Mary of Guelders and Her Book Prolegomena to the Study of a Remarkable Manuscript
JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
Mary of Guelders and her Book Prolegomena to the study of a remarkable manuscript
A richly illuminated devotional manuscript, dating from the first half of the fifteenth century, commissioned and owned by a duchess of Guelders, containing a large number of miniatures and some unusual text selections. Reading this, it is easy to assume we are talking about one of the best-known manuscripts from the Middle Ages, the Hours of duchess Catherine of Cleves (ca. 1440).1 Only a few people know that there is a second manuscript that fits this description, the prayer book of duchess Mary of Guelders (1415 and ca. 1423-1426). This book, comprising a total of 619 folios, divided into two volumes, one in Berlin and one in Vienna,2 with rich border decoration throughout most of the manuscript, 6 full-page miniatures, 86 half-page miniatures, an illustrated calendar, numerous drolleries and an unusual selection of texts, can hardly be described as unknown, but it has thus far escaped the ample attention given to its famous younger coun- terpart. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the main part of the book, cur- rently in Berlin, has been taken out of its binding a few decades ago for reasons of conservation and is too fragile to be studied.3 Luckily, since high-quality digital images of the entire book – both the Berlin and Vienna parts – were avail-
¶ The research presented in this article has been made possible through the Gerard Brom CRM Humanities grant awarded by the Radboud University, under the supervision of prof. dr. Johan Oosterman. The development of this research into the current essay was finished during the first months of my current PhD-project Texts in Action: Performative Reading, part of the project Cities of Readers: Religious Literacies in the Long Fifteenth Century, supervised by prof. dr. Sabrina Corbellini and prof. dr. Bart Ramakers (University of Groningen) and funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). I thank Kathryn Rudy and Johan Oosterman for their role in developing and discussing the ideas forming the basis for this article, and Miranda Bloem, Rob Dückers, Sabrina Corbellini, Bart Ramakers and the two anonymous reviewers of Ons Geestelijk Erf for commenting on earlier drafts. 1 New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.917 and M.945. 2 The largest part, 482 folios, is in Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, MS Germ. qu. 42. The remaining 137 folios are Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1908. I will refer to these manuscripts as Berlin and Vienna, respectively. In both manuscripts leaves have been lost, so originally the manuscripts had even more leaves, which suggests that the book may have been divided in an earlier stage too, although in a different way. See also the appendix and below in the section about the portrait of Mary of Guelders. 3 On 23 February 2015, the 600th anniversary of Mary’s prayer book, a crowdfunding pro- ject was initiated by prof. dr. Johan Oosterman at the Radboud University in Nijmegen for restoration of the Berlin part in order to make it accessible for research and display. The first goal of raising € 25.000 was achieved in a few months. In the summer of 2015, a team of experts has started the technical analysis of the book in order to find out more about the cause of the damage. The restoration of the Berlin prayer book is scheduled to be finished
Ons Geestelijk Erf 86(3), 178-218. doi: 10.2143/OGE.86.3.3154601 © Ons Geestelijk Erf. All rights reserved. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 179 able, it has been possible to study various aspects of the book. Preliminary research of these images has led to this article, in which I will discuss the current state of research on the manuscript. First, I will present a brief history of the scholarship on the prayer book, to set a context for current research. I will proceed by discussing the information available about its first patron, Mary of Guelders, and provide a short outline of the book. Then I will examine both some current art historical and textual issues and discuss the categorisation of the book. In the final two parts of the article I will first contextualise these topics within the devo- tional culture of the early fifteenth century and then suggest lines for further research on the book. Although art historical questions concerning the book will be discussed, the focus of this study will be on the so-far unexplored book his- torical and devotional context of the book.
HISTORIOGRAPHY
Art historians have been aware of the existence of the prayer book since at least 1850, but up until the 1960s the research investigation of the manuscript was limited to the Berlin part,4 which contains all the miniatures, therefore receiving attention in most discussions of the history of art of this region and time period. The first publications that discuss the prayer book date from the middle of the nineteenth century. Early German scholarship was mainly concerned with the description of the history of painting and book illumination and discusses the miniatures in the prayer book in relation to the development of a specific style of the ‘school of Cologne.’5 The first one in Dutch scholarship to discuss the book is W. Moll in a short note in the Kunstbode of 30 March 1874. Moll had read about the book in the work of C. Schnaase.6 Working from Schnaase’s description of Mary’s book,
in 2016. An exhibition is planned for 2018-2019 at Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen. For news and regular updates on the project, see the website www.mariavangelre.nl. 4 The similarities between the Berlin and Vienna manuscripts had already been noticed earlier than the 1960s, as becomes clear from an inscription in the Vienna manuscript on one of the paper leafs at the beginning (not part of the foliation). This inscription is signed R.B., the initials of Rudolf Beer, who was, as P.J.H. Vermeeren points out, the head of the manuscript department at the library in Vienna from 1901 until 1913 (“Kodikologische Notizen zum Gebetbuch der Herzogin Maria von Geldern,” in Rhein und Maas, Kunst und Kultur 800-1400, 2: Berichte, Beiträge und Forschungen zum Themenkreis der Ausstellung und des Katalogs (Cologne, 1973), 474). However, in scholarship and exhibitions the man- uscripts appear together only since the 1960s. See for example Europäische Kunst um 1400 (1962), the catalogue of an exhibition where the two manuscripts were displayed together. 5 G.F. Waagen, “Zur Malerei im Böhmen, Deutschland, Frankreich und den Niederlanden von 1350-1450,” Deutsches Kunstblatt 39 (30 sept. 1850), 306-308; C. Schnaase, Geschichte der bildenden Künste, VI. (Düsseldorf, 1861), see 444-446; R. Kautzsch, Die Holzschnitte der Kölner Bibel von 1479 (Strassburg, 1896). 6 “Het gebedenboek van Maria, Hertogin van Gelder,” Nederlandsche Kunstbode 30 March 1874, 19. See for C. Schnaase, note 21. 180 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN the author argued that the monasteries of the Windesheim Chapter were involved in the illumination of manuscripts, as is demonstrated by the book of Mary of Guelders, which – according to its colophon – was copied in Marienborn, a monastery of Windesheim canons regular. From this he deducted that the illumination must also have been a product of the canons. This notion was questioned by J.G.R. Acquoy a few years later, who is hesitant to attribute an active role in the development of book illumination to the Windesheim Chapter.7 From the start of the twentieth century onwards the book is discussed more extensively. In these discussions the localisation of the style of the illumination remains the main issue. For a long time this issue is seen as problematic because the book seems to defy any attribution to a region that fits within modern boundaries. Labels that are given to the book range from ‘Northern Nether- landish’, ‘Lower-Rhenish’ to ‘close to the Cologne style’. This cut short some discussions of the book: W. Vogelsang in his Holländische Miniaturen, pub- lished in 1899, seems to refuse to do more than to mention Mary’s book briefly because the dialect in which it is written is from the Cologne region and there- fore it is best understood in context of the Cologne-style.8 The issue is complicated further by the notion that the book shows influence from French models. For example, H. Brandt in his work published in 1912, notes a connection between the illumination in Mary’s book and the work of the Limbourg Brothers, artists working in France at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century.9 Other scholars, for example F. Winkler in a 1920 publication, see the book as an example that the development of book
