the Illuminated Manuscripts, Incunabula and Early Prints

The present catalogue, written by Katharina Hranitzky, Michaela Schuller-Juckes and Susanne Rischpler (with the assistance of Anna Reisenbichler) and entitled The Illuminated Manuscripts, Incunabula and Early Prints from the Upper Austrian State Library in Linz: Manuscripts and Early Printed Books 14401540. Part I: Austria, Passau, Italy comprises descriptions of 89 manuscripts and early printed books with painted decoration from the collection of the former Studienbibliothek. The first part of the each catalogue text consists of extensive information on the outward appearance of the item presented. It is followed by a detailed description and classification of its binding and by a precise reconstruction of its provenance, including biographical data of previous owners. The descriptions of the manuscripts also contain a paragraph dealing with their respective textual contents. The main part of the texts is dedicated to the books decoration. The specific stylistic features of the painted initials and miniatures are exposed and the represented subjects and motives explained. On the basis of this analysis and by means of comparison with other works the time and place of its origin are determined as precisely as possible. Finally, the catalogue is completed by essay-like texts summarizing the formal characteristics of certain groups of works or retracing the development of book-illumination in particular towns or abbeys. The Linz catalogue is innovative inasmuch as it contains detailed descriptions not only of manuscripts but also of printed books, more than 80% of the catalogued items actually being incunabula. As a matter of fact, in the second half of the 15th century, the incunable as a new type of book gradually superseded the manuscript, the often large printed editions reaching a much wider public than the single written copies. This development is reflected by the stock presented here. Furthermore, it appears that in the second half of the 15th century the two media had many features in common, especially as regards their decoration. Most illuminators of that period can even be shown as having decorated both types of book. Therefore, by examining the printed volumes alongside with the hand- written items, the authors have been able to draw a particular dense picture of the book-production in the relevant period in Austria and the neighbouring regions. A large number of the volumes described can be shown as having been decorated in one of the Upper- Austrian abbeys and it turns out that the monastic workshops at Mondsee, Garsten or Suben each developed its own specific style. Another large group of manuscripts and incunabula appears to have been illuminated in the city of Passau which had so far been a terra incognita as regards its artistic production. But the Linz holdings also comprise works of some of the most renowned professional book-illuminators active in the second half of the 15th century, Ulrich Schreier, the Master of the Breviary for Frederick III and Antonio Maria da Villafora from Padova among them. To sum up, the present catalogue is to be regarded as a major contribution to the research on the history of book-production and book-illumination in Upper-Austria, Austria and Europe.