Beschreibung:

PRAYERBOOK [BETBÜCHLEIN] OF GRÄFIN DOROTHEA VON MANSFELD. In German. ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Southern Germany, 1551]. 205x150mm. 128 leaves + contemporary vellum flyleaf, COMPLETE, Collation: 1-2 4 3 6 4-18 4 19 4 +1 (19.1 insert) 20-24 4 25 2 +1 (25.1 insert) 26-31 4 32 2 , (ff 16.1 and 4 shorter and slightly extended in lower margin). 21 lines, justification: 152x102mm, written in brown ink in a fine upright German gotico-antiqua (fraktur) text hand, headings in red, decorative paraphs in ink at head and foot of each page (those at head and a few at foot cropped). 135 illuminated initials, one- and two line, in gold on blue, red or green ground, one large initial (on f.9) of golden and coloured stylized birds and flowers, 30 LARGE MINIATURES. (First leaf slightly smudged). Late 18th-century red German morocco gilt, spine with raised bands in 6 compartments elaborately tooled, brown morocco lettering piece, edges gilt, gold floral endpapers. GENERALLY IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. PROVENANCE: (1) Text written by a scribe, who signs himself 'J.B.' on the last page. Below his initials he has dated the manuscript 1551. (2) On folio 2, a full-page miniature with the arms of Solms and Mansfeld, confirming that the manuscript was made for Gräfin Dorothea von Mansfeld (c.1493-1578). She appears in the final miniature on f.114. She was the daughter of Graf Philipp zu Solms (1486-1544) and the second wife of Graf Ernst II von Mansfeld (1479-1535), whom she married in 1512. He seems to have had an imperial monopoly for the copper trade and received many privileges from the Emperor Maximilian I. He was active in suppressing the revolt in the Peasant's Wars and Thomas Müntzer wrote a famous pamphlet attacking him in 1523. They had 13 children, the eldest son Peter Ernst I (1517-1604), Statthalter of Luxemburg, was raised to the rank of Prince (i.e. Reichsfürst) of Mansfeld and appointed a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1585. Dorothea died aged 96 at her castle Heldrungen, with a reputation for great piety and philanthropy. Cf. L.F. Niemann, Geschichte der Grafen von Mansfeld , (Aschersleben, 1834), pp 139-40. (3) Magnus Haettiger? faded 18th-century signature on f.1 TEXT: (f1) The title reads "Betbüchlein Viler schönen Andechtigen gebet durch einen Gelehrten außs heyliger Göttlicher Schrift zusammen getragen"; (ff 3-8) Calendar, double column, in red and black, the names of the months Latin and German in blue. The prayers begin with "Ein offne Beicht" (f.9) and include (ff 23v to 33) "Ein kurtze außslegung der zehen gebot in form eins gebets gestelt die mag man an stat einer Predig lesen und fürnemen"; (f.50v) "Das Vater Unser"; (f.59) "Ave Maria"; (f.63) "Bekantnus des Glaubens"; (f.67) "Ein gebet von der Aufsetzung des Sacraments" followed by other prayers when receiving the Holy Sacrament; (f.100) "Collect und gebet wider den Türcken"; (f.104) "Die acht versz S. Bernharts"; (f.108) "Ein gebet Salomonis"; (f.122) "Bekantnus oder Symbolum S. Athanasii"; (f.124v) "Bekantnus oder Symbolum Augustini". ILLUMINATION: The miniatures are clearly the work of a fine artist of the school of Sebald Beham. Two of them are signed 'S.G.' on the base. This might be Sebastian Glockendon, who was apparently active in the workshop of Nikolaus (d.1534) and from 1535 of Albrecht Glockendon (d.1545) in Nuremberg. Little is known about him, but he is known to have been one of the twelve sons of Nikolaus. After the death of Albrecht, he is recorded in 1557, to have been employed by Ottheinrich, prince elector of the Palatinate (1556-59). Cf. Barbara Daentler, Die Buchmalerei Albrecht Glockendons und die Rahmengestaltung der Dürernachfolge . Munich 1984, who cites Ottheinrich's 'Inventarium über mein gnedigsten H. Schreibstuben zu Nürnberg anno 1557'. It seems strange however, that a Nuremberg artist as skilled as the painter of the miniatures in the present volume, should only have been mentioned as 'Probierer' by Johann Neudörfer of Nur