Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Bavarian State Library Munich) - Clm

Latin Handwritings

Grundsignatur (collection shelfmark) Clm - Codices latini monacenses

Clm 1004

Necrologium Minoritarum Ratisponensium

Jahr- und Totenbuch des Minoritenklosters in Regensburg (Yearbook and necrology of the Minorite monastery in Ratisbon)

The yearbook and necrology (ca, 1460) of the order of Minorites in Ratisbon contains entries up to the year 1532. The manuscript consists of 49 parchment sheets (36 x 27 cm, 25.3 x 16 cm). The main feasts and the calendar are rubricated, while the kalendae or calends (first of the month) and some initials are executed in blue. The book cover bears the following inscription all round "liber anniversariorum procuratus per fratrem johannes rab gardianum ratisponensem MCCCCLXII“. The book contains three miniatures, which are attributed to Berthold Furtmeyr (fol. 18v , fol. 24v , fol. 36r). The manuscript became the possession of the city of Ratisbon in 1542. In the years of 1811/12 it was taken from the holdings of the städtische Bibliothek (municipal library) and transferred to Munich.

Clm 13022

Missale secundum rubricam et breviarium Ratisbonense

Regensburger Missale (Ratisbon Missal)

The Ratisbon Missal comprises 275 parchment sheets of a size of 38.5 x 29.5 cm. The text is formatted in a two-column page layout. The manuscript contains nine miniatures, which were executed by Berthold Furtmeyr between 1470 and 1480. Apart from a full-page canon table (37,7 x 27,5 cm, fol. 164v) and two historiated illuminated initials (0.9 x 0.9 cm, fol. 9r, fol. 165r) the missal, which was probably created for Bishop Heinrich IV von Absberg (b. 1409, r. from 1465 up to his death in 1492), comprises six initials with scroll ornament. In 1812, the manuscript was ceded by the Regensburger Stadtbibliothek (Ratisnbon Municipal Library) to Munich.

Clm 13022, fol. 9r

The A-Initial with Mary and the Child displays Mary wearing a long dress with a delicate red pattern and, in accordance with iconographical tradition, a blue cloak. The Child sitting on her right arm is naked. Mary gazes at the Child and both their heads touch, while the Child seems to huddle His cheek softly against that of his mother and their eyes meet. The Child has His left arm wrapped wound his mother’s head and is thus firmly holding on to her. He wears a halo. The head of Mary is adorned by a crown with halo. In the upper part of the background, the heads of the two figures emit rays of golden lines, which are enclosed by the initial’s inner contour. Mother and Child seem to be within a protective frame in the centre of the dark blue initial, the robust shape of which is in some contrast to the delicately drawn figures. Despite the heavy shape of the initial, the internal space of the letter’s body is covered by curved lines. Furtmeyr shows here a Maria Eleousa, i.e. a particularly human and intimate image of the Madonna, originally created towards the end of the early Byzantine period. By means of a never surpassed intimacy, it became a very popular version of the depiction of the Madonna and Child. The Greek word Eleousa translates as Madonna of compassion or of emotion. The label comes from the idea that Mary ever since the presentation at the temple had foreseen her son’s tragic destiny (see Luke 2.35) and, therefore felt deepest compassion for him.

Clm 13022, fol. 164v

On the single canon table of the Regensburger Missale (Ratisbon Missal) the crucified Christ is depicted. Mary and the Apostle John stand next to a Cross in the shape of the Greek letter tau, which fits exactly into the pictorial space. The whole composition seems strictly symmetrical. Mary and John stand equidistantly on either side of the wooden pole. Mary, wrapped in her blue cloak, crosses her arms across her chest and gazes sadly to the ground. Her suffering is clearly expressed in her features. John instead folds his hand in prayer underneath his long green and red cloak and directs his gaze towards Christ hanging from the Cross. Christ seems disproportionately large in comparison to the other two figures. His head is surrounded by a halo and seems already to have dropped to one side without life. His entire body sheds blood. The loincloth is immovably tied to the body and supports the stark overall impression of the image. The dark ground hardly varies at all, whereas the bright red background consists of dark ornamental spirals and scrolls in contrast to what happens in the foreground. The entire scene is surrounded by a wide, shaded blue frame, which makes do with barely curved scroll-type decoration on three sides of the frame that pick up the colours of the image.

