Beschreibung:

PRAYERBOOK, in Dutch, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
PRAYERBOOK, in Dutch, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern north Netherlands, c.1475]140 x 98mm. 241 leaves, modern pencilled foliation on every tenth leaf has numbered actual f.81 as 80 but f.170 is correctly numbered, text seems continuous despite stubs after ff. 11, 13, 17, 20 lines written in black ink in a gothic bookhand between two verticals and 21 horizontals ruled in grey, justification: 89 x 60 mm, rubrics in red, text capitals touched with red, one- and two-line initials alternately in red or blue, large initials in blue with reserved patterns extensively flourished in red, ELEVEN LARGE INITIALS IN GOLD ON COLOURED GROUNDS, ONE HISTORIATED, WITH THREE-SIDED BORDERS of acanthus between burnished gold disks, some with partial gold bars, TWO FULL-PAGE MINIATURES WITH BORDERS (slight rubbing to some illuminated initials and borders including f.3, lower corner of margin excised f. 16). Wooden boards, stained, with Cross in roundel, rebacked in leather, metal clasp (wear to edge of covers by clasp). PROVENANCE: The language shows some distinctively eastern forms of Middle Dutch; the flourishing and illumination associate this manuscript with a group produced in the east of the northern Netherlands that awaits precise localisation. The borders are very close to those in a book of hours in the Amsterdam University Library, I G 54, while the flourishing is by the same hand as that in a prayerbook in the Deventer Stads- of Athenaeum-bibliotheek, 101 E 17, see A. Korteweg, Kriezels, aubergines en takkenbossen , 1992, nos 128 and 129. The group, where decoration does not usually include miniatures, was probably produced by a monastic community or house of the Brethren of the Common Life. The miniatures also originated in the eastern Netherlands, with the Franciscan nuns of IJzendoorn by Zutphen. Jakob Reefsen or Jacobus Revius (1586-1658): 'Sum Jacobi R. Reuij' on first endleaf. The son of Ryck Reefsen, Revius presumably used the initial R for his patronymic. He was an important theologian, Hebrew scholar, historian (author of Daventriae illustratae , a history of his home town of Deventer) and poet: seven of his poems are still in use as hymns in the Dutch Calvinist Church. The Dutch texts of this prayerbook would have interested him both as church historian and writer in the vernacular, while its Christocentric prayers and limited illustration would have made it comparatively acceptable to a follower of Calvin. Victor von Stedingk: armorial bookplate and signature inside front cover CONTENT: A sequence of prayers on the Passion, ff.1-54: Henry Suso, 100 Articles of the Passion ff.1-23v, prayer on the passion to be said at the liturgical hours ff.24-33v, Arnulph of Leuven, prayers on the wounded parts of Christ's body ff.33v-41, prayers on the wounds of Christ, ff.41-47, third of Thomas à Kempis's Prayers on the Passion, ff.47v-54; a sequence of prayers to God the Father or Christ ff.54-167v, including prayers attributed to St Augustine ff.59-62, St Jerome f.81-82v, St Anselm ff.82v-83, St Thomas Aquinas ff.85-87, St Francis on the Five Wounds of Christ ff.87-91, 33 petitions for the 33 years Christ lived on earth ff.104-113, on the Ascension ff.124-131v, on the birth of Christ ff.133v-140v, for the love of God ff.143v-146v, attributed to St Bernard ff.149v-162v, to St Augustine ff.162v-167v; a sequence on the Sacrament ff.168-209v, including St Jerome ff.168-173v, St Ambrose ff.179-180v; on Christ ff.210-213v; prayers to the Virgin ff.214-241v, including her eight joys f.231v. The emphasis on Christ suggests that the book was made for, and probably by, a follower of the Devotio moderna , the movement that stressed the importance of the direct relationship between the individual and God, who could be approached through the humanity of Christ, an idea most famously expressed through Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ . The scribe had to make several corrections as he wrote and a few further corrections have been added