7 Het klooster te Windesheim en zijn invloed, II (Utrecht, 1875-1880), 245. The notion that these [Windesheim] monasteries were involved with illumination is repeated again some time later by Lieftinck and De Vreese: G.I. Lieftinck, “Windesheim, Agnietenberg en Marienborn en hun aandeel in de Noordnederlandse boekverluchting,” in Dancwerc: Opstellen aangeboden aan Prof. D.Th. Enklaar (Groningen, 1959), 188-207; A.L. de Vreese, “Een fraai verlucht vroeg-Agnietenbergs getijden- en gebedenboek in de Albertina te Brussel,” Bulletin van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 14 (1961), 202-222, discus- sion of Mary’s prayer book on 212-220. The discussion of the relation with the Windesheim Chapter centers on the added miniatures, now ascribed to the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht. However, since the so-called illumination style of Agnietenberg is now dated to a different time and has been demonstrated to have different origins the involvement of the Chapter of Windesheim in Mary’s manuscript is now recognized to be limited to the work of scribe Helmich die Lewe. See for a discussion of the former ‘Agnietenberg-manuscripts’, Lydia Wierda, De Sarijs-handschriften: Studie naar een groep laat-middeleeuwse handschriften uit de IJsselstreek (voorheen toegeschreven aan de Agnietenberg bij Zwolle) (Zwolle, 1995). 8 Vogelsang, Holländische Miniaturen (Strassburg 1899), 31. 9 Die Anfänge der deutschen Landschaftsmalerei im XIV. und XV. Jahrhundert (Strassburg, 1912), 115. It is important to note that at this time it was not yet known that the Limbourg Brothers originally came from Nijmegen and that borrowings could have occurred through their occasional visits to their home town. The origins of the Limbourg Brothers are dis- cussed in F. Gorissen, “Jan Maelwael und die Brüder Limburg: eine Nimweger Künster- familie um die Wende des 14. Jahrhunderts,” Bijdragen en Mededelingen van de Vereniging Gelre, 54 (1954), 153-221. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 181 illumination in the Lower-Rhine area was influenced by contemporary art developments in Paris.10 Again the work of the Limbourg Brothers and of another French artist, the Boucicaut Master, is used as comparison, mainly to evaluate the quality of the illumination. For example, A. Liebreich describes the prayer book as a ‘rather rough imitation’ of a book owned by the duke of Berry.11 I will discuss the current notions about the relation between the Limbourg Brothers and the prayer book of Mary of Guelders later on. A brief description of Mary’s book is included in Byvanck and Hoogewerff’s Noord-Nederlandsche Miniaturen in 1922-1925.12 In this description the authors already make a tentative division between three groups of miniatures: the full-page miniatures in the beginning and end of the book; the miniatures in the Hours of the Passion and in the Temporale; and the 65 miniatures in the Sanctorale. At this point the uniqueness of the book is already recognized, especially in its use of colour in the Sanctorale miniatures. In the first detailed description of the prayer book by Wegener (1928), the illumination is ascribed to two different illuminators, working in very different styles.13 He attributed the miniatures to two hands, separating the miniatures in the added folios (1-19 and 425-482) from the miniatures in the first production phase (fols. 20-424). Names for these artists are provided by Byvanck, identifying the first as the Master of Otto van Moerdrecht and the second as the Master of Mary of Guelders.14 Byvanck also suggests the Master of Mary of Guelders was only responsible for the miniatures in the Temporale-part of the book; the illustra- tions in the Sanctorale part were the work of a third painter, which could have been an apprentice working under supervision of the Master of Mary of Guelders. He even proposes that this apprentice may have been the Master of
10 Fr. Winkler, “Ein Niederrheinischer Miniaturmaler unter dem einfluss der Pariser Kunst und ihr Einflus auf die Niederrheinisch-Kölnische Kunst am Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts,” Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst. Neue Folge XXXI (1920), 252-256. See also B. Martens, Meister Francke (Hamburg, 1929), 258-259, n. 410. 11 “ziemlich derbe Nachahmung.” The book mentioned is Paris, BnF, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal Ms. 664. “Kostümgeschichtliche studien zur Kölnischen malerei des 14. Jahrhun- derts,” Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft (1928), 129-156, here 154. 12 Noord-Nederlandsche Miniaturen in handschriften der 14e, 15e en 16e eeuwen (The Hague, 1922-1925), no. 14. 13 H. Wegener, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Miniaturen und des Initial-schmuckes in den deutschen Handschriften (Leipzig, 1928), 136-140, pl. IV, figs. 123-125. A full list of all the miniatures is included in this publication. 14 “Aantekeningen over Handschriften met Miniaturen, X. De Nederrijnsche Miniaturen en de Noordnederlandsche Kunst,” Oudheidkundig Jaarboek X (1930), 115-127, here 116-118. Byvanck sees a similarity between the work of the Master of Mary of Guelders and the art- ist he names the Master of Zweder van Culemborg. He proposes that the latter could be a pupil of the former and argues for further research on the relation between the two. See below, Art historical aspects, for further discussion about this relation. Byvanck also men- tions the book in La miniature dans les Pays-bas septentrionaux (Paris, 1937), 120, plates XV-XVII. 182 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
Zweder of Culemborg, an artist active ca. 1415-1450.15 The division of the miniatures is taken up again by G.J. Hoogewerff.16 He complicates matters somewhat because he gives different names to the artists: he suggests that the Master of Otto van Moerdrecht could be called the Master of Mary of Guelders, because he was responsible for the portrait of the duchess, but in the end settles on naming him ‘the Master of the Seraph’. Hoogewerff sees in the work of this master a close relation to the work of French artists: the Boucicaut Master and the Limbourg Brothers. He is therefore convinced that this artist was schooled in France, or, at the very least, copied French models. Because of this connec- tion, he calls Mary’s book a ‘key element’ (spil) in the history of Northern- Netherlandish art of painting, being the first to make this explicit.17 All these scholars also take up the issue of localising the illumination. Byvanck states that this is not easy to place the artist within the context of Northern-Netherlandish art, therefore assigning it to Lower-Rhenish art.18 A little later H. Jerchel states that Mary’s book lies between French and German art. He does recognise a connection between Mary’s books and work attributed to the Northern Netherlandish Master of Zweder of Culemborg. He does not elaborate on this, since this artist is Northern Netherlandish and his article is concerned with Lower-Rhenish art.19 The boundaries between the regions are thus strictly maintained. A few decades later, in the 1950s and 1960s, the discussion has shifted to the issue of how the transmission of French developments in manuscript illu- mination to the Northern Netherlands came about. The debate centres on which region, Utrecht or Guelders, should be considered the first to introduce features from painting in France.20 In this discussion the prayer book of Mary of Guelders has sometimes featured as one of the most important witnesses pointing to the predominance of Guelders. Delaissé is critical of the quality of the execution of the art of the book in comparison with French, or Parisian, books, but he does acknowledge that the artist “brought something new into the history of book illumination in Holland.”21 In addition, where first it was