Clm 13022, fol. 165r

The depiction of the Man of Sorrows is a Te Igitur initial. Christ rises from a rectangular sarcophagus made of light green stone and raises both arms. The Man of Sorrows is thus a preter-historical (“überhistorisch”) image of Christ Sacrificed that encompasses the Passion as well as the repetition of the sacrifice in the Eucharist. It includes the motifs of the Resurrection of Christ, of the Life of Christ and of the Pensive Christ. From the Bible the prophecies about the suffering of the Son of Man in the songs of the Suffering Servant of the book Isaiah may be applied to him (Isaiah 42,1–9; 49,1–9c; 50,4–9; 52,13–53,12). Christ is shown both alive and crucified. The raised arms and the entire upper body are in contrast to the bleeding wounds that cover his body and refer to his death. Furtmeyr uses the oldest version of the depiction of the Ecce Homo, which continues into the sixteenth century and in which Christ may be seen in half-figure and with a slightly inclined head. This depiction is of a Man of Sorrows showing His wounds. He displays the marks of crucifixion in his raised hands, from which blood flows into the sarcophagus.

Clm 14004

Philippus de Bergamo (Giacomo Filippo Forèsti, 1434-1520)

Speculum regiminis
Tabula Historiarum

The manuscript was produced by the Eichstätt scribe (inscription by the scribe on fol. 224r) Leonhard Heff(en) in ca. 1475/76 in Ratisbon. Within the same timeframe, it was illuminated by Berthold Furtmeyr with ten initials with scroll decoration. The body of the book consists of 225 paper sheets (43.7 x 28.8 cm). The illuminations were executed in opaque watercolours. The text is written in cursive script and arranged in a two-column page layout. The manuscript used to belong to the monastic library of St. Emmeram in Ratisbon.

Wolfgang Neiser, Ratisbon

Clm 14045

Missale festivum

Missal by Petrus Krüger for the St. Emmeram Abott Ulrich Pettendorfer (r. 1402-1423)
Includes: canon table by Berthold Furtmeyr, fol. 32v

The manuscript of 220 parchment sheets (0.35 x 0.26 cm) was probably created in 1406 by the scribe Petrus Krüger, who probably hailed from Wroclaw, for Abbot Ulrich Pettendorfer (d. 1426) of St. Emmeram in Ratisbon. Patron and scribe are mentioned in an inscription on fol. 216r. The focus on the Benedictine “Eigenfeiern” (feasts not included in the general religious calendar) as well as of the bishopric Ratisbon in the calendar of the missal make an attribution to St. Emmeram likely. The text is laid out in one column in textura script with categorisation. The manuscript was illustrated by the same hand with three full-page images, 53 historiated illustrated initials and five fleuronée (decorated with flowers) letters are executed in opaque watercolours with gold. The original canon table (fol. 32v) was replaced between 1480 and 1490 by a Crucifixion created by Berthold Furtmeyr. Part of the former canon table, the Sudarium of St. Victoria, was nonetheless preserved and glued onto the lower rim of the new image. The manuscript was preserved in the monastic library of St. Emmeram until secularisation and came to Munich in 1811.

The canon table was created between 1480 and 1490 by Berthold Furtmeyr and is as fol. 32v glued to the joint of the cut-out preceding sheet. The Crucifixion measures 0.35 x 0.25 cm and is executed on parchment in opaque watercolours with gilding. The small Vera Ikon ("sudarium of St Veronica") on the lower rim was also glued on. The so-called Krüger Missal, which was probably executed around 1406, belonged to the property of the monastery of St. Emmeram in Ratisbon.

