Legendary, in Latin, illustrated manuscript on vellum [Northern Rhine (Cologne), mid-twelfth century]

Estimate

300,000 - 500,000 GBP

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Description

Vellum

209 leaves (including endleaf at end), 225mm. by 150mm., evidently complete as in the thirteenth or perhaps early fourteenth century when the codex was foliated and last bound: wanting a single leaf after fol.188 and perhaps 2 leaves after fol.192 (loss only to the end of the list of St. Augustine's writings; the second of these leaves perhaps a cancelled blank), else complete, collation: i-viii⁸, ix⁹ (last a singleton), x-xv⁸, xvi³ (ii a singleton, no apparent break in text), xvii⁸, xviii², xix⁸, xx², xxii⁶, xxii-xxv⁸, xxvi⁷ (vii wanting), xxvii³ (iii a singleton), xxviii⁸, xxix⁹ (last a singleton and the pastedown), early foliation from fols.“i-cc” (omitting first leaf, and accidentally omitting leaves after fols.xix, xxxi, xxxiii, xxxix, lxx, lxxiv (here "lxxiiii"), and cxcvi (here "clxxxxvi"), accidentally repeating cxl, and wanting clxxxv-clxxxvi), single column, 26 lines in black and dark brown ink in a number of spiky late Carolingian miniscule hands, capitals touched in red, rubrics and titles in red, larger initials in same (some variegated), one large initial (fol.2r) formed of ornamental panels and a winged biting dragon, touched in colour and on pale blue and green grounds, with two lines of ornamental red capitals, another full-page initial of swirling green foliage on orange grounds with standing figure of St. Gorgonius (fol.193v), full-page penwork diagram with 14 roundels and a central rectangle enclosing portraits of saints and other figures (fol.1r), full-page coloured penwork illustration with scenes from the life of St. Servatius (fol.1v), medieval tags marking opening of lives of SS. Servatius, Leonard, Heribert of Cologne, Udalric and Augustine, 7 lines of thirteenth-century religious verse added at base of fol.1r partly covering lowermost border of illustration, some titles for roundels on fol.1r washed out in places, some small surface scuffs and cracks to decoration on fols.1r and 193v, partly erased ex libris at front and back, small holes in leaves at each end from bosses in boards, 2 leaves at end of volume torn with losses to text, margins of last leaves somewhat cut and scuffed, small spots and areas of discolouration, else in excellent condition, pastedowns from eleventh-century copy of Matthew, thongs broken at front of volume and in two places throughout, hence somewhat loose in early medieval binding (most probably late thirteenth century) of white leather (now discoloured) tooled with double and triple lines radiating out from central boss, over thick bevelled wooden boards, five iron bosses once on each board (three missing from front), some scratches and damage at corners, split in leather along spine exposing linen lining, marks from two earlier clasps and pins in upper board, now with single working medieval clasp

Provenance

This is a remarkably fine and handsome Romanesque manuscript with full-page line-drawn illustrations, still in its early medieval binding

provenance

(1) Almost certainly written and illustrated as one of the foundation volumes of the chapel of St. Servatius, Cologne (existing by c.1150, see L. Arntz, Die ehemaligen Kirchen, Klöster, Hospitäler und Schulbauten der Stadt Köln, 1937, pp.352-3): partly erased ex libris at back of volume, ending in “Colonia”, and with the life of rare saint, Servatius, opening the volume and illustrated. The codex may well have been produced in the great Benedictine abbey of St. Martin's, Cologne (founded in 690), or St. Pantaleon's (founded 956/64), for the chapel. By the mid-fourteenth-century the chapel had become the centre of worship for the Brothership of St. Servatius, with this book doubtless among their treasured relics. Like other religious institutions in Cologne, the chapel of St. Servatius was surrendered to the French Revolutionary Forces following the invasion of the city in 1794 and looted. Krämer lists only one surviving manuscript from their library: an 8-leaf papal bull from the 1480s, now British Library, Additional MS.18927 (Die Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands, II, p.451).

(2) Acquired by the family of the present owner in Germany in the early nineteenth century.

