Andächtiges Myrrhenbüschlein; Prayers, including texts by Johannes von Indersdorf and Johann von Neumarkt. Germany (Swabia), 16th century (c.1520–1550)

Title

Andächtiges Myrrhenbüschlein; Prayers, including texts by Johannes von Indersdorf and Johann von Neumarkt. Germany (Swabia), 16th century (c.1520–1550)

Shelfmark

MS. Germ. e. 23

Place of origin

Swabia, Germany.

Date

c.1520–c.1550

Language

Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Paper, in sedecimo; with a pair of watermarks, a crown with a double-contoured hoop studded with pearls, above which is a double-contoured cross, above which is a single-contoured star, in use c.1520–c.1550 (Piccard-Online nos. 54278–54729). A more precise identification not possible on account of the multiple cuts produced by sedecimo format.

Physical extent

287 leaves

Hands

An irregular hybrida currens, fols. 1r–24v, 26r–39v, 58r–60v, and 272v–278r.

Semihybrida currens, with unusually elongated ascenders, 25r–26r, 40r–57v, 61r–272v, where fols. 99r–139r might conceivably be written by a distinct, third hand.

Decoration

One- and two-line red penwork initials.

Rubrication throughout.

Binding

Bound in brown blind-tooled leather (binding stamps resist present identification) over wooden boards with paper pastedowns, sewn on three cords, with functional metal clasp. 110 85

Acquisition

Purchased from Les Enluminures, April 2021.

Provenance

David Gottfried Schöber (1696–1778), his inscription on front pastedown: Dieses Ms. welches ungefehr Aº1480 von einer Nonne in einem Schwäbischen Kloster geschrieben, ist der Kirschkauischen Bibliothek gewidmet. / David Gottfried Schöber / Gera A. 11 September 1761. Schöber, a merchant who was elected mayor of Gera in Thüringen in 1760, was a noted hymnologist with a significant collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts, on which he drew for his studies and textual editions (see Online Resources below). A set of some 30 German prayerbooks in small formats, mostly from Swabian and Franconian nunneries of the Dominican Order, were acquired from his collection at auction in 1779 by Prince Kraft Ernst zu Oettingen-Wallerstein (1748–1802), and are now held by the Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg (see Karin Schneider, Deutsche Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg: die Signaturengruppen Cod. I. 3 und Cod. III. 1, Wiesbaden, 1988, pp. 11–12).

Kirschkau, Thüringen, Bibliothek der Jesus-Kirche. Schöber’s inscription of donation (see no. 2 above) indicates that the manuscript entered the library of the parish church in the village of Kirschkau, in Thüringen about 40 km south-south-east of Gera. That library can be documented with certainty from 1704, and the donation of this manuscript in 1761 was likely connected to the rebuilding of the church in the years 1751–53 by Count Heinrich XII Reuß zu Schleiz, who was also responsible for the copying and donation of manuscripts to the library in the years 1756–58.

Unidentified German collection, shelfmark in pencil on front pastedown: Regal IX, Fach 3.