Beschreibung:

PRAYERBOOK, in Dutch and Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern Netherlands, Antwerp, final quarter 15th century] A prayerbook, whose personalised content reflects female devotional practices. Apparently commissioned for a woman resident in Antwerp – whose image appears in the prayerbook and for whose use the customised selection of prayers and liturgical texts would have been made – the present manuscript is a testament to the fusion of Netherlandish and French stylistic influences. 119 x 82mm. 102 leaves, lacking at least one leaf, 14 lines, ruled space: 74 x 52mm. Six large miniatures and ten small miniatures, six-line decorated initials opening certain texts, illuminated initials throughout (some thumbing to the borders, occasional soiling, slightly cropped). 19th-century vellum over pasteboard (lacking clasp). Provenance : This manuscript was made for a female user, the supplicant in contemporary dress depicted kneeling before Christ in the miniature on f.31v; St Barbara is accorded a full-page miniature in the suffrages, offering a clue either to the name of the owner, perhaps, or her devotional preference. The calendar, for the use of Antwerp (as indicated by the inclusion of Sts George and Barbara in red), offers a location for production and use – ‘Lefebvre’, 1722 (ownership inscription on f.61). Content: ff.1-11 Calendar, use of Antwerp, in Latin and Dutch (lacking first leaf); ff.12v-23 Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany, in Latin; ff.32- Devotional sequence, in Dutch with some rubrication in Latin, including a collect (ff.32-35); communion prayers (ff.36-37); abridged Hours of the Cross, in the translation of Geert Grote (ff.39-43); Seven orations of St Gregory (ff.43v-45), Seven Last Words of Christ (ff.46-50), Stabat mater and an indulgenced prayer to the Virgin (f.51-55); indulgenced prayer on the Passion and further prayers, many of these Marian devotions, some indulgenced (ff.57-83); ff.85-102 Suffrages. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows: David in Prayer (f.12v); Christ blessing with female supplicant (f.31v); Agony in the Garden (f.38v); Flagellation (f.56v); St Michael slaying the dragon (f.84v); and St Barbara (f.99v). The small miniatures are on ff.36; 36v; 43v; 87; 87v; 90v; 91; 92; 93v; 95.