Browse Exhibits (4 total)
Life of St. Margaret
St. Margaret was a popular figure in France, England and Flanders. When La Vie de Sainte Marguerite was written in the 12th century by the Norman poet Wace, the cult of St. Margaret was widespread in Flanders. By the 1500s, however, it had spread to France where she had become a popular figure. Other known Medieval manuscripts containing this poem were produced in Northern France and Flanders, supporting the probabilty that this manuscript originated in the same region. Additionally, the naturalistic style of illumination is ascribed to the Brabant province (as noted in the description of the UNC Greensboro leaf) just north of Reims.
While Books of Hours often belonged to women, the particular evidence supporting that this Book of Hours was made for a young woman is that St. Margaret of Antioch is the patron saint of pregnant women. This could have even been a wedding gift.
The miniature which begins this poem depicts Margaret as she is usually seen, emerging from the belly of a dragon. In her story, the devil appears to Margaret in the form of a dragon and swallows her. Using her crucifix, she cuts open the dragon from the inside and emerges. This iconic image identifies St. Margaret as a Christian martyr.
The leaves here contain lines 1-205 and 465-507. A transcription of these lines can be found here, beginning with "Après la sainte Passion..."
Illumination
Decoration: Red and Blue ink for majority, with acanthus leaves in margin. There is extensive use of gold leaf in the margins, in the miniature of St. Margaret, and the initials throughout the text.
Alternating blue and red ink used for the majority of the text for initials to highlight new lines. In the Penitenial Psalms, the larger illustrated letters are used to begin each psalm.
In multiple sections: especially Litany of the Saints and St. Margaret's poem, there are gold logs in red/blue with gold leaf, as both decoration and a way to balance the rectangular structure of the text box. It maintains the box shape and fills in the rest of the lines.
Specifically about the miniature of St. Margaret, there is extensive use of color. Attempts at perspective can be observed, bolstering the belief that this is from the 1400's. The Miniature tells the story of St. Margaret freeing herself from the belly of the dragon with her crucifix. She is shown with long, unbound blonde hair with light evidence showing a halo around her head. The dragon is represented with green paint and has the end of Margaret's gold dress coming out of its mouth.
Majority of the leaf looks to be gold paint, with gold leaf in specific areas to highlight, such as the illustratrated "A" of the first line: "Après la sainte Passion." In the Marginalia, there are three birds: two brown, smaller birds at the bottom of the page and one large peacock on the right side. Blue and gold acanthus and many flowers and berries are present. The decoration in the marginalia is commonly found in Northern France in the 1400s.
This leaf is found in the exhibit at: http://fol48.omeka.net/exhibits/show/fol48/item/12
The photos in the link represent some of the examples of illuminated illustration.
Note: If you notice white squares along the margin areas, this is not a part of the original illumination. These are pieces of white fabric tape, characteristically used by Otto Ege when separating leafs from the whole document to display singularly. There is evidence of this in the examples linked to this entry and evidence of tape being pulled away, leaving residue.
Codicology and Paleography
Dimensions and Page Notes
Folios display 20 lines of text per page, justified text blocks, which begin below the top rule line. Red Ruling on pages varies in intensity, very faded on many leaves. The pages are 175 x 125 mm.
Initials
Illuminated intitials on most pages, initial height varies from one to two lines.
Script and Variations
The script is a Gothic Textura. Biting of letters throughout text. Text itself shows inconsistent use of minims, suggesting that it is closer to a Textualis Semi-Quadrata, which may be evidence of scribes associated with Flanders. Script shows inconsistent use of letter forms such as I and R. Red ink rubrication is bright and fresh.
Sewing Holes and Binding Evidence
Sewing holes are evident on the University of South Carolina leaf, Wadsworth Athenaeum leaf, and others. The Smith College leaf has piece of gutter still attached. University of Toronto has a thread attached to the leaf, but the thread looks recent, possible evidence of rebinding. There is evidence in some of the images that specific pages are from the hair-side of the animal; folicles are visible on several pages including: Dennison leaf, Ohio leaf, Cleveland leaf.
Provenance: Mounting Tape and Matting
Evidence of the characteristic mounting tape used by Otto F. Ege in assembling his "Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts 12th-15th century" is evident on almost every folio. In addition to this white cloth tape, there is evidence of sticky residue from tape on several pages as well (Cleveland Public Library leaf, for example). All of the leaves which were contained in FOL 48 were matted using this tape. Some of the leaves are still attached to their Ege mounting; for example, the Albany leaf is still attached to the original Ege matting, and includes his original information/classification card. The Ohio University leaf still taped to matting.
Catchwords
Catchwords which designate the end of a quire can be found on the Ontario College of Art and Design leaf ("Et" horizontally), as well as the Cincinnati Public Library leaf ("didatus" vertically). Catchwords allowed those assembling the quires to bind them in the correct order.
Signs of Wear and Damage
Some general signs of wear and damage can be found on many of the leaves. A portion of the leaf is missing/possibly torn from Cleveland Institute of Art leaf; the way the mounting tape is placed suggests that this damage was present before Ege mounted the leaf to his characteristic matting. There are pages in which the ink has faded substantially (SUNY Stony Brook leaf, for example). The gold leaf used for illumination is flaking off on several of the pages. Many pages show "bleed-through" of ink from recto to verso (SUNY Stony Brook, New Zealand, and Ontario leaves). Cockling of the parchment is evident on some of the leaves; this could be evidence of water damage or improper storage of some of the leaves in the time since being disbound by Ege (Cleveland Institute of Art and Yale University leaves as examples).
Some Overall Conclusions on Condition
For the most part, known surviving leaves of this manuscript show very little soiling or destructive wear, suggesting that it was either little used or well cared for, or both. This is is keeping with LIS464 class conclusions that it was made for the private use of a wealthy woman in the Châlons-sur-Marne region of northern France, near Rheims. The content containing materials related to St. Margaret, patron saint of pregnancy and childbirth, suggest that this book could possibly have been used primarily as a talisman, rather than as a devotional book used daily. This evidence helps account for the relatively "clean" condition for what was once a unified codex, now over 500 years old.
Resources
Bischoff, Bernhard. Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Brown, Michelle P. A Guide to Western Hisorical Scripts, from Antiquity to 1600. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990.
Clemens, Raymond and Timothy Graham. Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007.