[PRAYERBOOK.] Illuminated manuscript prayerbook in Latin and Italian. [Nineteenth-century manuscript title to flyleaf:] ‘Missa Beatae Virg. & aliae Orationes’.

10,000 Years' Indulgence

[PRAYERBOOK.] Illuminated manuscript prayerbook in Latin and Italian. [Nineteenth-century manuscript title to flyleaf:] ‘Missa Beatae Virg. & aliae Orationes’. [Bologna. c. 1490–1500.]

Manuscript on vellum (95 x 70 mm). Nineteenth-century dark brown morocco, borders tooled in blind to a rope design, unidentified Italian arms blocked in blind to boards, blue silk endleaves, housed in a modern custom-made black cloth box; ff. ii, 144, ii; 1–28, 3–810 (f. 31 in 4, apparently in original condition on a stub and with outer edge made-up), 9~sup~8~sup~, 10–15~sup~10~sup~, complete; written in a round gothic bookhand in brown ink for 11 lines to a page, ruled in light brown, early manuscript foliation to upper corners (ff. 98 and 138 numbered twice), written space c. 60 x 45 mm; rubrics in red, 1-line initials alternately in red and blue, 2-line initials of liquid gold on blue, red, or green grounds with fine penwork, large illuminated 7-line initial ‘S’ (f. 31~sup~v~sup~) enclosing Virgin and Child against a black ground, initial entwined by elaborate foliage, painted in green and blue, heightened in gold, and set against a magenta ground, with accompanying panel border including jewels and pearls, and large 5-line historiated initial ‘D’ (f. 86~sup~r~sup~) painted magenta and green including jewels and pearls, against blue and gold grounds, with matching full-page partial border; extremities of binding very lightly rubbed; a little smudging to page with historiated initial, occasional small stain, but generally very well preserved; title to second front flyleaf and ownership inscription to lifted rear pastedown in an early nineteenth-century hand in black ink, late nineteenth- century bookplate after sixteenth-century design with initials ‘T.N.D.L.’, twentieth-century bookplates to front free endpaper (see below).

An elegant manuscript prayerbook on vellum, produced in Bologna in the 1490s, apparently the result of collaboration between the calligrapher Pierantonio Sallando and an illuminator from the circle of the great painter and jeweller Francesco Marmitta, featuring numerous devotional indulgences with guidance in the vernacular.

Illumination:
The Mass of the Virgin (‘Missa Beatae Mariae Virginis’, f. 31~sup~v~sup~) opens with a large illuminated initial ‘S’ depicting a half-length Virgin adoring the Christ Child, and an elaborate full-page border. The colour palette (dark red, blue, green, black and gold) and the use of attenuated architectural forms, jewels and foliage place this manuscript alongside a group of Books of Hours produced for aristocratic patrons in Bologna around 1500 (cf. Medica). Many of these manuscripts resulted from the partnership between illuminators in Bologna – the most influential among them Francesco Marmitta (c. 1460-1505) – and the prolific calligrapher Pierantonio Sallando (c. 1460-1540). Together Marmitta and Sallando developed the sophisticated architectural borders, such as those of the present prayerbook, that became a hallmark of Bologna’s finest High Renaissance manuscripts. Their most celebrated and luxurious joint effort is the Offiziolo Durazzo (Genoa, Bib. Civ. Berio, m.r.cf.Arm.I).

Our prayerbook was apparently also written by Sallando. The illumination may be ascribed to the same painter who collaborated with Marmitta on the Rangoni-Bentivoglio Hours (Baltimore, WAG, ms W.469) and contributed to other Hours written by Sallando in Oxford (Bodleian Library, ms Canon. Liturg. 260), Bassano del Grappa (Bib. Civ., Esp. 4 ms 1564), and the Hours of Giovanni II Bentivoglio (Morgan Lib. Ms M.53). In the present manuscript, the two large initials and borders on f. 31~sup~v~sup~ and f. 86 share similar forms and colour palette. Stylistically closely related borders are found in one of Sallando’s most famous commissions, the Hours of Bonaparte Ghisilieri illuminated by Amico Aspertini, Perugino and Matteo da Milano (BL, Yates Thompson 29).

Contents:
Calendar (ff. 2~sup~r~sup~–19~sup~v~sup~); Confessio generalis (ff. 20~sup~r~sup~-21~sup~r~sup~); Gospel Extracts (ff. 21~sup~r~sup~-31~sup~r~sup~); Missa Beatae Mariae Virginis (ff. 31~sup~v~sup~-49~sup~r~sup~); Prayer of St Augustine opening ‘Deus propicius esto mihi peccatori’ (ff. 49~sup~v~sup~-51~sup~v~sup~); Fifteen prayers on the Passion as said daily by St Bridget and indulgenced by Boniface VIII, opening ‘O domine iesu christe eterna dulcedo’ (ff. 51~sup~v~sup~–80~sup~r~sup~); Apostles Creed (ff. 80~sup~r~sup~–81~sup~r~sup~); Sequence of prayers (ff. 81~sup~v~sup~-85~sup~r~sup~), to be said daily while kneeling before an image of Christ to keep from the pain of Hell, to gain divine assistance, counsel and favour, and when body or soul are in danger; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany (ff. 86~sup~r~sup~-116~sup~v~sup~); Prayers and devotions addressed to God, opening with Psalm 68 and including two prayers naming the owner, ‘famulo tuo Jacobo’ (ff. 125~sup~v~sup~, 126~sup~v~sup~, and 133~sup~r~sup~), and ending with a prayer to protect when travelling and a prayer to the Guardian Angel (ff. 117–134); Prayers attributed to St Bernard and other indulgenced prayers (ff. 135-143~sup~v~sup~).