15 Nowadays there is general concensus that both the ‘Master’ of Otto van Moerdrecht and the ‘Master’ of Zweder van Culemborg actually were groups of artists working in a very similar style. See for the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg also below, section Art his- torical aspects. 16 G.J. Hoogewerff discusses the miniatures extensively in De Noord-Nederlandse schil- derkunst, vol. I (The Hague 1936), 162-172. 17 Hoogewerff, De Noord-Nederlandse Schilderkunst, 162-163. 18 “Aantekeningen over Handschriften met Miniaturen,” 122. 19 H. Jerchel, “Die Niederrheinische Buchmalerei der Spätgotik,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 10 (1938), 65-90, here 76-79. 20 See especially E. Panofsky, “Guelders and Utrecht, a footnote on a recent acquisition of the Nationalmuseum at Stockholm,” Konsthistorik Tidskrift 22 (1953), 90-101; G.J. Hoogewerff, “Gelderse miniatuurschilders in de eerste helft van de XVde eeuw,” Oud Holland 76 (1961), 3-48; and U. Finke, “Utrecht-Zentrum nordniederländischer Buchmalerei: seine Bedeutung in der ersten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts,” Oud Holland 78 (1963), 27-66. 21 L.M.J. Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination (Berkeley, 1968), 19-20. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 183 assumed that the artists were connected to the Guelders court, Finke argues for the existence for a civil workshop in Nijmegen.22 The only publications about the prayer book of Mary of Guelders not primarily concerned with the art historical aspects are those of K. Keller,23 F. Gorissen24 and P.J.H. Vermeeren.25 Keller provides an introduction to the manuscript and to a manuscript that was previously thought to have been commissioned by her husband Reinald (now determined to have been commissioned by a later duke of Guelders, Arnold van Egmont). F. Gorissen published an edition of some prayers from the Berlin manuscript and discussed one in particular, the prayer for Mary’s husband (discussed below). Vermeeren’s aim in his article is to examine the claim that the Berlin and Vienna manuscripts are actually from the same book. In order to establish this he discusses various codicological aspects of the book, namely the script, parchment, collation and decoration. Although most of his conclusions are excellent, there are some corrections to be made. Firstly, it seems that Vermeeren did not study the texts very closely since he fails to identify some of the texts correctly. According to his table of contents, the Sanctorale continues until fol. 409, whereas in fact the prayers from fol. 285 onwards are a loose collection. Furthermore, the Hundred Articles are characterised as ‘prayers’ and the added leaves as ‘prayers to the Virgin’, while these added folios contain a much larger variety of prayers. Secondly, the actual collation of the Berlin and Vienna manuscripts differs at some points with the observations of Vermeeren.26 In the last decades research has been complicated by the fact that the book has not been available for a large-scale study, because of its fragile state, so scholars had to rely on the few published images available. In all the main studies of either fifteenth century Dutch illumination or of the court of Guelders it is discussed,27 but research has not developed much beyond the description in the catalogue of the large exhibition on Dutch manuscript illumination in
22 Finke, “Utrecht-Zentrum nordniederländischer Buchmalerei.” 23 2 Stundenbücher aus dem geldrischen Herzoghause: das stundenbuch der Herzogin Maria und das ihres Gemahls, Veröffentlichung des Historischen Vereins für Geldern und Umgegend 68 (Geldern, 1969). 24 “Ein Reisesegen für Herzog Reinald von Geldern aus dem Jahre 1415,” Geldrischer Heimatkalender 1971, 103-118. 25 “Kodikologische Notizen.” 26 At this point the research on the precise collation of the Berlin manuscript is still a work in progress and therefore the collation of both the Vienna and Berlin manuscripts will be published at a later stage. 27 H.L.M. Defoer et al., The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting (Utrecht/New York 1989), no. 17, colourpl. 17, figs. 24,25; G.J.M. Nijsten, In the Shadow of Burgundy: the Court of Guelders in the late Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2004); ibid., “Hof en cultuur: karakteristiek van een middelgroot hof aan de Nederrijn”, in: J. Stinner and K.H. Tekath (eds.), Gelre–Geldern–Gelderland. Geschiedenis en cultuur van het hertogdom Gelre (Geldern, 2001), 383-393; D. Dückers, “Boeken voor privé-devotie in het hertogdom Gelre in de vijftiende eeuw”, in: Stinner and Tekath (eds.), Gelre–Geldern–Gelderland, 405-416; H. Tervooren, Van der Masen tot op den Rijn: ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der mittelalter- lichen volkssprachlichen Literatur im Raum von Rhein und Maas (Berlin, 2006). 184 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
1989/90, The Golden Age, except for some art historical suggestions (discussed below).28 Furthermore, sometimes the book is surprisingly absent from the dis- cussion.29 The discussion of attribution of the illumination in The Golden Age represents the latest stage of research: the name “Master of Mary of Guelders” is reserved for the 66 miniatures in the Sanctorale, the drolleries, and the famous portrait of Mary in the hortus conclusus (fol. 19v, fig.1). The second artist is named “the Passion Master of Mary of Guelders,” from his work on the eight miniatures accompanying the prayers of the Passion (fols. 20-45). He was also responsible for the fifteen miniatures in the Temporale. The added full-page miniatures at the beginning and end of the Berlin volume, together with the small marginal illustrations in the calendar, are the work of artists painting in the style of the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht.30 It is clear that many issues concerning the prayer book remain unexplored so far; even the division of the illumination may be revised after more exten- sive research. The rest of this article will further introduce and develop some of the questions to be answered.
MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK
Let us now take a look at the information the book gives us about the circum- stances of its creation, in the colophon on fol. 410r of the Berlin volume: Dit boic hait laissen scrive(n). Maria. Hertzouginne van. Gelre. ind va(n). Guylich. Ind grevynne va(n) Zutphen. Vrauwe des edele(n) houtzougen Reynalts. Ind wart gheeynt oevermits broider helmich die lewe. Regulier zoe. Marien born bi arnhem. Int iair ons heren. dusent vierhondert ind vuofftzien op sent. Mathias avont. This loosely translates as: “This book has been commissioned by Mary, duchess of Guelders and Julich and Countess of Zutphen, wife of the noble duke Reinald. It was finished by brother Helmich die Lewe, canon regular at Marienborn near Arnhem in the year of our Lord 1415 on St Matthias Eve [23 February].” Mary of Guelders was born ca. 1385 Mary of Harcourt and Amaule, daughter of John, count of Harcourt and Aumale (1342-1388), and Catherine of Bourbon (d. 1427). Through her maternal line Mary was a cousin of king Charles VI of France and maid of honour to Valentina Visconti, duchess of Orléans,
28 The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 67-70. 29 For example, it is not mentioned in J. Hamburger, “The Casanatense Missal and Painting in Guelders in the Early Fifteenth Century,” Wallraf Richartz Jahrbuch 48/49 (1987/88), 7-44. 30 These artists are discussed in The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 75-78; See also S. van Bergen, ‘De Meesters van Otto van Moerdrecht. Een onderzoek naar de stijl en iconografie van een groep miniaturisten, in relatie tot de productie van getijdenboeken in Brugge rond 1430.’ Doctoral thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2006. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 185 sister-in-law of king Charles VI.31 This family connection makes it clear that she was intimately connected to the Valois court. Mary’s marriage to the duke of Guelders, Reinald IV, was arranged by Louis, duke of Orleans, for political reasons; duke Reinald became a vassal to the French king. The marriage took place on 5 May 1405, and at the insistence of the king Charles VI it was cel- ebrated in the chapel of the castle of Crecy, where he resided at that moment.32 On 25 June 1423 Reinald died childless and a few years later, in 1426, Mary remarried. Her new husband was Rupert, son of duke Adolf of Julich and Berg, but their marriage was brief and also childless. Mary died in 1427. Ten years after Mary’s marriage to duke Reinald, on 23 February 1415, the scribe Helmich die Lewe finished her book, written largely in the local Middle Low German dialect, an interesting feature of the book to which I will come back later on.33 At an unknown date, the book as it was copied by Helmich die Lewe was divided into two parts. It is not entirely clear why this was done, possibly the book became too large to handle. Interestingly, the division seems to have had a certain rationale: the Vienna volume contains all the Latin texts of the entire book and also includes all the Offices and other texts that are typically found in Books of Hours. Either before or after this division, even more folios were added, which are now in the Berlin volume.34 The Berlin volume, as it is now, contains a loose prayer (fol. 1r-2v); a Calendar (fols. 3r-14v);35 the prayer Salve sancte facies in the vernacular (fols. 15v-17v); Hours of the Passion (fols. 20r-44v);36 suffrages arranged according to the liturgical year,37 Temporale (fols. 45r-145v), Sanctorale (fols. 146r-268v) and Common of Saints (fols. 268r-284v); a collection of prayers (fols. 285r-409v); the colophon (Berlin, fol. 410r); the Hundred Articles of the Passion of Henry Suso (fols. 410v-424v); and another collection of individual prayers (fols.
