aachen, and his wife Marie Beestoltzs (fols. 80v, 94r; cf. the dates on fols. 4v, 20v). Theodericus Clocker is recorded as a canon regular from 1464–1531 at the monastery of St. Johann-Baptist, Aachen; he completed writing of a copy of Caesarius von Heisterbach (Aachen, Stadtbibliothek, MS 49) on 18 October 1468; and in 1505 an illuminated prayerbook on behalf of the Mayor of Aachen, Peter Bestoltz, for his daughters Elisabeth and Lutkardis (Darmstadt, Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek, MS. 964). The Necrology of the Canons shows that he and his family were generous donors, and records that he was ordained in 1474, and later became subprior: on 4 April 1531, ‘Obiit frater Theodericus Clocker, supprior, canonicus et sacerdos huius domus.’ (J. Greving, ‘Geschichte des Klosters der Windesheimer Chorherren zu Aachen’, Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins, 13 (1891), 1–122 at 77). For further discussion, see H. Knaus, ‘Stundenbücher aus Aachen’, Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 11 (1971), cols. 1729–46 (reprinted in his collected works, Studien zur Handschriftenkunde (1991), pp. 125–38), and F. Wagner, ‘Der Codex Nr. 49 der Stadtbibliothek Aachen’, Studia codicologica, Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, 124, ed. by K. Treu (Berlin, 1977) pp. 503–09.
An obit(?) is added by an early 16th-century hand to the calendar, for ‘myn vader’ (1 May), presumably by a child of the original patron: the death of ‘Johannes Munten, consul urbis Aquensis’ is recorded on 1 May 1509 (Greving, op. cit, p. 98); another note is added, apparently by the same hand, at 26 August.
Sir Robert Harry Inglis (1786–1855), with ink stamp, ‘R. H. Inglis’ encircling his crest, a half lion, rampant, holding a five-pointed star (fol. 4r); included in the sale of the ‘remaining part’ of his library:
‘Bought by the Bodleian at Sotheby’s sale 12.11.1889 for £1.17 (lot 63)’ (fol. 1v, and fol. 97r, upside down).
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2021-05-13: Description fully revised for Polonsky German digitization project.