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Detailed record for Egerton 859
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| Title |
Prayers to the Saints |
| Origin |
Germany, W. (Lower Rhineland) |
| Date |
c. 1420 - c. 1425 |
| Language |
German |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
39 full-page miniatures, accompanied by small decorated initials and full foliate borders, the first with a partial foliate border on the facing page, in colours and gold (ff. 1v, 2v, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9v, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41). Small decorated initials and line fillers, in colours and gold. |
| Dimensions in mm |
235 x 170 (145 x 95) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 41 (+ 1 paper flyleaf at the beginning, and 1 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown leather. |
| Provenance |
? Mary (b. 1426, d. 1487), Duchess of Cleves: woman bearing heraldic arms, in prayer in front of Matthew (f. 36); heraldic arms in the miniatures (ff. 2v [overpainted with 3 fleur de lys on azur], 3); letters 'r' and 'y' in the borders (ff. 1, 2v, 5, 6, 12, 13, 15, 33, 34, 39, 40), and in the background of the miniature with Lawrence (f. 9v).
Bought by the British Museum, using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829). |
| Notes |
A single leaf with Bavo and the letters 'r' and 'y' in the borders (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 8517) belongs probably to Egerton 859 (see Wescher 1931). |
| Select bibliography |
List of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), Eg. No. 859.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 14.
Paul Wescher, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Miniaturen - Handschriften und Einzelblätter - des Kupferstichkabinetts der Staatlichen Museen Berlin (Leipzig: Weber, 1931), pp. 165-66 no. 8517, fig. 167.
Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: its origins and character, 2 vols (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953), I, 106 n. 1, II, figs. 133, 134.
Gerard Achten, Das christliche Gebetbuch im Mittelalter: Andachts- und Stundenbücher in Handschrift und Frühdruck, 2nd edn (Berlin: Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1987), p. 85.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 145.
The Limbourg Brothers: Nijmegen Masters at the French Court, 1400-1416, ed. by Rob Dückers and Pieter Roelofs (Nijmegen: Ludion, 2005), nos. 53-54.
Paola Corti Badia, 'Los Libros de Horas y de oraciones como deposito de memoria e identidad', in Més enllà de les pregàries: llibres d'hores a l'ideari espiritual dels segles medievals I inicis del Renaixement, ed. by Josefina Planas (Lleida: Universitat de Lleida, 2021), pp 145-77 (p 172). |
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f. 2v
Crucifixion |
f. 4
Christopher |
f. 9v
Detail |
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f. 13
Veronica |
f. 22
Bishop |
f. 23
Saint |
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f. 25
Saint |
f. 29
Agatha |
f. 31
Susanna |
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