31 J. Harthan, Books of Hours and their Owners (Oxford, 1977), 81. Harthan does not pro- vide a source for the information about Mary being maid of honour to Valentina Visconti. Within the scope of this project it was not possible to find out more. 32 E. Jarry, La Vie politique de Louis de France, duc d’Orléans, 1372-1407 (Paris, 1889), 320-321. 33 Helmich die Lewe is a figure unknown from other sources. Further research might be able to find more information about this canon regular. He might not only have been the scribe of Mary’s book, but also her confessor and composer of some of the individual prayers. But until more research has been conducted we can only rely on the information he gives us himself in the colophon, namely that he was commissioned by Mary to copy the book for her. 34 See for a complete overview of contents and miniatures the appendix. 35 The calendar is not of a particular use, but has a hybrid character. I will briefly come back to this later on in this essay. 36 This text does not have the structure of texts used for the celebration of an office (hymns, psalms, verses, antiphons, readings, and prayers), but prayers arranged according to the liturgical hours. 37 A good overview on suffrages: Adelaide Bennet, “Commemoration of Saints in Suf- frages: From Public Liturgy to Private Devotion,” in Objects, Images, and the Word: Art in the Service of Liturgy, ed. C. Hourihane (Princeton, 2003), 54-78. 186 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
Figure 1. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. Germ. qu. 42, fol. 19v
425r-482v).38 The entire Berlin volume is written in the vernacular, with the exception of the collect of one suffrage (to St Cecilia, fol. 263r). The Vienna
38 See for this text and its Middle Dutch dissemination the two studies by José van Aelst, Passie voor het lijden: de “Hundert Betrachtungen und Begehrungen” van Henricus Suso en de oudste drie bewerkingen uit de Nederlanden (Leuven, 2005); Vruchten van de Passie: de laatmiddeleeuwse passieliteratuur verkend aan de hand van Suso’s Honderd artikelen (Hilversum, 2011). However, the version found in Mary’s prayer book is independent of the Middle Dutch tradition described by Van Aelst. It is close to the Middle Low German ver- sion found for example in Leiden, University Library, Ltk. 2055 (mentioned in Van Aelst, Passie voor het lijden, 52 n. 27). See also S.R.S. Norris, The Diffusion of Heinrich Seuse’s ‘Buchlein der ewigen Weisheit’ in Middle Low German Manuscripts: Commentary and Edition (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1979). I thank José van Aelst for providing me with this infor- mation. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 187 part contains texts both in Latin and in the vernacular: the Office of the Dead (incomplete and incorrectly bound, fols. 2r-9v and 62r-103v, Psalms in Latin, other texts in the vernacular); the Hours of Eternal Wisdom (incomplete, fols. 10r-33v, Psalms in Latin, other texts in the vernacular);39 the Penitential Psalms and Litany of All Saints (fols. 35r-58v, Psalms in Latin, Litany in the vernacular); the Gradual Psalms (Vienna, fols. 104r-116r, Latin); the Litany of our Lady (fols. 116r-122v, vernacular);40 and Masses of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Cross, of Our Lady, for the Soul (fols. 123r-137v, Latin). Not all of the 482 folios of the Berlin volume belong to one production campaign. Around sixty leaves, two of which are now at the beginning of the book and the other at the end (fols. 1-2, 425-482), are of different parchment and written by different hands. These added leaves contain a rich collection of various prayers with different themes and for various occasions, including a number of Psalms in the vernacular (fols. 477r-482v), as well as a series of full-page miniatures. Since Mary is represented as a widow on one of these (fol. 476v), the added leaves probably date from 1423-1426, the years between Mary’s two marriages.41
THE PORTRAIT OF MARY OF GUELDERS
The miniature for which Mary’s book is famous is – and likely will remain – full of mystery (fig. 1). The miniature was added to the book in a later stage, but it is often interpreted as a portrait of duchess Mary. Its high quality and intriguing character are further reasons that the miniature is discussed and often reproduced in almost every publication concerned with her book. The miniature depicts an elegant lady, dressed in a sumptuous blue robe, standing in an enclosed garden reading a book. Accompanying her are two little angels, one of whom bears a scroll with the words O milde marie (“O mild Mary”). In the top of the miniature God blesses the lady and sends out the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove. Though the miniature is mostly described as a portrait of duchess Mary of Guelders, it would be equally possible to describe it as an image of the Virgin Mary at the moment of the Annunciation.42 The features
39 See for an edition of this text A.G. Weiler (ed.), Getijden van de Eeuwige Wijsheid (Baarn, 1984). 40 Interestingly, the Vienna manuscript contains all the parts of the book that also occur in Books of Hours, except for the Hours of the Virgin, which are surprisingly absent in the book. See below (p. 22 ff.) for a further discussion. 41 The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 68. 42 See for example E.M. Vetter, Maria im Rosenhag (Dusseldorf, 1956), 23, although he remarks that it might also be possible that it is a depiction of the duchess (p.46). Also B.E. Daley, “The ‘Closed Garden’ and the ‘Sealed Fountain’: Song of Songs 4:12 in the Late Medieval Iconography of Mary,” in Medieval Gardens, ed. E.B. MacDougall (Wash- ington, D.C. 1986) 274-275, discusses the miniature as a depiction of the Virgin Mary. Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination, suggests that originally the miniature 188 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN making this latter interpretation problematic are foremost her fashionable dress, hairstyle and headdress, the absence of a halo and the absence of the archangel Gabriel. The obvious, maybe even presumptuous, identification of the duchess Mary with the Virgin Mary has led many scholars to offer their interpretation of the miniature. Büttner discusses the miniature as an example of an image that expresses a desire to imitate the Virgin Mary.43 Some interpretations go further. As mentioned above, both marriages of Mary of Guelders were without issue, although the political pressure to produce an heir was great. As Harthan has pointed out, “the need for heirs to confirm the adherence of Guelders to the Orleanist cause, are implicit in her marriage circumstances; and a large part of her dowry, some 30,000 écus, had been paid by the duke of Orleans with the stipulation that it was to be returned in default of male heirs.”44 These political circumstances, together with a desire to explore the psychology of the medieval book owner, have led several scholars to make a suggestive interpretation of the miniature. The portrait, according to these scholars, expresses the desire of Mary of Guelders to bear children. Therefore she lets herself be portrayed as Mary, the mother of God, at the moment of the Annunciation, with a visible reference to the blessing of God.45 Besides the unusual character of the composition, there is another reason why scholars have paid extensive attention to this miniature: it does not seem to belong to the original book. The style of the miniature and the border deco- ration are different from the illumination in the rest of the book and the leaf was trimmed to fit into the book. It is either a later addition or, more likely because of the trimming, a composition made for a different manuscript.46 It is sometimes argued that the current miniature is adapted from a previous minia- ture: it would have been an interior scene that had been repainted.47 However, there is no evidence for this: when held up against the light there is nothing on the page to suggest that there has been a previous composition.48 While the prehistory of the miniature cannot be uncovered I would like to argue that it was added to Mary’s prayer book during its second production phase, ca. 1423- 1426. Its current position in the manuscript on fol. 19v is not its original position. A rubric on the recto side of the leaf reads: Hier begint van den heilige(n) / was an Annunciation scene, but that it was later altered to become a depiction of the duch- ess. However, as mentioned below, there is no indication on the leaf itself that the miniature has been painted over. 43 F.O. Büttner, Imitatio Pietatis (Berlin, 1983), see 76. 44 Harthan, Books of Hours and their owners, 81. 45 The suggestion seems to originate with E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: its Origins and Character (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), 101. 