Illuminated Manuscripts and Incunabula in the OÖLB, Part 2

The aim of the present project is to continue the work on the scientific catalogue of illuminated me-diaeval manuscripts and incunabula held at the Upper Austrian Library (OÖLB) in Linz, an under-taking which was begun with the project N P 18282 G06. While in the previous project the resear-chers have been cataloguing the illuminated volumes dating from 1450-1530 which were decora-ted in Austria and Bavaria, the material to be investigated in the extension of the project consists of 1) the illuminated manuscripts and incunabula dating from the same period, but decorated outside Austria and Bavaria, 2) the incunabula illuminanated in the monastery of Suben and 3) the illumi-nated manuscripts dating from 1400-1450. The results of the project will be presented in the form of a printed catalogue which will in all probability be published by the Austrian Academy of Sci-ences. As regards the method of work applied in the previous project and its extension, the re-searchers basically follow the rules established in the projects concerned with the cataloguing of the illuminated manuscripts and incunabula kept at the Austrian National Library (ÖNB). Following this method, a precise codicological description of the volumes is provided, extensive research is done on their bindings, the history of their provenance is closely investigated and their textual contents are determined precisely. The main emphasis, however, is put on the description and art-historical analysis of the decoration in the concerned volumes; it provides the main basis for the localization and dating of each item. Inasmuch as the the mode of description developed for the manuscripts had to be re-adapted to the incunabula, a type of book with specific characteristics, the present project introduces a methodological novelty. Of the research done on the project considerable scientific progress is to be expected that is relevant not only to researchers into mediaeval book-production but also to art historians, to whom gradually more and more works of art are made known and who are thus provided with a more and more rich material for comparison, to historians dealing with the Middle Ages (especially in Upper Austria), to researchers into palaeography, me-diaeval literature, mediaeval liturgy etc. This scientific progress is guaranteed 1) through the publishing of technical data related to the manuscripts and incunabula (description of the outward appearance of the items) as well as of historical facts (mainly concerning illuminators and former owners), 2) through the art- historical analysis of the decoration in the described items and the sub-sequent classification of the latter and 3) through the synthetical interpretation of the gained information. The results of this interpretation will be presented in the commenting parts of the de-scriptions and in introductory texts preceding the description of particular groups of manuscripts and incunabula. These texts will be dealing with subjects such as the stylistic development of a particular illuminator, the development of book-production in a given monastery or town, the or-ganisation of workshops or the history of a particular collection. By contrast, the general introduc-tion constituting the first part of the catalogue will contain the information gained by the examination of the processed stock as a whole.

The aim of the project was to draw up a scientific catalogue of the illuminated late-gothic manuscripts and the illuminated incunabula and early prints held at the Upper Austrian State Library in Linz (OÖLB). While the items executed between c. 1450 and c. 1540 in Austria and Bavaria have been dealt with in a previous project, the present extension to project was concerned with the books of the same period made outside these two regions and with the manuscripts of the first half of the 15th c. The Linz projects are to be seen as an important contribution to the large-scale cataloguing campaign the long-term objective of which is to draw up catalogues of as many collections of illuminated mediaeval books in Austria as possible. The nucleus of this undertaking is formed by the projects concerned with the describing of the illuminated manuscripts and incunabula of the Austrian National Library, and in a second group of projects the holdings of the University Library in Graz are being catalogued. Therefore, the OÖLB in Linz is the third state library in Austria to have its collection of illuminated books processed. It is planned to publish the results of the two related projects in the series Die Illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln in Österreich edited by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The scientific results obtained in the project can be valued on two different levels. Firstly, research on each single item progressed greatly, shedding new light on the contents of the holdings of the OÖLB. Through a careful art-historical analysis of the decoration of each book, but also taking into account all its other features, the researchers succeeded in determine the respective time and place of origin of the investigated volumes and in many cases even to attribute them to a particular workshop or artist. Secondly, conclusions of a more general kind could be drawn from the rich information gathered. By the synthetical interpretation of the findings, new insights into the late-mediaeval book-production in Southern Germany and Austria, but also in certain other regions, have been gained. Thus it was possible to attribute some of the books to such renowned artists as Johannes Bämler, Berthold Furtmeyr or Antonio Maria de Villafora, not to forget Ulrich Schreier, the Meister des Friedrichsbreviers or the Lehrbüchermeister who have been investigated in the previous project. In addition, for some illuminators hitherto unknown to whom groups of works could be attributed new names were created (Meister des Johannes Staindl, Meister des Wiguleus Fröschl etc.). Other volumes could be localized to Leipzig, Speyer, Regensburg or Kaisheim, but also to Paris or Rome. Finally, new insight was gained on the book-illumination in towns such as Augsburg and Nuremberg, but also in certain monasteries such as Suben or Garsten. Beyond that, important new knowledge was obtained on the modes of production of the incunabula; as a matter of fact, the Linz catalogue is the first catalogue of illuminated items in Austria to contain detailed descriptions of these earliest printed books and also to extensively discuss their decoration that was often serialized. In summary, the work done in the project can be qualified as essential ground-laying research that has brought to light a considerable amount of new data and historical facts relating to the mediaeval holdings of the OÖLB as well as valuable new insights on the field of research. In this respect, the research done in the project can be qualified as innovative and ground-breaking. As regards the method of work, the researchers closely followed the guidelines established in the Vienna project. However, the Linz project also introduced a methodological novelty, as the model of description had to be adapted to the incunabula, a type of books of its own differing in many respects from the hand-written volumes.