Before a hilly landscape with golden back, a Crucifixion is depicted. Christ on the cross appears in the company of several people who are distinguished by a halo. This canon table is the only one, in which Furtmeyr raised the number of the people coordinated to the Crucifixion up to five. On the right are Mary, John and Mary Magdalen kneeling on the ground. On the left stand two women underneath the cross. Both wear long, coloured garments with a pronounced drapery folds and hold their hands folded as if in prayer. Only Mary may be identified by the iconography and in this context, the Mary Magdalen. Her expression does not seem sad. The delicately modelled faces seem to bear a quiet expression. The gaze is directed towards the Christ nailed to the cross. The two people on the right picture margin seem equally serene. Mary in her blue cloak holds her head slightly inclined and looks on with a sense of compassion. Only Mary Magdalen clings agitatedly to the pole of the cross. The tau-shaped wooden beams were exactly fitted into the pictorial frame. Before the cross are a skull as well as additional human bones, an imaginative translation of the word Golgotha or Calvary, which in translation means place of the skull (John 19, 17). In the back, rolling hills can be seen before a bright golden background into which they almost seem to melt. By means of the complicated differentiation of light and shadow, the body of the Crucified contrasts with the ground and emerges from the painting almost three-dimensionally. The white, already bloodstained loincloth flutters on both sides of the tortured body. In part, this depiction is a metaphor for breathing one’s last breath, while Furtmeyr uses it as well to show off his artistic skills.

The scene is framed by an elaborate ornamental scrollwork. The shapes and fantastic constructs probably owe less to nature than to the artist’s memory. In numerous facets, the colourful flowers and scrolls cover the frame. In the centre of the lower moulding of the frame, a small miniature with the sudarium of St. Veronica is glued, Veronica received the image of the Lord on the sudarium at the Via Dolorosa, when she offers Him the cloth to remove sweat and blood from His face. Ever since then, the sudarium bears the portrait, either wearing the crown of thorns or, as in this case, the idealised features. The miniature was skilfully embedded into the decorated frame and is ornamented with rhombuses and lines.

Wolfgang Neiser, Ratisbon

Clm 15708 - 15712

Salzburger Missale (Salzburg Missals)

The Salzburg Missal created between the years 1478 and 1489 is certainly the most important work of Berthold Furtmeyr. The five-volume manuscript was originally produced for Prince Archbishop Bernhard von Rohr (1421-1487) and comprises, as a full missal, 22 texts of the mass, which follow the calendar of feasts of the Salzburg bishopric. The multi-volume work includes altogether 680 parchment sheets (ca. 38 x 27 cm). The layout is in one column. The miniature and full-page images are executed in opaque watercolour with gilding; in some cases, silver is added. At the beginning of each mass and at the start of the Eucharistic Prayer is a full-page miniature.

• Volume I (after 1482) contains three forms of the mass with eight full-page images, two of which display the coat of arms (fol. 2v, fol. 93r) of the Salzburg Prince Archbishop Johann III Beckenschlager, (ca. 1439-1489) as well as thirteen miniatures.
• Volume II (after 1482) contains four forms of the mass with twelve full-page images, one of which presents the coat of arms of Johann III Beckenschlager (fol. 2v) and 24 miniatures.
• Volume III, begun in 1478 by Ulrich Schreier (ca. 1430-ca 1490) in Salzburg and completed by Berthold Furtmeyr in 1489, contains five forms of the mass with nine full-page images, one of which presents the coat of arms of the Salzburg Prince Archbishop Count Friedrich V von Schaunberg (d. 1494, fol. 2v), and 19 miniatures. Thirteen of the miniatures can be attributed to Ulrich Schreier.
• Volume IV (after 1481) contains five forms of the mass with eleven full-page images, one of which presents the coat of arms of Johann III Beckenschlager (fol. 2v) and 17 miniatures.
• Volume V after 1478 to 1481) contains three forms of the mass with six full-page images, one which presents a coat of arms of Johann III Beckenschlager (fol. 2v) as well as a coat of arms of Bernhard von Rohr (fol. 89r) and eleven miniatures. Equally, on fol. 89r the manuscript bears an inscription of the illuminator.