46 See for example L.M.J. Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination, 19-20. 47 The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 69; Delaissé, 19-20. 48 I thank Eef Overgaauw and Kurt Heydeck of the Staatsbiblothek zu Berlin for their kind assistence. When observing the miniature myself in December 2014 I also did not notice anything to suggest this. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 189 alle dat iair durch. Van S(inte) Andriese dem apostele a(ntiphona), which may be loosely translated as “Here begins the Proprium Sanctorum. Of St Andrew the Apostle. Antiphon.” Thus at one point the miniature opened the Sanctorale, now starting on fol. 145r. An earlier rubric with the same text was on fol. 144v, but this has been covered with paint at a later stage.49 Thus, the folio with the portrait of Mary and its rubric replaced the earlier rubric and formed the new beginning of the Sanctorale. It is likely that this was done together with the addition of the new collection of prayers (now fols. 425-482), at which point it became convenient to divide the book into two volumes. The miniature would then have opened the second volume.50 However, this hypothesis leads to further questions. While the miniature was first attributed to the work of the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, this attribution has now shifted to the Master of Mary of Guelders. Did this artist paint the miniature while he was working on the rest of the book or was he commissioned for this work at a later time? And if this miniature was added to the book together with the other five full- page miniatures, why was only this miniature not painted by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht? It might be the case that the questions about the ambiguous meaning and original production of the miniature will never be answered satisfactorily. How- ever, the information about the original place of the miniature in the manuscript and its possible function as the opening of the second volume give new pos- sibilities of analysing its purpose. This analysis benefits from information on the function of owner portraits and images of the Virgin Annunciate in other manuscripts for private devotion. These miniatures functioned as models of ‘perfect prayer.’51 Mary, as reader/viewer of the book could see herself praying and would thus be encouraged to adopt a similar mode. Furthermore, the Virgin Mary posed as a perfect example of what private prayer could look like, espe- cially if she was portrayed with a book for private devotion, as became more frequent in the later Middle Ages.52 The Virgin was in many different ways a model to imitate, including in her devotion and contemplation. In the Gospel of Luke it is mentioned that, at significant moments in the life of Christ, “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). The events were inscribed in the book of her heart, to be meditated whenever she wanted. Medieval believers were similarly encouraged to use reading as a stepping- stone to meditation, continuing the impact of meditation into times that the
49 This is observed once in the literature, in the exhibition catalogue Zimelien: abendländische Handschriften des Mittelalters aus den Sammlungen der Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin: Ausstellungskatalog (Berlin/Wiesbaden, 1975), 219. The implications of this obser- vation are not discussed, however. 50 In further publications this will be discussed more extensively. 51 V. Reinburg, French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400-1600 (Cambridge, 2012), 213-218. 52 See for a discussion of Mary’s Book: Laura Saetveit Miles, “The Origins and Develop- ment of the Virgin Mary’s Book at the Annunciation,” Speculum 89:3 (2014): 632-669. 190 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN book was not available.53 Thus, meditating on the Virgin Annunciate was appropriate for starting a time of prayer. In some other donor portraits it is also possible to see the result of the prayer depicted, giving the image even more significance as a model for prayer.54 The miniature on fol. 19v of the prayer book of Mary of Guelders could have func- tioned in a similar way. If Mary of Guelders gazed at the picture she could imagine herself to be in prayer. She could see God encouraging her in her pious activity by blessing her and sending the Holy Spirit down on her. Thus, the miniature functioned as an ideal way to start the series of prayers of the Sanc- torale. Whether there might have been another miniature of the Annunciation at the beginning of the first volume or if this miniature was meant as a way to focus extra attention to this second is impossible to know. However, either way, through Mary of Guelders’ gaze at herself in prayer she could exercise her special devotion to the saints, devotion already communicated through the elaborate number of them included in the book and through the excessive decoration in this part of the book.
ART HISTORICAL ASPECTS
Some of the suggestions of earlier scholarship about the cultural centrality of the illumination of the book are still valuable and recent research has only served to enhance and further develop these suggestions.55 Two things have
53 See on meditation, medieval reading and the Book of Hours Laura Sterponi, “Reading and meditation in the Middle Ages: Lectio divina and Books of Hours,” Text&Talk 28:5 (2008), 667-689. 54 The donor portrait in Mary of Burgundy’s Book of Hours (Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 1857, fol. 14v) is a well-known example. In the miniature Mary of Burgundy is praying from a Book of Hours, while behind her a scene in a church interior opens up where Mary is visible again, this time kneeling in prayer before Virgin and Child. Roger S. Wieck, Time Sanctified: the Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life (Baltimore, 1988), 44; Michael Clanchy, “Images of Ladies with Prayerbooks: What Do They Signify?” in The Church and the Book, ed. R.N. Swanson (Woodbridge, 2004), 120; Bret Rothstein, “The Rule of Metaphor and the Play of the Viewer in the Hours of Mary of Burgundy,” in Image and Imagination of the Religious Self in Early Modern Europe, eds. Reindert L. Falkenburg, Walter S. Melion and Todd M. Richardson (Turnhout, 2007), 237-275. 55 The following has been based on the research conducted by art historians Rob Dückers and Miranda Bloem, who have been so kind as to share their material and insights with me. Rob Dückers has, among many other things, been involved with the two large exhibitions at the Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen about the Limbourg Brothers and the Hours of Cath- erine of Cleve. Miranda Bloem has recently finished her doctoral dissertation on the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg (‘De Meesters van Zweder van Culemborg: Werkplaatspraktijken van een groep Noord-Nederlandse verluchters, ca. 1415-1440.’ University of Amsterdam, 2015) and now works as a postdoctoral researcher on the prayer book of Mary of Guelders at the Radboud University. This small section can only serve as an introduction to their cur- rent and future work. Rob Dückers has already developed some of these ideas in his articles “The Limbourg Brothers and the North. Book Illumination and Panel Painting in the Guelders Region 1380-1435,” in the exhibition catalogue The Limbourg Brothers: Nijmegen MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 191 become increasingly clear. First of all, it seems that for their compositions and iconographical programme the artists working on the illumination in the part of Mary’s book copied by Helmich die Lewe have borrowed extensively from the work of the Limbourg Brothers, such as to imply that they must have been into contact with these famous artists or at least have seen models of them. The number of examples that can be given has significantly increased when more of the book became known. Of these examples it will suffice to name one to illustrate this point.56 The artists borrowed both single figures, as well as more complex compositions. In their new compositions they did not always copy their sources directly, but rather formed a new picture out of different elements. Thus the figure of St Mark the Evangelist on fol. 184v of the prayer book (fig. 2, the middle figure) shows remarkable similarity to a depiction of St Jerome in the Belles Heures (fol. 183r, fig. 3), in its seated position on the cathedra and in the draping of the clothes.57 Rob Dückers has suggested the possibility that these points of contact came about when the Limbourg brothers visited their home town Nijmegen, on various occasions, such as in 1413 and 1415, a time in which the illuminators of Mary’s prayer book would have been active.58 This makes it tempting to locate these artists in Nijmegen.59 At the time Nijmegen was an important cultural centre; it was also the hometown of the Limbourg Brothers and their relatives the Maelwael family. An important residence for the court of Guelders, the Valkhof, was located in Nijmegen.60 The illuminators working on Mary’s book have in their turn influenced developments in book illumination in the Northern Netherlands. A connection between French book illumination and later artists in the Northern Netherlands has been established for some time now, but the precise manner of how that
