Gothic Legendary richly rubricated with dozens of fleuronné initials

[Christian hagiography]. [Legendarium].

€ 95,000.00

Beautifully appointed manuscript hagiography from Benedictine-Cistercian use, featuring lavish rubrication, red lombards, and dozens of red and blue fleuronné initials, prepared by two or three hands in a meticulous textualis script.

Modelled on Jacobus de Voragine’s famous "Legenda aurea", the present manuscript comprises the lives of some 80 saints, arranged by their feasts throughout the liturgical year, carefully listed in an index at the opening of the book, written in red ink throughout. The inclusion of Saints Gangolf and Koloman suggests a Benedictine scriptorium in southeastern Bavaria (Brixen, Freising, Passau, Regensburg, or Salzburg) as the likely place of origin. A final quire, contemporary but in another hand and the same format, adds the life of St Bernard of Clairvaux (fols. 270-273), indicating early assignment to Cistercian use within the Benedictine observance.

The first half (to about fol. 142) is richly decorated with about four dozen large red and blue fleuronné initials, the penwork frequently extending across the full height of the text; several early leaves (3r, 4r, 4v, 5v) show additional pen flourish ornaments in red and black.

Includes 19th century ink foliation on every fifth or tenth leaf, as well as a later erroneous pencil foliation. Concludes with a colophon prayer in red ink: "Qui scripsit scripta, manus eius sit benedicta".