Title: The von Wolkenstein Breviary, 1499. Franciscan Use. Illuminated Manuscript on Parchment from Italy, Ferrara. With 12 Historiated Initials, 25 Illuminated Initials, and Several Large Borders
Author: Follower of Taddeo Crivelli (b. Ferrara, 1425; d. Bologna, 1479)
Condition: Very Good
A beautifully produced, late 15th century illuminated Breviary, inscribed in a rotunda script, produced in Ferrara, Italy, and brilliantly illuminated by a Follower of Taddeo Crivelli, one of the foremost 15th-century illuminators of the Ferrara school, with a suite of 12 historiated initials, 25 additional illuminated initials, and additional border work.
Dated 1499 (f. 350), the von Wolkenstein Breviary – named for its notable early owner – offers a late reprise of the celebrated Ferrarese illumination style perfected several decades earlier by Taddeo Crivelli and his circle at the d’Este court. Crivelli, among the most distinguished manuscript painters of the Italian Renaissance, was the principal illuminator of the famed Borso d’Este Bible (1455–1461), one of the supreme masterpieces of fifteenth-century Italian illumination. His workshop established the visual language that defined Ferrara’s golden age of manuscript production: a fusion of International Gothic elegance with the spatial sophistication and naturalism emerging in Renaissance art, reflecting both courtly taste and innovative pictorial language. The enduring prestige of Crivelli’s workshop—together with that of his collaborators such as Franco dei Russi and Guglielmo Giraldi—continued to shape Ferrara’s manuscript art well into the final years of the century, as exemplified by the present volume. Commissioned for Franciscan use, the compact format of the von Wolkenstein Breviary suggests personal devotional use by a member of the Franciscan order within Ferrara or its environs and reflects both the continued vitality and adaptation of d’Este court models for private patrons at the close of the century. Dated manuscripts, such as this one, are significant in establishing fixed criteria for dating other works of uncertain origin.
This Breviary is written in a double column, 31-line format.
This breviary is extensively rubricated throughout in red ink, with hundreds, if not thousands of 2-line initials with penwork decoration throughout, and countless one-line initials in red and blue. There are 10 historiated 6–11-line initials, and two historiated initials with majestic full borders of flowering designs. There are an additional 25 3–7-line illuminated initials in floral designs, some with marginal sprays and bordering decorations.
The historiated initials are as followed:
Folio 7r depicts God the Father holding an orbis terrarum and book
Folio 7v depicts Christ on the Mount of Olives
Folio 19v depicts David holding a scroll
Folio 36r depicts David in thought with a finger pressed to his chin
Folio 43r depicts David with a harp
Folio 68r depicts monks singing around a lectern
Folio 116v depicts Saint Paul with sword and book
Folio 136r depicts The Nativity of Christ
Folio 351r depicts Saint Jerome
Folio 524r depicts Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata
Folio 540r depicts Saint John the Evangelist
Folio 562 depicts Mourners Clad in Black
This Breviary is structed in the following form:
ff 1–6v contains the Calendar
ff 7–108v contains the Psalms, Canticles, Hymns, and Litanies
ff 331–563r contains the Temporal
ff 563–593v contains the Sanctoral
ff 563–593v contains the Common of Saints
ff 594–599v contains the Office of the Blessed Virgin
ff 600–604v contains the Office of the Dead
ff 604v–608 contains Prayers at Meals
ff 608–608v contains Absolutions
ff 609–611 contains the Visitation of the Sick
ff. 611v–617 contains the Commendation of Souls and Burial Services
ff. 617–618v contains Blessings
This manuscript bears several notes of provenance, the first of course being that it was made for Franciscan use and is dated 1499 on folio 350r. All feasts of greatest importance for Franciscan liturgy are included in the calendar and ranked at the highest level, transcribed in red and inscribed duplex (reflecting the doubling of antiphons), including St. Francis, dies natalis (4 Oct), octave (11 Oct), translation (25 May), and the feast of the Stigmata (17 Sept); St. Anthony of Padua, dies natalis (13 June), octave (20 June), and translation (June 9); St. Bernardino of Siena (20 May; canonized in 1450); St. Clare of Assisi, dies natalis (12 Aug), octave (19 Aug), and translation (2 Oct); and Louis the Confessor, translation (November 8). The feast for Saint Bonaventure occurs on March 14 instead of the more widely celebrated July 15, likely due to the recent translation of the saint’s relics to his hometown of Bagnoregio, which occurred nine years prior, on March 14, 1490.
The manuscript has also been rebound for noted collector Baron Christopher von Wolkenstein (1530–1600), who amassed a library of almost 3,000 volumes at Rodeneck Castle; with his armorial bookplate dated 1594. See Anton Dörrer, “Die Bibliothek des Freiherrn Christoph von Wolkenstein auf Schloss Rodenegg,” Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 57 (1940), pp. 18–43. There is also a signature for one Edward A. L. Batters to the flyleaf. The manuscript was also held in a private collection in Norwich, England, before finally ending up in the collection of Scott Schwarz of New York, with his bookplate and catalog number “MS 35” to the front pastedown.
As noted, the manuscript was rebound and altered in the sixteenth century with the Psalms originally following the Temporal.
Sixteen leaves have been replaced (folios 27–28, 49–50, 55–56, 60–61, 77–78, 92–93, 109–110, 351, 563) by near-contemporary additions.
There is foliation in modern pencil 1–619 to the upper right corners, with earlier foliation in red ink at the lower margins.
The volume is bound in a 16th century armorial binding in tan pigskin with the stamp of Baron Christopher von Wolkenstein to the covers, though the hinges and back strip have been restored.
Much of the writeup can be accredited to the cataloger involved in its prior sale, Peter Bovenmyer.
One pigskin bound illuminated manuscript (12.7 × 9.5 cm), 619 leaves on vellum
This manuscript is in very good shape, with some rubbing and wear to the binding, and splitting to the ends of the front hinge. There is cockling to the lower margin from folios 1–35, and a damp stain to the upper gutters of folios 585–618. There is minor, scattered staining throuhgout, heavier to a few leaves.