Masters at the French Court 1400-1416 (Nijmegen, 2005) 64-83; and in “A close encounter? The Limbourg Brothers and illumination in the Northern Netherlands in the first half of the fifteenth century”, The Limbourg Brothers: Reflections on the Origins and Legacy of Three Illuminators from Nijmegen (Leiden/Boston, 2009), 149-189. 56 See Rob Dückers, “The Limbourg Brothers and the North” for some more examples. 57 New York, MMA, Cloisters Collection, Acc. 54.1.1. The Belles Heures is one of the Books of Hours that was illuminated by the Limbourg Brothers, in commission of duke Jean of Berry, the family relation of Mary of Guelders. See Timothy Husband, The Art of Illumination:the Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008). 58 Dückers, “The Limbourg Brothers and the North,” 77. 59 As had already been suggested by Finke, “Utrecht-Zentrum nordniederländischer Buch- malerei.” 60 More on the Guelders court: G. Nijsten, “Hof en cultuur: karakteristiek van een mid- delgroot hof aan de Nederrijn,” in: Gelre, Geldern, Gelderland: geschiedenis en cultuur van het hertogdom Gelre, eds. Johannes Stinner and D.M. Oudesluijs (Geldern, 2001), 373- 382; and Nijsten, In the Shadow of Burgundy. A recent study of the Valkhof residence is: Hettie Peterse, Dolly Verhoeven et al. (eds.), Het Valkhof: 2000 jaar geschiedenis (Nijmegen, 2014). 192 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
Figure 2. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. Germ. qu. 42, fol. 184v: St George, St Mark the Evangelist and St Vitalis Figure 3. New York, MMA, Cloisters Collection, Acc. 54.1.1, fol. 183r, St Jerome studying classical philosophers
connection came about remained more or less a mystery.61 As mentioned above, Guelders has been named as the route through which these innovations in manuscript painting came to Utrecht, but this has remained only a tentative hypothesis. Now that the images of the prayer book of Mary of Guelders are available, it has become much easier to analyse the connection between France and the Northern Netherlands. As we have seen above, the illuminators working on the decoration in Mary’s prayer book were familiar with the work of the Limbourg Brothers and in their turn the work of the Mary of Guelders Masters was spread to other artists in the northern part of the Low Countries, most notably to the Masters of Zweder of Culemborg.62 Miranda Bloem has found numerous examples of either direct derivations or indirect relations between the two groups of artists. This borrowing occurred in their compositions and use of iconography. A clear example can be seen in comparing the miniature on fol. 127v of Mary’s prayer book (fig. 4) with a miniature in a Book of Hours
61 As noted above, the connection was already remarked on by several scholars and further developed by Rob Dückers, “The Limbourg Brothers and the North;” and “A close encoun- ter?”. 62 See Miranda Bloem, “Changing Workshop Policies: Passion Cycles by the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg,” The Use of Models in Medieval Book Painting, ed. Monika E. Müller (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2014), 111-136 and her doctoral dissertation, De Meesters van Zweder van Culemborg’. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 193
Figure 4. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. Germ.qu. 42, fol. 127v: the Trinity
Figure 5. The Hague, Royal Library, 79 K 2, fol. 89v: the Harrowing of Hell
illuminated by the Zweder Masters, fol. 89v (fig. 5).63 Obviously, the figure of Christ is derived from the same model, even though the subjects of the minia- tures differ. Thus, the pose of Christ, but especially the draping of his clothes are almost exactly the same. Many more examples could illustrate this artistic connection. It is clear that the illuminators of the Berlin prayer book and the Zweder Masters had access to the same models. Other clues, such as use of the same colours and the way drolleries are placed on the folios, may even indicate the Zweder Masters had studied the original manuscript. The Zweder Masters in their turn influenced book illumination by later artists, notably the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht and the Master of Catherine of Cleves, the artist responsible for that other famous Guelders prayer book.64
63 The Hague, Royal Library, Ms. 79 K 2. 64 The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves was subject of a 2009 exhibition in Nijmegen. See the exhibition catalogue: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves: Devotions, Demons and 194 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
Through the commission of her book with local artists Mary influenced the development of book illumination in this region. It is of course tempting to suggest that she was familiar with the work of the Limbourg Brothers and other French illuminators, such as the Parisian Boucicaut Masters, through her con- nection to the French court. There are tangible points of contact with the French court, even after she came to Guelders: from the inventories of Jean of Berry it is known that Mary, his niece, exchanged gifts with him when she was duchess of Guelders.65 Her refined taste would have required the artists working on her book to aspire after the same quality of illumination. This in turn boosted the development of illumination in the Northern Netherlands through the relation between these artists and the masters of Zweder van Culemborg and others. This influence could also work in a different way: relations of Mary of Guelders and people at the Guelders’ court could have commissioned books to be illu- minated in the same style. As stated by Bell, “the radius of a book’s exposure was fairly wide.”66 There are thus many ways that either book commissioners or book artists could become familiar with new developments in style, ico- nography or composition that would be worked into new works of art. As to the question of where these artists would have been located precisely it seems to be impossible to give a convincing answer. The boundaries in the Low Countries were not fixed and the distances were not that large as to make it impossible to imagine that artists could travel from place to place to work wher- ever economic possibilities or large commissions presented themselves. Also the books themselves could have been brought to a workshop in a different town. An example in this case is a little Book of Hours closely related to the prayer book of Mary of Guelders: the Book of Hours of Kunera of Leefdael.67 This Book of Hours is illuminated in two styles: the first part of the book is the work of the so-called Master of the Morgan Infancy Cycle. The decoration of the Hours of Eternal Wisdom, however, is the work of the Passion Master of Mary of Guelders. It is uncertain where the Master of the Morgan Infancy should be located; Utrecht and Delft are arguable possibilities.68 The possible collaboration between these two masters suggests either the mobility of these artists or of the book they were
Daily Life in the Fifteenth Century, eds. Rob Dückers and Ruud Priem (Antwerp, 2009). See for more about the development of fifteenth-century book illumination The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting. See for the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht also S. van Bergen, ‘De Meesters van Otto van Moerdrecht.’ 65 This has been pointed out several times, for example in The Golden Age of Dutch Manu- script Painting, 68. In most of these references the source of this information was unclear; the record can be found in the edition of the inventories of Jean of Berry, Inventaires de Jean Duc de Berry, ed. Jules Guiffrey (Paris, 1894), 316 (item 1181 and 1142). 66 S.G. Bell, “Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture,” Signs 8 (1982), 742-768, here 763. 67 Utrecht, University Library, Ms. 5 J 26. The Golden Age, no. 15. 68 See James H. Marrow, “Dutch Manuscript Illumination before the Master of Catherine of Cleves: The Master of the Morgan Infancy Cycle,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 19 (1968), 51-113. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 195 working on. However, much is still unknown about the relation between the artists working in the Northern Netherlands.
