Mitteleuropäische Schulen V (ca. 1410 - 1450) Band 1 und Band 2

The volume "Mitteleuropäische Schulen V" of the series "Die Illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek" comprises all the manuscripts from within the vast stock holdings of the ÖNB which originate from Vienna or Lower Austria and which were produced between 1410 and 1450. The catalogue consists of 179 items and of about the same number of lesser items simply listed. This list constitutes an innovation absolutely necessary to cope with the abundant material. Within the catalogued manuscripts a differentiation was necessary as well. Complete descriptions were given to objects of major importance, while lesser objects featuring decorations only were provided with less detailed entries. This differentiation has already proven itself convenient in the preceding volume in order to balance detailed description and efficiency. A team of illuminators and a specialist of penwork (Fleuronnée), who was the scribe as well, make up the starting point of the catalogue`s first part. Martinus opifex, the "Albrechtsminiator", Illuminator Michael and the "Meister der Klosterneuburger Missalien" worked together to illuminate a volume of the Legenda aurea and a monumental prayerbook, both produced for the German King Friedrich IV (the later emperor Friedrich III) (Kat. 1 and 2). The first section describes 15 manuscripts in which the named illuminators were active as well. The 332 miniatures of a German version of Historia destructionis Troiae (Kat. 15) constitute a special highlight, being the vastest pictorial program of this catalogue. The prayer book for Duke Albrecht V (for a short period the first Habsburg monarch to be at the same time both German, Boehemian and Hungarian king) is closely connected to Austrian history and is decorated with major ornament, initials and miniatures (Kat. 13). The second section does not only contain interesting individual specimen, some featuring extensive pictorial programs (e. g. Kat. 59 und 167) but also noteworthy groups of penwork manuscripts which bring together objects combinable only thanks to the results of art-historical research. Furthermore, the presented groups exemplify the rewarding combination of research in proveniences and art-history. Two manuscripts featuring major early prints need to be mentioned (Kat. 16 und 79). They delineate a border in manuscript research because printed decoration and hand written texts are combined. These two objects point towards the methodological challenges painted decoration in incunabula printing will provide for forthcoming volumes cataloguing items from 1450 onwards. Important features of the present volume - as has already been the case in the preceding volumes - are an exactly defined terminology describing the variant forms of decoration as precisely as possible and an interdisciplinary approach. Illuminated manuscripts pass on texts in Latin and German dealing with different branches of medieval knowledge due to universities developing more differentiated and specific scientific orientations during the late Middle Ages. The necessity of having to deal with watermarks and the history of bookbindery, with palaeography, heraldry and other historic "Hilfswissenschaften" demands a broad overview. A gradual (Kat. 23) was catalogued by one co-worker together with a musicologist of another project run by the Austrian Academy of Sciences to bring together the special knowledge of the two disciplines. The collection of the Austrian National Library is by far the most important in the field dealt with. A catalogue cannot possibly substitute a comprehensive study of book illumination. But without doubt, the presented volume forms a cornerstone whereupon all subsequent research will be based on. The cataloguing of primary sources will not only be of great use to art-historians but also help "cultural historians" understand the foundations of their research.