Prayerbook, in Latin and Spanish, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Spain (perhaps Seville), c.1530 (after 1521)]

56 leaves, 172mm. by 122mm., complete, collation: i-vi⁸, vii⁶, viii², 8 lines in dark brown ink in a fine Iberian rotunda (written space: 130mm. by 82mm.), rubrics in red (often opening with calligraphic initials), twenty-four decorated 2-line initials formed of acanthus, columns, dolphins, and masks, on coloured grounds, with penwork decoration, enclosing naturalistic flowers and a stork-like bird (fols.4r, 5v, 7r, 8r, 9r, 11v, 14r, 16v, 19r, 23r, 26v, 27r, 29v, 31r, 34r, 35r, 40r, 42r, 43r, 45r, 46v, 48v, 50r and 52r), seven 3-line initials in the same (fols.2r, 25v, 29r, 32v, 36v, 38v, 53r), with naturalistic flowers, antique masks, vases, jewels and putti, accompanied by partial borders on two sides with strewn flowers, strawberries, acanthus sprigs, jewels, peacocks, butterflies, a snail and a satyr holding a flower basket, one 3-line calligraphic initial ‘P’ (opening the title of the book: “Per totum annum ad aspersionem aque”) in red ink (fol.1r), last bifolium with the Pater Noster added by a contemporary professional hand, borders smudged in places and edges slightly cropped, some initials also smudged, vellum stained in places, else good to fair condition, late nineteenth-century white vellum flecked with red over pasteboards, splitting from text block between pastedowns and first and last endleaves, but solid in binding

1. Perhaps written and illuminated for use in the church of St. Sebastian, Seville (founded in the fifteenth century): with two prayers to St. Sebastian (fols.8r-9r and 19r-20r), and another to be said in the nave of the relic of “nuestra senora del antigua” (fols.45v-47r), which must refer to the celebrated relic of an early painting of the Virgin discovered in Seville Cathedral after the city was retaken from the Muslims in 1248, and venerated there. The inclusion of prayers for Popes Julius II and Leo X among those for the dead must follow the death of the latter in 1521.

2. Josephine Dockar Drysdale of Wick Hall, Radley, Berks., Roman Catholic convert: her late nineteenth-century bookplate.

text

This manuscript contains memorial prayers to Christ (fol.2r), for the day of Resurrection (fol.4r), Ascension (fol.5v), Pentecost (fol.7r), to St. Sebastian (fol.8r), to the Virgin (fol.9r), for Sunday Procession, first station (“In processionibus dominicalibus, In prima statione”; fol.11v), second station (fol.14r), third station (fol.16v), to St. Sebastian again (fol.19r),  fourth station (fol.23r), “Quando dicitur Anniversarium” (fol.25v), “Quando se dize missa de prima por los reyes” (fol.29r), “Quando se dize missa de Cofradia” (fol.32v), “En la capilla del Jesu a la columna se diga la oracion siguiente” (fol. 36v); prayers for the Dead, “por los Reyes en el altar major” (fol.38v), second station “en la puerta del choro por los Infantes” (fol.40r), third station “en el choro por los Arcobispos” (fol.42r), fourth station “en saliendo del choro” (fol.43r), fifth station “en la nave de nuestra senora del antigua” (fol.45v), sixth station “en la nave de nostra senora de los Remedios” (fol.46v), seventh station “en la nave de sant Sevastian” (fol.48v), eighth station “en el cruzero” (fol.50r), ninth station “A la puerta del choro” (fol.52r), and a prayer for the souls of “Julio II et Leone X” (fol.53r).

script and illumination

In the sixteenth century, Spanish scribes raised their art up to new heights, developing a distinctive Iberian monumental script of great simplicity, written on a vast scale (the ascenders here up to 12mm. high, allowing only six lines per page). To compliment this, Spanish illuminators looked to mainland European art, and embraced the achievements of the Italian and Flemish Renaissance. Motifs such as the columns, dolphins, vases, masks, putti and the satyr refer to re-discovered Antiquity, while the realistically observed flowers and strawberries scattered on gold grounds, enlivened with butterflies, peacocks and a snail, draw on the models of the Ghent-Bruges school.