Breviary for Day Offices (Dominican Use)
Omnia que fecisti nobis domine in uero iudico [sic] fecisti quia pecauimus [sic] tibi ... et erroribus vniuersis secura libertate. Per.
A Dominican Breviary signed and dated by the Dominican scribe Konrad Tronner in the Upper Rhine (identified on f. 446v). The Breviary was customized by several hands of one or more early users, at least one of them was a Dominican nun. The breviary features zoomorphic initials and masculine forms in the main text indicating that the manuscript may have been copied with a male user in mind, and was customized for a female user, likely before Tronner finished working on it. Other hands added marginal corrections and annotations. The breviary contains the complete text of the Divine Office, encompassing a broad range of readings, prayers, hymns, canticles, and Psalms arranged according to the canonical hours of the Divine Office.
The core of the Breviary was copied by a Dominican friar in 1370 based on the following inscription on f. 446v: "Anno domini M? ccc? lxx?". Based on the prominence of Dominican saints in the calendar, Konrad Tronner copied this Breviary for Dominican use, perhaps his own or the use of a Dominican nun in a sister house. The inclusion of certain Dominican patron saints as well as evidence of decoration indicate that the book may have originated in the Alsace region. The final quire of the book was a fifteenth-century addition to the volume based on evidence of script and was later bound in the sixteenth century based on the flyleaf watermark. The IHS monogram stamp on the upper board is similar to two localized to sixteenth-century Bavaria. The book later belonged to collector Dr. Hans Titschack based on his bookplate on front paste down.
Ecce crucem domini fugite partes aduerse ... et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus. Per
ff. 2-7v, calendar: "Anniuersarium patrum et matrum"
Dominicans--Prayers and devotions--Early works to 1800
Catholic Church--Prayers and devotions--Early works to 1800
Prayer books--Germany--Early works to 1800
Illumination of books and manuscripts--Early works to 1800
Devotional literature, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Early works to 1800
i? [-8, +8, +9; stub follows f. 7 with singletons ff. 8 and 9 tipped in on either] ii-xv, xvi?, xvii-xxxvi, [+7; a small leaf, f. 432, sewn into the center of the quire], xxxviii?, xxxix? [-7 following f. 152, cancelled with no loss of text, neat stub remains], xl? [-6 -7 following f. 458, stub remains, cancelled with no apparent loss of text]
iii (sixteenth-century paper), 459, ii (sixteenth-century paper)
Bound in sixteenth-century brown calf, blind-tooled with triple-fillets along the edges of the boards, with two sets of triple fillets along the vertical edge closest to the spine, blind-stamped with floral stamps in four corners of both boards. "IHS" monogram on the center of upper board and the crowned Virgin and child in the center of the lower board. Spine with raised bands and traces of a paper label, now mostly missing. Brass attachments for two fore-edge clasps, now missing. Edges of the leaves tinted blue-green. Some wear along the outer edges and hinges, and slight worming on lower board.
For the calendar: 31 lines, single column in red and and black. Repetition of 3-line initials KL across f. 2-7v alternate blue and red. The Breviary's main text is ruled in pale brown ink with full-length horizon and vertical bounding lines. Rubrics written or underlined in red, capitals touched and sometimes underlined in red. The main text features a number of decorated initials of varying sizes: 1-line red or blue paraphs; 1-line versal initials in red or blue; 1- or 2-line initials in blue or red, with slight contrasting pen decoration on ff. 119, 142, 221v and 334; 3- to 4-line red and blue parted initials with red and blue pen decoration executed by two hands, sometimes incorporating human faces; two 4-line blue initials with red pen decoration extending vertically along the length of the page (ff. 44, 280); five 3- to 6-line initials with canine or dragon-like hybrid figures framed in red and blue, decorated with very fine red and blue pen decorations extending vertically along the length of the page and sometimes incorporating human faces (ff. 10, 233v, 299, 307v, 399); followed on f. 10 with a line of 1-line red and blue initials in various hands.
Written chiefly in a well-formed, formal Gothic bookhand. Other hands wrote in rapid Gothic cursive script, a compact Gothic bookhand, and a rapid Gothic hybrida script with various degrees heaviness and size.
Corrections and additions added on a tipped in small leaf (f. 432) in the hand of the primary scribe. Marginal corrections and annotations added in several other hands.
Manuscript 193, Western Michigan University Special Collection
Benedictins du Bouveret. Colophons de manuscrits occidentaux des origines au XVIe siecle, Fribourg, 1976.
Humbert of Romans, "Liber constitutionum sororum ordinis praedicatorum," Analecta sacri ordinis fratrum praedicatorum seu vetera ordinis monumenta recentioracque acta, vol. 3, ed. Andreas Fri.ihwirth, Rome, 1897, pp. 337-348.
Palazzo, Eric. A History of Liturgical Books from the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century, trans. Madeleine Beaumont, Collegeville, 1998.
Bonniwell, William R. A History of the Doninican Liturgy, 1215-1945, New York, Joseph F. Wagner,1945.
Eichenlaub, Jean-Luc, ed. Dominicains et dominicaines en Alsace, XIIIe-XXe s., actes du colloque de Guebwiller, B-9 avril 1994, Colmar, Conseil general du Haut-Rhin, 1996.
Fassler, Margot E. and Rebecca A. Baltzer, eds. The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages, Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments, Hagiography, Written in Honor of Professor Ruth Steiner, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Hamburger, Jeffrey F. "La bibliotheque d'Unterlinden et \'art de la formation spirituelle," trans. Pierre-Antoine Fabre, in Les dominicaines d'Llnterlinden, vol. I, Colmar, Musee d'Unterlinden, 2000, pp. 110-159.
Hamburger, Jeffrey F. "Magdalena Kremer, Scribe and Painter of the Choir and Chapter Books of the Dominican Convent of St. Johannes-Baptista in Kirchheim unter Teck," in The Medieval Book, Glosses from Friends & Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel, ed. James H. Marrow, Richard A. Linenthal, and William Noel, 't Coy-Houten: Hes & De Graaf, 20 I 0, pp. 124-149.
Harper, John. The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy front the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991.
Hughes, Andrew. Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A guide to their organization and terminology, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1982.
Digital reproduction published by Western Michigan University and made available for private study, scholarship or research use under applicable U.S. Law. Access to digital reproductions provided by Special Collections at Zhang Legacy Collections Center, Western Michigan University.