Apart from the rich illustration of the manuscript, the eye of the beholder is caught by the luxuriance of the scroll motifs, half way between a naturalistic depiction and fantastic approach to the surreal.

Up to 1801, the manuscript was part of the Archiepiscopal Library in Salzburg. During the French occupation of Salzburg, the missal may have been part of looted books taken to the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Each volume bears the red stamp of the French National Library. After Salzburg had become part of Bavaria in 1810, the Bavarian government sought the restitution of the manuscript from 1814. The missal was handed back on 29 September 1815 and remained in Munich even after Salzburg’s transition to Austria.

The missal, which displays a high degree of representational value and of the emphasis on the identity of the archbishops of Salzburg as "Primas Germaniae", was used during the celebration of Pontifical High Masses. Changes of or additions to the rite were noted down on small pieces of paper glued to the missal. The use of the missal over the course of a longer period, possibly into the seventeenth century, can be assumed.

Wolfgang Neiser, Ratisbon

Clm 23024

Lectionale de Sanctis

The lectionary for selected saints’ feasts was illuminated by Berthold Furtmeyr between 1490 and 1500. To the manuscript that originally consisted of 129 parchment sheets (56.8 x 38.5 cm) two paper sheets were later added with glue (fol. 129 and fol. 130). The texts are laid out in two columns. The lectionary comprises ten historiated illuminated initials with scroll decoration. The light-coloured leather binding bears the date 1526. Given the emphasis of the local feast days of the Ratisbon bishopric and of the saints of the Benedictine order it may be assumed that it originated in one of the Benedictine monasteries in Ratisbon.

Wolfgang Neiser, Regensburg

Clm 23032

Missale, cum notis musicis et cum figuris literisque pictis

Graduale

The manuscript made from parchment towards the end of the fifteenth century in Ratisbon comprises 211 sheets. It includes eight neume lines with text. The page is laid out in one column and the text rendered in textura script. The choral chants follow the ecclesiastical year and form the reference point for the 15 historiated illuminated initials with scroll decoration.

The painting of the miniatures in opaque watercolours is closely related to the images in the Lectiones de Sanctis (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München [Bavarian State Library], Clm 23024), so that it cannot be excluded that Berthold Furtmeyr executed these illuminations. The origins of the manuscript are unknown.

Clm 26670 and Clm 26898

Bibel der Regensburger Dominikaner (Bible of the Ratisbon Dominicans)

The two-volume manuscript of the Bible was created in c.1450 in Ratisbon and had once belonged to the book collections of the Regensburger Dominikanerkonventes (Ratisbon Dominican Monastery) founded in 1229. The inscriptions Clm 26670 fol. 1r "Conventus ratisponensis" and Clm 26898 fol. 1r "Conventus ratisponensis/ Ord. Pred. Dm." attest to its belonging to the library.

The Latin Bible was executed on paper and comprises in the first volume 372 and in the second volume 373 sheets (0.32 x 0.22 cm). The text is laid out in two columns and rendered in bastarda script. The watermarks (tower and cross on trimount), which may only be attested between 1444 and 1447, in combination with stylistic features make a date of creation in c.1450 likely. At the beginning of each book of the Bible is a miniature executed in the size of one column as pen drawing and in opaque watercolour. The 38 miniatures look mannerist and differ in their pictorial invention from the traditional type of Bible illustrations. The miniatures are related to the “Severustafel” (Severus Panel; 1456), which today is preserved at the Diözesanmuseum St. Ulrich in Regensburg (Diocesan Museum of St. Ulrich in Ratisbon).

The provenance of the manuscript in the collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) remains unclear to this day, beyond the assumption that the two-volume work arrived during the secularisation at the Regensburger Stadtbibliothek (Ratisbon Municipal Library) to be handed over to Munich at the end of the nineteenth century.

Wolfgang Neiser, Regensburg