MS. Don. e. 253
Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)
Prayer book; ca. 1500–1520, Bavaria
Contents
Language(s): Central Bavarian, probably from the area between Augsburg and Salzburg.
"Ein loblich gepet uon der heyligen driualtigkait dar inn der mensch vnderweist wirt Got zu loben:"
"Hie nach volget ain Andechtigs gepet dem menschen heilsam vnd nucz an leib vnd an sele zu sprechen zu ihesu christo:"
"Das gepet sprich So du des margens frue auf gestanden pist mit andacht vnd fleis:"
"Auf sand katherina tag des iars da man zalt von cristi gepurd Tausent cccc vnd im lix iar zů Montau in der stat hat der aller heiligist in Cristo vater vnd herr herr pius pabst der ander in seinem andern iar in gegenwurtigkait des durchleuchtigen fürsten vnd herren herr karls Marckgrauen zu paden vnd ettlicher seinen ratten Geben hundert tag ablas tödlicher schuld ain-ºnem ieden menschen als oft er das gepet zu trost allen gelaubigen selen spricht:"
A loose leaf from another prayer book inserted in this volume as "fol. 37a" is now kept as MS. Germ. b. 3, fol. 50.
"Rosarium das ist der Rosenkrancz vnser lieben frauen der kunigin Junckfraun marie vnd sind funfczig Aue maria vnd funfczig artickel da sol man zu iedem artickel ain Aue maria sprechen vnd die artickel sind von vnsers herren leiden vnd sprich das gepet mit andacht vnd vmb wen den pitten pist des wirst du gewert:"
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in ink, 18 long lines, ruled space 125 × 84 mm.
Hand(s)
Copied in a single late Gothic formal text hand, datable ca. 1500–1520. Extensive red headings, red (and occasionally blue) initial letters.
Decoration
Major initials are decorated with floral infilling in penwork.
Occasional human masks and cadelles in the upper margins; scribal pen-flourishing in the lower margins with abstract or floral patterns and masks.
Binding
Probably contemporary. Sewn onto two double thongs laced into wooden boards, covered with brown calf. Blind stamped and ruled (two floral stamps and one roll). The endleaves are those supplied by the binder, that at the front inscribed with a German prayer in a later sixteenth–century hand. Two copper-alloy clasps on leather straps closing on the upper board. Remains of paper labels on the spine suggest an early-modern institutional provenance, as yet unidentified.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Charles E. Roseman, Jr. (1913–52).
Sotheby’s Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, London, 6 December 2005, pp. 54-55, lot 43 (with colour plate of fol. 1r). One of fifteen items of Roseman provenance. Sold to:
Nigel Palmer (1946–2022).
Bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, 2022.
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-02-22: First online publication.