Michael of Massa, Vita Christi; Germany, 1443

Title

Michael of Massa, Vita Christi; Germany, 1443

Shelfmark

MS. Lat. th. e. 59

Place of origin

Germany

Date

1443

14th century

Language

German

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper and parchment mixed, the inner and outer bifolia of each quire parchment, the rest paper, with perhaps three or four different watermarks, the only one of which is both clearly visible and distinctive is very close to Briquet no. 4639, dated 1438.

Physical extent

i (modern paper) + I (medieval parchment) + 159 + i (modern paper) leaves

Hands

Written in brown ink in a semi-cursive gothic script by Johannes Boikman.

Decoration

Rubrics in red, numerous paraphs, underlinings, and marginal notes and pointing hands in red.

Each chapter introduced by a three- or four-line initial in red.

The first initial six lines bigh with reserved foliate designs and penwork ornament.

Binding

Bound in brown leather and faux leather over pasteboards, probably early 20th century, with gilt spine title "Lebensgeschichte / Jesu Christi / Handschrift / von 1443′′ and with the binder's purple ink stamp on the lower pastedown "Georg. Grob, Köln / Buchbinderei / Rotgerberbach 19".

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian, 2010.

Provenance

Signed and dated 31 July 1443 by the scribe Johannes Boikman, in an eight-line colophon immediately following the end of the text: "Deo gratias. Et sic est finis de quo deus est benedictus. Obsecro per christum te qui librum legis istum ut sis scriptoris memor in prece cordis et oris. Scriptus est iste liber per manus lohannis Inder scholen aleas dictus Boickman. Et finitus Anno domini mo cccco xliij in profesto vincula petri", followed by several words in red, all but the first erased: "Orate ..." (f. 158v), the erased words were transcribed by 19th-century owners as "Pro meis liberis liberalissime" (ff. ii, 159). Boikman refers to himself as "in der scholen" ("in the schools"), which suggests that he was studying at university when he wrote the text; this is most likely to have been Cologne University.

The Augustinian nunnery of Marienberg, Neuss, where it was inscribed in the 15th century, "Liber regularisaru m montis uirgine intra nussiam" (f. ii). Marienberg was founded in 1462 so this text, written by an Augustinian author, was doubtless acquired as one of their first indispensable books. The monastery was suppressed at the Secularization of 1802

Johann Heinrich Küpper (1767-1836), last rector of the Neuss grammar school, with a long inscription immediately beneath the Marienberg inscription, beginning "Gehort itzt Joh. Heinrich Küpper von Neuss" and ending with a transcription of the erased part of the colophon (f. ii'). A note on the back flyleaf, apparently copied from fol. ii' when it was more legible than it is today, refers to Küpper and includes the date 18 November 1826; this is quite possibly the date on which Küpper acquired it. In the years following the Seculariztion Küpper is known to have owned a number of manuscripts from Marienberg: identical Marienberg and Küpper inscriptions occur in the unique manuscript of Geert Grote's treatise Contra turriu Traiectorisem, for example. The present manuscript may have had a similar series of owners as the latter, which went after Heinrich Küpper's death to Sibylla Kamper-Küpper (d. 1851); to Josepha Schram-Kamper; to a series of members of the Schram family of Neuss. (On the Schram family and their manuscripts see Rosmarie Siepe, "Das Archiv Schram und die Familie Schram in Neuß," Mitteilungen der Westdeutschen Gesellschaft für Familienkunde, 27 (1975), pp. 47–51). The manuscript was still in the region of Cologne, perhaps in Neuss, when it received its present binding. Inscribed with former shelfmarks "H 3" (f. ii v) and "H 4" (f. i v, in blue pencil).

Les Enluminures, TM 373.