From f. 79~sup~v~sup~ (the heading opening the sequence of devotional prayers to be recited before an image of Christ), the subject headings for individual orations appear in the vernacular to more clearly remind our Jacobus of the function of each prayer, even through the prayers themselves are to be recited in Latin. ‘In formal books of hours, manuscript or printed, the prayers are almost always in Latin – even if the pardon or promise is in [the vernacular]. This again raises questions about whether the prayers were actually understood, or merely recited as a mechanistic device to procure the pardon’ (Swanson, p. 222). The final prayers deal with indulgences, e.g. ‘the following verses are those which we read that the devil appeared to St Bernard. And they bring great virtue and merit to he who reads them every day; he will not die without confession, nor experience the punishments of Hell; and he will know the day of his death’ (f. 136, trans.); another offers 6666 days’ indulgence for each time a given prayer is recited after the elevation of the Body of Christ (ff. 139~sup~v~sup~–140~sup~r).

The final indulgence accompanies the elevation prayer Domine Iesu Christi qui hanc, written by Pope Boniface VIII ‘for King Philip IV, and for its recitation after true confession 2,000 years’ indulgence were granted. It was so effective a prayer that it was sometimes copied apart from other eucharistic prayers,’ (Rubin, p. 157). The version contained within this prayerbook grants a whopping 10,000 years of purgatorial pardon, ‘as conceded by Pope Boniface VI at the behest of King Philip of France’ (trans.). ‘Pardons and promises tied to prayers were part of a highly fluid culture […] Even with print, the pardons were essentially unstable, and in either print or manuscript the same prayer may appear […] with pardons which appear very different […] Papal numbers were confused; days of pardon became years (or vice versa)’ (Swanson, p. 222). The corresponding pardon in Cambridge University Library Dd.6.1, f. 82~sup~v~sup~, conversely, refers to an unspecified Pope Boniface. ‘A papal numeral is not always given. Where it is, the pardon is often ascribed to Boniface VI, or to Boniface VII. In the printed tradition of Paris-produced primers, the pardon became 10,000 years, the pope Boniface VI’ (ibid., p. 223), as in this manuscript prayerbook.

Provenance:

1. The Calendar includes the feast of St Petronius, the patron saint of Bologna, in red, indicating that the manuscript was made in or for use in that city. It was written for a man who is named as ‘Jacobus’ in prayers on ff. 125v, 126v, and 133. His coat of arms was presumably painted to the border of f. 31v but has since been overpainted with a golden eagle on a light blue ground and the initials ‘N. M.’ (arms unidentified).

2. Nineteenth-century manuscript title ‘Missa Beatae Virg. & aliae Orationes’ on the second front flyleaf and ownership inscription, ‘Di Me Gracia Maria Isabella Sofia Comercati’, on the lifted rear pastedown, likely contemporary with the present armorial binding (arms unidentified). She is likely related to Giuseppe Carlo Commercati of Bologna, correspondent of Cardinal Gualterio (BL Add MS 20548-20550, 1719) and the priest and scholar Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1707) – discoverer of the Muratorian Fragment – or to the Prospero Comercati who was involved in the construction of the Tempio della Beata Vergine della Ghiara in Reggio Emilia in the 1620s.

3. Sir Thomas North Dick-Lauder of Fountainhall, 9th Baronet (1846–1919), with his undated bookplate (Hamilton, p. 186, attributed to 1890) bearing the initials T.N.D.L., designed in imitation of the sixteenth-century bookplate of Johannes Clein. Likely sold at his 1891 sale to:

4. Michael Tomkinson of Franche Hall, near Kidderminster (1841–1921), collector of books and Japanese art, with his bookplate to front free endpaper. At least two other Italian works from Lauder’s library – an eighteenth-century Missal in a velvet binding and the 1476 edition of Bracciolini’s history of Florence – later came into Tomkinson’s possession. Not traced in Tomkinson’s sales, Sotheby’s, April and July 1922.

5. Pamela and Raymond Lister, with their booklabel to front free endpaper; sold Sotheby’s, 10 July 1967, lot 68, to Maggs. Christie’s London, Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books (4 June 2008), lot 55.

See Medica, ‘La miniatura a Bologna al tempo di Giovanni II Bentivoglio’, in Il Libro d’Ore di Bonaparte Ghislieri (2008), pp. 44–104; Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (1991); Swanson, ‘Praying for Pardon’, in Promissory Notes on the Treasury of Merits: Indulgences in Late Medieval Europe (2018).~i~

SKU: 2123427