TEXTUAL ASPECTS
Up until now research on Mary’s book has almost exclusively focused on its art historical elements. Although the beauty and quality of the illumination makes this understandable, it does not do justice to the importance of the book on other levels, especially in the richness of its textual material. Even a cursory look at other extant devotional manuscripts of this period and region makes clear that Mary’s book stands out. Apart from the prayers arranged according to the liturgical year there are about a hundred separate prayers, with different themes, lengths and functions. It is difficult to find a manuscript from this period and region that matches this number. It must be noted, however, that this field is still largely unexplored. The individual prayers in manuscripts are generally not the main interest in studies.69 The study of devotional manuscripts has traditionally focused on art historical, codicological or literary aspects; on practices of scribes or workshops; on marginalia; on rubrics, but not often on the contents of the prayers themselves. However, analysing the contents gives new possibilities to enhance our understanding on an individual’s prayer life in this period, and also sheds light on the kind of devotional material available at the time. Especially interesting in Mary’s prayer book is the fact that it also displays the personal involvement of Mary with its composition and thus the personal character of the book.70 Although many of the texts and prayers can be found in other devotional books at the time, the sheer number of the texts and its unique combination are worth noting: this reveals something of Mary’s per- sonal wishes. This is confirmed by the colophon with its phrase hait laissen scriven (“has ordered to be written”): this hints at the close involvement of Mary with the commission and thus likely also the assembling of her book.
69 In the Low Countries, research in this field is still largely dependant on the work of Maria Meertens, in her four-volume De Godsvrucht in de Nederlanden, naar handschriften van gebedenboeken der XVe eeuw (Antwerpen/Nijmegen, 1930-1934). One category, rhymed prayers, is the subject of the study and repertory of Johan Oosterman, De gratie van het gebed: Middelnederlandse berijmde gebeden: overlevering en functie (Amsterdam, 1995). Also, several catalogi of medieval manuscripts contain excellent overviews of texts and prayers: a few examples are Gerard Achten and Hermann Knaus, Deutsche und Niederlän- dische Gebetbuchhandschriften der Hessischen Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt (Darmstadt, 1959); Gerda C. Huisman, Catalogus van de middeleeuwse handschriften in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Nijmegen (Leuven, 1994); Jan Deschamps and Herman Mulder, Inventaris van de Middelnederlandse handschriften van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België (Brussel, 1998-2012). 70 J. Oosterman, “Hait laissen scriven: het gebedenboek van Maria van Gelre als pro- gramma,” Numaga Jaarboek 2015, 26-36. 196 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
This makes it possible to examine the collection of texts and images as having a special relevance or preference for her. The whole book is clearly designed for a laywoman with spiritual ambitions that went beyond those of the average medieval believer. This becomes most clear in the main part of the book, the prayers arranged according to the liturgi- cal year. This section allowed Mary to celebrate all Sundays and all the major feasts both of the temporal and the sanctoral calendar (fols. 46r-284v). As the duchess would certainly have had many other activities and duties, this would not take too much of her time: every Sunday and feast day is celebrated with one suffrage. Only the most important feasts of the year – Christmas, Easter and Pentecost – are given more prayers. For example, at Christmas the Marian prayer Obsecro te is provided, with a rubric promising an indulgence (fols. 51v-57v). For Good Friday and Easter there is a sequence of prayers that allowed the reader to reflect intensely on the Passion and on the significance of the Sacrament. For Good Friday this includes a rhymed prayer arranged according to the canonical hours (fols. 95r-100r, the beginning is lost because one folio has been taken out), and for Easter Sunday a translation of Summe Sacerdos et Vere Pontifex, which is found more often in devotional books.71 Some of these prayers are meant to be read in church or chapel, before Com- munion, as is made clear by the rubrics such as “Another good prayer for when you will receive the Holy Sacrament.”72 The other prayers (fol. 285r onward) can be read at various occasions. For example, the first prayer that follows after the Commune Sanctorum is an extensive prayer based on the words of the Ave Maria (fols. 285r-303v). The prologue and epilogue promise great rewards for those who read the prayer: “an indulgence for confessed sins, extraordinary mercy and help and consola- tion on earth.” The greatest benefits are of course derived when the prayer is read every day. However, when this is not possible the user is advised to read at least the first two parts every day.73 This spiritual programme of the book could thus be adapted to the changing circumstances of a noblewoman’s life.
71 See for example Meertens, De Godsvrucht in de Nederlanden, III, 63. 72 Fol. 109v: Eyn ander guet gebet als men dat heilige sacrame(n)t ontfancgen sall. Mary was involved in the consecration of at least one chapel, one at castle Nergena, as was examined by Gerard Nijsten, Het Hof van Gelre, 345. 73 fol. 303r-v: Va(n)diesen gebet saltu drijveldige(n) loen intfancge(n) hie up ertrijchen dat yerste Afflaiss alle dijnre beruwe(n) sunden Tzo dem andere(n) maill sunderliche genade alre geestlicher genaden Tzo dem dijrden maill bereitheit zu helpen in scheydlichen leyven ind mijne(n) tgainwordigen troist an dinen erde Wat ich vur dich doen wil in dem hemelriche des wijrtz du waill erkant wanneer du tzo dem ewige(n) leve(n) komes Ind wanneer du dat. Ave Maria niet moichs sprechen alle dage so sprechet niet meer dan die yrste tzwey. Ind dat sprech alle dage die sijnc mir alre liefste so machstu genade(n) loen wail erwerve(n) als hie geschreven steit. See for similar instructions taking into account the personal circumstances of the reader and adapting the performance of a prayer to these circumstances: Van Aelst, Passie voor het Lijden, 89; id., Vruchten van de Passie, 50; and Oosterman, “Om de grote kracht der woorden. Middelnederlandse gebeden en rubrieken in het Brugge van de vroege MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 197
There are several more prayers that have special instructions preceding them. One interesting example is the introduction to a prayer that asks Mary of Guelders to turn to every cardinal direction to pray a Pater Noster as the proper preparation for the prayer that follows.74 This prayer is one to the blood and wounds of Christ, and thus the instruction connects the sacred nature of these wounds to the physical reality of the four cardinal winds.75 A second prayer instructs Mary in her visit to church, another indication that she took the book to church with her: “When you enter a church fall down on your knees, with humility, in front of the Cross, lift up your eyes and pray a Pater Noster. After doing this, say the following prayer: (…).”76 In this way these prayers built a close relation between the world of personal devotion and external images or objects and/or ask for a specific physical involvement of the supplicant with the prayer. Although at first glance the collection of prayers seems to be somewhat haphazard, there is an underlying structure that would allow the reader to choose the appropriate prayer for the right occasion or to the right supplicant. Roughly there is a division between prayers to Christ, prayers to Mary and then a collection of so-called charms.77 The main aim of charms is “securing protec- tion” and thus they are frequently interspersed with the sign of the cross and with ‘holy words’ such as the sentence from Scripture Ihesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibat.78 The line is taken from a story in Luke 4: the Jews wanted to attack Jesus and throw him from a cliff, but he walked unharmed through their midst and left. It thus carried with it the sphere of divine protec- tion. These elements are also found in the most personal prayer of the entire prayer book, a special prayer for the protection of Mary’s husband Reinald (fols. 391r-393v). The rubric instructs the duchess to read the prayer every day. The prayer petitions God to send his angels to protect Reinald from all possible afflictions, enemies and ailments that might befall him. The prayer is at the
vijftiende eeuw,” in Boeken voor de Eeuwigheid: Middelnederlands geestelijk proza, ed. Th. Mertens (Amsterdam, 1993), 230-244, here 239. 74 This is the rhymed prayer starting: Ich bevele dich in den heiligen weerden V vloen, a prayer to the five streams of blood flowing from Christ’s wounds. The introduction and the prayer can be found on fols. 407v-409r. The prayer is found more often in Middle Dutch prayer books, see Oosterman, De gratie van het gebed, vol. 2, R.154, second version, although it seems that the rubric is unique. 75 Margriet Hoogvliet, “Mappae mundi: scriptura et pictura: textes, images et herméneu- tique des mappemondes du Moyen Age long (XIIIe-XVIe siècles),” Dissertation University of Groningen 1999, 273-280; Anna C. Esmeijer, Divina quaternitas: a Preliminary Study in the Method and Application of Visual Exegesis (Assen, 1978). 76 Als du in die kirche komes valle op dine knyen oitmoedelich vur dat crucifix slach op dijne ougen ind les Pater noster. Daer na les dit. [inc.:] O du hemelsche vader ontbarme dich oever mich arme sunderinne ind vergif mir alle mine sunden. 77 Reinburg, French Books of Hours, 158-160. E. Duffy, Marking the Hours: English People and their Prayers, 1240-1570 (New Haven, 2006), 93-94; Don C. Skemer, Binding Words: Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages (University Park, Pa., 2006). 78 For example on fol. 395v, accompanied by two signs of the cross. 198 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN very end of the section copied by Helmich die Lewe and is direct evidence of the personal involvement of Mary with the book.
