This small breviary, composed of more than 500 folios, is extraordinary for its length, considering it is the summer portion of a two-volume breviary for the use of Liège. The manuscript was completed for ecclesiastical use at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and St.-Lambert in Liège ca. 1420. This attribution is suggested, for instance, by the petitions to the congregation of this cathedral (fols. 114v-117v), as well as the armorial shield of the family of Surlet de Chokier of Liège represented at the opening of the Psalms. The manuscript has modest, but interesting, decoration with historiated and decorated initials marking the liturgical texts, and occasional angels playing instruments in the margins. The most notable pictorial effect is found in the initials inhabited by transparent figures on rich blue ground. The technique is found, for instance, on fol. 156r with the gold monstrance held by translucent angels for the feast of the Corpus Christi.
Littera batarda; additions in same script, except fols. 128v, 532v-533r, and 537r, written by several hands in cursive or irregular textura
Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.
Cataloger: Valle, Chiara
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Izer, Emily
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Schuele, Allyson
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour, and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 778, cat. no. 135
Bowles, Edmund A. "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery." Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 32 (1976): 719-726; p. 723.
Oliver, J.H. Gothic Manuscript Illumination in the Diocese of Liège (c. 1250-1350). Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts from the Low Countries, 3. Vol. 1. Leuven: Peeters, 1988; p. 83, 97 (n. 23), 202.
Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore, London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 97-104, cat. no. 228
Dückers, Rob, and Roelofs Pieter. The Limbourg Brothers: Nijmegen Masters at the French Court, 1400-1416. Exhibition Catalogue: Museum Het Valkhof Nejmegen, August 26, 2005. Antwerp: Ludion, 2005; p. 334.
Liège
Ca. 1420 CE
book
Non-original Binding
Seventeenth-century Flemish stiff-board vellum; sides bent to form 8-mm flap at fore-edge; re-backed; re-sewn on four double cords; gilt fillet frame, corner fleurons, centered oval formed of gilt laurel; gilt armorial shield inside oval surmounted by crest with horned man, flanked by monogram "R C;" modern endbands; brown leather fore-edge tabs
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Probably made in Liège for laymen, ca. 1420; completed for ecclesiastical use of Notre-Dame and St.-Lambert in Liège; armorial shield worn by black-haired, bearded man with horns in Beatus initial on fol. 7v; layman portrayed on fol. 21v; shields in the borders of fols. 39v, 85v, 396v, and 459v are erased or altered by overpainting
Rebound in the seventeenth century for a member of the Surlet de Chokier family of Liège
Owned by Albertus of Liedekerke, 1725
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased between 1895 and 1931
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Liège
Ca. 1420 CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Probably made in Liège for laymen, ca. 1420; completed for ecclesiastical use of Notre-Dame and St.-Lambert in Liège; armorial shield worn by black-haired, bearded man with horns in Beatus initial on fol. 7v; layman portrayed on fol. 21v; shields in the borders of fols. 39v, 85v, 396v, and 459v are erased or altered by overpainting
Rebound in the seventeenth century for a member of the Surlet de Chokier family of Liège
Owned by Albertus of Liedekerke, 1725
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased between 1895 and 1931
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
This small breviary, composed of more than 500 folios, is extraordinary for its length, considering it is the summer portion of a two-volume breviary for the use of Liège. The manuscript was completed for ecclesiastical use at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and St.-Lambert in Liège ca. 1420. This attribution is suggested, for instance, by the petitions to the congregation of this cathedral (fols. 114v-117v), as well as the armorial shield of the family of Surlet de Chokier of Liège represented at the opening of the Psalms. The manuscript has modest, but interesting, decoration with historiated and decorated initials marking the liturgical texts, and occasional angels playing instruments in the margins. The most notable pictorial effect is found in the initials inhabited by transparent figures on rich blue ground. The technique is found, for instance, on fol. 156r with the gold monstrance held by translucent angels for the feast of the Corpus Christi.
Littera batarda; additions in same script, except fols. 128v, 532v-533r, and 537r, written by several hands in cursive or irregular textura
Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.
Cataloger: Valle, Chiara
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Izer, Emily
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Schuele, Allyson
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour, and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 778, cat. no. 135
Bowles, Edmund A. "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery." Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 32 (1976): 719-726; p. 723.
Oliver, J.H. Gothic Manuscript Illumination in the Diocese of Liège (c. 1250-1350). Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts from the Low Countries, 3. Vol. 1. Leuven: Peeters, 1988; p. 83, 97 (n. 23), 202.
Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore, London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 97-104, cat. no. 228
Dückers, Rob, and Roelofs Pieter. The Limbourg Brothers: Nijmegen Masters at the French Court, 1400-1416. Exhibition Catalogue: Museum Het Valkhof Nejmegen, August 26, 2005. Antwerp: Ludion, 2005; p. 334.
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