Tag: 4. Juli 2011

http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2011/western-manuscripts-and-miniatures

129 erlesene Lots, aber nichts auf Deutsch (wenngleich etliches aus Deutschland z.B. Vorbesitz Leander van Ess).

Bei Nr. 107 heißt es peinlicherweise Rottenburg statt Rottenbuch, das sollte bei solchen Preisen nicht vorkommen!

Die Stücke stammen aus der Bergendal-Collection. So ist Lot 28 Bergendal MS. 115
http://www3.sympatico.ca/bergendalcoll/ms115.htm

The sale of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures on 5 July is the largest for many years. It includes over a hundred manuscripts from the famous Bergendal Collection, of Toronto, mainly of monastic texts from England, France and Italy. Complete Carolingian and Romanesque manuscripts are almost unobtainable these days: the group includes 22 books from before the thirteenth century, almost 25% of the selection. Here are medieval authors as rare and evocative as Smaragdus of St-Mihiel, Defensor of Ligugé, Anselm of Canterbury (three lots, no less), Bonizo of Sutri, and Alulfus of Tournai.
There are manuscripts from the abbeys of St-Julien in Tours, St-Michel-sur-Meurthe, and the Carmelites in Paris; and from the Cistercians Morimondo and Chiaravalle della Columba; from the abbey of St Bavo in Ghent; from the Dominicans of Augsburg and the church of Warburg; and perhaps from the abbeys of Westminster and Reading. The sale also includes illuminated miniatures from the collection of Robert and Dorothy Senior (1917-1994 and 1930-2009) and books as remarkable as an unrecorded Romanesque illuminated Psalter from Trier, an extraordinary Bohemian Ovid, and the Books of Solomon illuminated for Anne de Polignac (1495-1554).

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=4&intObjectID=5460639&sid=

JOHANNES VON GMUNDEN (c.1380-1443), Calendar, in German, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Nuremberg], 1496
199 x 160mm. 30 leaves: 1-310, catchword on final verso of 2, COMPLETE, between approx. 26 and 36 lines written in black ink in a Kanzleischrift, signed by the scribe Paulsen Vischer, headings in red, large initials in red or blue, tables, TWELVE RED FRAMED CALENDAR ROUNDELS, PICTORIAL DIAGRAM OF THE POSITIONS OF THE MOON, VOLVELLE WITH THE POSITIONS OF THE SUN, TWO FULL-PAGE MINIATURES OF ZODIAC MAN AND VEIN MAN, small Crucifixion miniature pasted inside upper cover (wear to margins, roundel on f.13 smudged, Crucifixion miniature rubbed). Contemporary vellum wallet binding with later gilt stamped monogram PVP for Paulus von Praun (some wear, short split to fold, cracks to lower cover, one with small loss). Red solander box.

THE RE-EMERGENCE OF A HANDSOME COPY OF THE GMUNDISCH CALENDAR, A SIGNED WORK BY THE TEACHER OF JOHANN NEUDORFER WITH A PROVENANCE FROM THE PRAUNSCHE KABINETT

PROVENANCE:
1. An origin in Nuremberg is indicated by the language and the liturgical calendar with, in red, St Kunigunda (3 March and 9 September) and St Sebald (19 August). The scribe, Paulsen Vischer, was aware when he dated the colophon 9 September 1496 that it was St Kunigunda’s day, ‘Hie hat der Gmunndisch Calendar ain ende. Got will uns zugut alleding zum pesten wennden. Und durch mich paulsen vischer geschriben unnd vollenndet ain Freitag der da was der Neundt tag des monets September daran auch was Sannct Kunigunden tag. Anno domini Lxxxxvj’, f.29. He is presumably the Paulus Vischer, Kanzleischrieiber, named as his teacher, his lieben Herrn und getreuen Lehrer, by the great Johann Neudorfer of Nuremberg, the determining figure in the evolution of German script and letterforms (G. Lochner ed., Des Johann Neudorfer Schreib- und Rechenmeisters zu Nürnberg. Nachrichten von Künstleren und Werkleuten daselbst aus dem Jahre 1547, 1875, p.181). Vischer, who died in 1538, is not known to have left other work: this Calendar shows him in 1496 writing an elegant Chancery script with decorative initials in blue and red.
2. H or M Maufig or Maufis 1502: written inside lower cover.
3. Paulus II Praun of Nuremberg (1548-1616), responsible for the famed Praunsche Kabinett: his signature on f.1. Praun’s collecting centred on Bologna, where he worked for the family firm, and Nuremberg, to which he frequently returned. His collections were preserved by the family until 1801: inventory of 1719, no 1738 (K. Achilles-Syndram, Die Kunstsammlung des Paulus Praun: die Inventäre von 1616 und 1719, 1994, p.350); his books were stamped PVP for Paulus von Praun (see no 216 in Kunst des Sammelns, Das Praunsche Kabinett, Meisterwerke von Dürer bis Caracci, 1994, p.382-3); J.F. Frauenholz, Catalogue des estampes avec une partie des dessins, de manuscrits et de livres … apartenant ci-devant à M. Paul de Praun à Nuremberg, 1802, no 1569.
4. Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1750-1806): no 315 in his list of purchases from Frauenberg (Achilles-Syndram, p.41). Apparently neither of the two manuscripts he bought was retained for the ducal collection, now incorporated in the Kunstsammlungen Veste Coburg.
5. Franz Ronge, Königsberg in Franken: his book stamp on f.1. The Bürgermeister of Königsberg in the 1870s of this name owned and restored the birthplace of the astronomer Regiomontanus (1436-1476), as well as being instrumental in the saving of Burg Königsberg.
6. Antiquariat J. Halle, Munich, Katalog, 1903, quoted by R. Klug, Der Astronom Johannes von Gmunden und sein Kalendar, 1912, p.28. The slightly mistranscribed colophon was repeated in subsequent publications.

Zur Handschrift, die der Handschriftencensus nicht führt:
https://www.google.de/search?num=100&hl=de&safe=off&tbm=bks&q=Gmunndisch+Calender
https://www.google.de/search?num=100&hl=de&safe=off&tbm=bks&q=%22Paulsen+Vischer%22

Update: Die Christie’s-Bilder nun auch auf Commons

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Johannes_von_Gmunden

Rudolf Klug 1912 S. 28 erwähnt die Hs.
https://www.archive.org/details/55Jahres-berichtDesKkGymnasiumsZuLinz1906 (Seite 563 des PDFs)

In der Arcana-Collection bringt Christie’s das Gebetbuch einer Nürnberger Patrizierfamilie zum Aufruf:

Hans V Imhof (1461-1522): The colophon on f.334v records the writing and completion of the manuscript in Antwerp in 1511. It has been generally accepted that the effaced coat of arms on f.25, discernible if viewed from the reverse against strong light, belongs to the Imhof, one of the patrician families of Nuremberg. The presence of the Suffrage to St Sebald, patron saint of Nuremberg and the name saint of the church where the family had their burial chapel is consistent with this. The importance given to John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, both the subjects of miniatures and devotions, suggest that the original owner was named Johannes or Hans. The Imhof family had amassed immense wealth from the spice trade and had offices throughout Europe, including Antwerp where the manuscript was written, and for many years until his death in 1522 the firm was headed by the merchant and banker Hans V.

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=5460641