Catalogue Note

text

This magnificent early codex includes the lives of SS. Servatius, the late fourth-century bishop of Tongeren in eastern Flanders, and opponent of Arianism (fol.2r); Leonard (fol.59r), followed by his miracula; John and Paul (fol.68v); Medard (fol.73v); Perpetua and Felicia (fol.86v); Heribert, bishop of Cologne (fol.89r; d.1021, canonised c.1074); Dorothy (fol.119v); Pope Urban I (fol.125r); Augustine of Hippo (fol.133r); Eusebius (fol.135r); Agapitus (fol.135v); Eliphius (fol.139r); Adrian (fol.143v); Udalric (fol.155v); the completion of the text for Augustine (fol.170v), followed by a list of his writings; Gorgonius (fol.194r); and the Agaunensian martyrs (fol.201r). The fifteenth-century contents list at the side of the illustration on fol.2v and the early foliation show that the contents are in the same order as in the late thirteenth century. However, an earlier contents list on fol.193r shows that the gatherings with the life of St. Urban and the second part of the text for St. Augustine once lay before St. Gorgonius, and this minor reorganisation probably explains the dislocation of two numbers in the foliation at this point.

At the council of Mainz in 1049, a Byzantine envoy named Alagrecus testified that Servatius was Armenian, and was born near Damascus, and thus could not, as in the diagram on fol.1r here, be directly related to Christ (see below). The present codex, with the life in the form recorded by B. Krusch (Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici et antiquiorum aliquot, MGH, SS rer. Merov. III, 1896, p.86 opening "Illustrissimi viri vitam Servatii stemmate inclito nati ...", and also found in Reims, Bibliothèque Carnegie, ms.1409; Valenciennes, Bibliothèque municipale ms.513/471a, both twelfth century; and Brussels, Bibliothèque royale ms.7487, thirteenth century) was produced in the aftermath of this, emphatically underlining the Western belief in his divine origins.

illustration

As shown in the recent exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages (2009), only at a few moments in certain medieval centres has penwork illustration come to rival or even exceed that of miniature painting. Carolingian artists excelled in this field (cf. ibid., nos.1-4), and in turn inspired artists in tenth- and eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon England (nos.7-12 and 14-15) and eleventh- and twelfth-century northern France and Germany (ibid., nos.13, 16-20 and 22-24 respectively).

In the Rhine-Meuse region this type of illustration was championed in the tenth and eleventh centuries by the great Carolingian abbey of Echternach. At the opening of the twelfth century, the principal centres of production moved to Trier and Cologne (cf. J.M. Plotzek, 'Zur rheinischen Buchmalerei im 12. Jahrhundert', in Rhein und Maas, II, 1973, pp.305-32). The first two illustrations here stand among the finest works produced in Cologne in the twelfth century, and display the characteristic inhabited roundels arranged to set out complex family relationships (cf. the Lectionary of Archbishop Frederick of Cologne (d.1131), now Cologne, Dombibliothek, MS.59: reproduced in Rhein und Maas, I, no.J41, p.308; the Chronicle of St. Pantaleon, produced in Cologne in the second half of the twelfth century, now Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 74.3 Aug. 2º: Ornamenta Ecclesiae I, 1985, no.A5, pp.57-59, with two full-page plates, and see also Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit, I, illustration on p.64), and brilliant contrasting coloured penstrokes to depict sumptuous drapery and borders (cf. a twelfth-century Missal, Use of Cologne, now Paris, BnF. latin 12055: Avril and Rabel, Manuscrits enluminés d’origine germanique, I, 1995, no.100, pl.cvi). This last technique lifts the entire composition on fol.1v, and gives it the appearance of a glittering Mosan enamel laid down on the page.

The illustrations comprise:

(1) folio 1r, full-page penwork diagram with 14 roundels enclosing portraits of saints and other figures arranged in two lines of genealogical descent which meet in the shoulder-length portraits of St. Anne and her legendary sister Esmeria in the rectangular box in the centre. Esmeria was thought to have been the mother of St. Elizabeth and Eliud, and grandmother to John the Baptist and great-grandmother to St. Servatius. Thus, this diagram sets out the familial relationship between St. Servatius (bottom second from left, dressed as a bishop) and Christ (top second from right, with halo touched with red penstrokes).

(2) folio 1v, full-page coloured penwork illustration with scenes from the life of St. Servatius (fol.1v), the upper compartment with the angel handing him a bishop’s crosier, the lower with his crosier before the altar as the congregation looks to heaven, rich tessellated altar cloths and frame.

(3) folio 193v, standing penwork figure of St. Gorgonius with a silver crown and halo and holding a sword, superimposed on a full-page initial of swirling green foliage on orange grounds, with five lines of ornamental capitals in silver and black.