Johannes Platterberger and Dietrich Truchseß, Excerpta chronicarum, part I; Germany (?Nuremberg), 15th century, second half (after 1459)

Title

Johannes Platterberger and Dietrich Truchseß, Excerpta chronicarum, part I; Germany (?Nuremberg), 15th century, second half (after 1459)

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 367

Place of origin

German, Nuremburg (?)

Date

15th century, second half, (soon?) after 1459

Language

German

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper, parchment reinforcing strips in the centre of some quires. Watermark: scales (in circle, the bowls triangular; cf. Piccard Online 116794 etc.), used especially between about 1445 and 1465.

Physical extent

205 leaves

Hands

Hybrida (with several cursive forms) by one hand.

Decoration

One 10-line initial parti-coloured in blue and red, with four reserved dragon designs drawn in ink, interstices and marginals extensions of purple-red penwork, at the beginning of the First Age (fol. i recto)

One 9-line puzzle initial in red and blue with purple-red penwork including a human head in profile, at the beginning of the Fourth Age (fol. Cij recto).

One 7-line initial in blue with purple-red penwork including a human head in profile, at the beginning of the Fifth Age (fol. Cxxx recto).

2- and 3-line initials throughout, alternately red or blue.

A space was left on fol. ix verso for a map, never added.

Binding

15th-century cuir ciselé. Sewn on four double bands laced into wood boards, covered with polished brown leather with cut designs against stippled backgrounds, the front cover with a central panel depicting a man and woman (a marriage proposal?) based on an engraving by Master E.S., approached by a jester(?) with pointed hat and shoes; below them one young man instructing or rebuking another, set against a background of scrolling foliage, and surrounded by panels of foliage and hybrid creatures; the back cover with, in the centre, a man-headed griffon-like creature above a lion, surrounded by foliate panels; each cover with four brass corner pieces, a centre-piece missing from the back cover; metal clasp fittings (the straps missing).

F. A. Schmidt-Künsemüller, Corpus der gotischen Lederschnitteinbände aus dem deutschen Sprachgebiet, Denkmäler der Buchkunst, 4 (Stuttgart, 1980), p. 39 no. 234; L. Ubl, ‘Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 367: Von Kupferstichen und Einbänden – Die Excerpta Chronicarum’, Oxford German Studies, 46 (2017), 241–47.

Acquisition

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834.

Provenance

1459 is the date of the text, not necessarily of this copy (pace Watson).

Unidentified acquisition(?) note in ink, ‘S(?) 19. 8 ctbr(?) 94’ (i.e. 19 October [17]94?) (front pastedown, lower left corner)

Unidentified bookseller, with his pencilled price-code ‘nm/u’ above ‘D’ (back pastedown).

Francis Douce, 1757–1834, with his bookplate (front pastedown).

Title

A general Chronicle of history from the Creation, the first part, extending to the birth of Christ

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 367

Summary

Excerpted from various authors who are named. The preface states 'diss buch ist genant Excerpta Cronicarum, ein versampnung lusperlicher sachen tat vnd geschichten gezogen aus vil Cronicken. vnd ist gemachtt worden des jars ... von Cristi ... gepurtt Tawsent vierhundertt vnd ym Newnundfunfftzigisten iaren des tags Mercury der funfften Nonas July der do was xj tag ...'; and that it is written to the honour of Nuremberg. The text beg. 'Der Almechtig ewig Got.' A table of chapters precedes, and an alphabetical index and a few biblical pedigrees follow. The 1840 Catalogue mistook the words 'zu zellen' of the preface as = 'in villa de cella.' See Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften (1896), p. 180.

On the front cover is a large allegorical design of a man and woman, a hunter with dog, etc.: on the other are two large animals, one with a human head. The front cover is facsimiled, and the design described, in W. S. Brassington's Historic Bindings in the Bodleian Library, (1891), pl. v.

Date

written in A.D. 1459, in Nuremberg (?)

Language

German

Physical facet

On paper, with a few coloured capitals, etc., binding: hand-stamped brown leather on boards, with brass ornamented corners and bosses, contemporary German work

Physical extent

205 leaves, in double columns