Beschreibung:

MISSAL, use of Udine, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM , [Vienna, c.1430-35
MISSAL, use of Udine, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM , [Vienna, c.1430-35] 335 X 270mm. iii + 345 + vii: 1 6 , 2-8 10 , 9 9 (iii a singleton), 10-15 10 , 16 8 , 17-18 10 , 19 8 , 20-31 10 , 32 8 , 33 10 , 34 9 (ix a singleton), 35 9 (i a singleton), 36 8 (lacking an added leaf at beginning and lacking an inserted leaf with illumination before the Canon of the Mass), gathering numbers and signatures throughout, ruled space 217 x 136mm. TWENTY-ONE ILLUMINATED INITIALS AND EIGHT HISTORIATED INITIALS (immaculate condition except for the added leaves at front and back with vertical creasing). CONTEMPORARY GERMANIC BINDING of pink tawed-skin over wooden boards with modified BLUE TAWED-SKIN CHEMISE (scuffed and marked and with later tawed pigskin straps, lacking clasps and catches). A NEW DISCOVERY: A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN WORK BY THE MASTER OF THE PRAYERBOOK OF ALBRECHT V, DUKE OF AUSTRIA. AN EXAMPLE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN COURT ART AND AN INTRIGUING SIDELIGHT INTO A CONTEMPORARY POWER STRUGGLE. PROVENANCE : (1) The Calendar makes plain the intended destination of the manuscript in the Patriarchate of Aquileia. It includes among the major feasts written in red those of St Hermagoras, first bishop and patron of Aquileia (12 July), Sts Cantius, Cantianus and Cantianilla (31 May) and the Dedication of ‘alma ecclesia’ of Aquileia (13 July); in other instances it specifies that feasts are duplex ‘in aquilegia’. The liturgical use of the Missal, which can be identified from the Sundays after Pentecost, was for Udine – the capital and favourite residence of the Patriarch from the 13th century until the city and Patria fell to the Venetians in 1420. Notwithstanding the loss of his lands and control, PATRIARCH LOUIS OF TECK (Ludwig, Herzog von Teck), who had been appointed with the support of the emperor in 1412, retained the title until his death in 1439. He persistently, but unsuccessfully, tried to regain his territory and dominion from the Venetians, both by arms and by petitioning the emperor and the pope: J. E. Law, Venice and the Veneto in the early Renaissance , 2000, VI, pp.138-143, VII pp.2-8 and 12-21. The fact that the manuscript was clearly produced in Vienna for a Patriarch and by an illuminator who worked for members of the imperial family and court makes it likely that the Missal was commissioned for or by Louis during his exile, a period when he undertook diplomatic commissions for Albrecht V, Duke of Austria, the principal patron of the illuminator. Perhaps the most likely time for this commission was around 1434 to 1435 when Louis successfully appealed to the Council of Basel over the usurpation of his rights in Friuli and Istria. In September 1434 a monitorium was issued against the Republic of Venice demanding that the Patria be surrendered under pain of extradition. Venice resisted and counter-claimed but in December 1435 the Council fully endorsed Louis of Teck’s case and excommunicated the Republic. He must have felt that a return to the Patriarchate was within his grasp. This Missal appears to be an extravagant, and misplaced, embodiment of his optimism and intent. (2) JO?EF KALASANC, BARON ERBERG (1771-1843), botanist, cultural historian and collector: his library stamp on the opening leaf. Erberg was born in Ljubljana and in 1815 after a career at the Austrian court he returned to his family’s manor and park at Dol pri Ljubljana. There he concentrated on developing the garden – known as the Versailles of Carniola – library and collections. He particularly collected natural and cultural objects associated with Carniola, now within Slovenia. The position of his library stamp on the present opening leaf, suggests that the first of the added leaves was already missing by the time the manuscript reached his collection. CONTENT : Masses for the Days of the Week, opening in feria III, ff.i-iii; Calendar ff.1-6; Masses from the Temporal ff.7-170v; instructions to the celebrant in a later 15th-ce