BOOK OF HOURS, BREVIARY OR PRAYER BOOK?
Both because the main focus of research on the book has been on its decoration and because it is unlike other devotional manuscript it has proven difficult to fit Mary’s book within a clear category of manuscripts. The first comparison to be made is that with the Book of Hours. Although it has seldom been described as one,79 the prayer book of Mary of Guelders contains a few texts that are usually found in Books of Hours, namely the Penitential Psalms and Litany and the Office of the Dead. One more text found in the Geert Grote Book of Hours (see below) is also included: the Hours of Eternal Wisdom. This raises the question why the most common office in the Books of Hours, in fact, the element that formed the original part of the book, the Hours of the Virgin, is missing in Mary’s book. It is highly unlikely that Mary would not have prayed the Hours of the Virgin, her namesake, since the rest of the book dem- onstrates that devotion to the Virgin was an important part of Mary of Guelders’ devotional life. That leaves two other plausible explanations: either the Hours of the Virgin were part of this prayer book but they were lost at some point in history, or this office was not in this book, and Mary had a different book of hours from which she could pray these Hours. Both explanations can be reason- ably defended. There are multiple places in the book where leaves must have been taken out and the complicated life of the book, which went through mul- tiple stages of binding, adding, rebinding, dividing, makes it quite possible that one or more parts have been lost entirely. On the other hand, there are many examples of noble men and women in this period who had multiple devotional books. One only has to look at the number of books commissioned and owned by the duke de Berry to know the extent of the possibilities. A different example, cited by Thérèse de Hemptinne, demonstrates that sometimes medieval book owners applied a certain hierarchy to their books: this woman had one book of hours for daily use and one for Sundays and feastdays.80 A woman of Mary’s status might certainly have had a few different devotional books. When con- sidering this second option, it also becomes relevant to discuss the language used in these books. If we assume that to pray in Latin had a certain connota- tion for Mary of Guelders (see below) it also becomes possible to consider that to have a Book of Hours in Latin and to pray regularly from that, in the case of the Hours of the Virgin, had a special significance for the user.
79 An exception is, Harthan, Books of Hours and their Owners, 80-81. 80 “Reading, Writing, and Devotional Practices: Lay and Religious Women and the Written Word in the Low Countries (1350-1550)” in The Voice of Silence: Women’s Literacy in a Men’s Church, eds. Thérèse de Hemptinne and María Eugenia Góngora (Turnhout, 2004), 117, n. 24. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 199
Thus, not a typical Book of Hours, Mary’s book has sometimes been described as a breviary.81 The description ‘breviary’ for this book probably comes from the arrangement of prayers according to the liturgical year and the size of the book, closer to breviaries than other devotional books from the period. However, the breviary is a completely different book, used by members of the clergy to celebrate the Divine Office according to the canonical hours and the liturgical year.82 The inclusion of the prayers for the liturgical year does imply a desire to copy the religious life. This desire can also be detected in other developments in this century, for example the semi-religious life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life and the tertiaries.83 This again is indication that Mary’s desire for a devout life went beyond that of an average laywoman. Although described as a Book of Hours and as a breviary, the most common designation of Mary’s book is ‘prayer book’. This derives from a specific understanding of the difference between prayer books and Books of Hours. There have been publications that list the ‘necessary’ elements that a book needs to be called a Book of Hours in order to distinguish between Books of Hours and other books of prayers.84 Furthermore, a book that has one or two
81 It seems that for a long time the contents of the Vienna part, which contains all the offices and the Penitential Psalms, was not well known, leading to the designation of the Berlin volume as a prayer book or breviary. It is called a breviary by Byvanck, “Aantekeningen over Handschriften met Miniaturen,” 115; Hoogewerff, De Noord-Nederlandse Schil- derkunst, 162; Lieftinck, “Windesheim, Agnietenberg en Marienborn,” 205; Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination, 19. 82 Although the breviary was by exception also used by lay people, of which a famous – and Guelders – example is the breviary owned by Arnold van Egmont, the husband of Catherine of Cleves (New York, Morgan Library & Museum, M.87), which is illuminated by the Zweder Masters. But even this lay use of the breviary might have been restricted to use within the context of the Carthusian monastery which Arnold van Egmont is known to have visited occasionally: Rob Dückers, “The Hours of Catherine of Cleves as a Book of Hours,” The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, ed. Rob Dückers et al. (Gütersloh/Munich 2010), 47-86, here 51. Although the common elements of the Book of Hours, the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead are derived from the breviary, Mary’s book is of a very different character, designed specifically for use by a laywoman. See for the evolution of the Book of Hours from the breviary Roger S. Wieck, Time Sanctified: the Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life (New York, 1988), 27-28, G. Achten, “Das christliche Gebet im Mittelalter,” in Das christliche Gebetbuch im Mittelalter: Andachts-und Stundenbücher in Handschriften und Frühdruck. 2nd. ed. (Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Berlin, 1987), 7-44, here 30-32. 83 Youri Desplenter has studied the so-called ‘lay breviary’, concluding that this book was not actually an entire translation of the breviary for use by lay-people or tertiaries, but actu- ally the translation of selected offices, probably meant to enable the user to familiarize themselves with liturgical prayer: “Lofzangen overgeghesedt en gheprent. Van Die dutsche souter (1480) tot Sailly’s Verscheyden Litanien (1595),” Trajecta 16 (2007), 5-29, here 8. See also Desplenter, Al aertrijc segt lofsanc: Middelnederlandse vertalingen van Latijnse hymnen en sequensen (Ghent, 2008). 84 See for example F. Gorissen “Das Stundenbuch im rheinischen Niederland,” in Studien zur klevischen Musik- und Liturgiegeschichte. Beiträge zur Rheinischen Musikgeschichte 75 (Keulen, 1968), 63-109, see especially 64-65; R. Van Dijk “Het getijdenboek van Geert Grote. Terugblik en vooruitzicht,” Ons Geestelijk Erf 64 (1990), 156-194, here 160-162; 200 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN offices and/or a calendar, but also a large collection of prayers would then be called a prayer book.85 Other scholars do not make a clear distinction, thus using a more broad definition of the genre.86 Fitting Mary’s book within a clear category is difficult, making it necessary to use a pragmatic approach that focuses on use and function of the book. Mary’s book allowed her to participate in a broad range of devotional activities, both public and private, at home or in a church, for both shorter and longer periods of time. The book functions as an aid for prayer, making the term ‘prayer book’ most appropriate.
MARY’S BOOK WITHIN ITS CONTEXT
What we have seen so far makes clear that the Mary’s prayer book is a remark- able manuscript. However, we also have to recognise that it has been created within a context of devotional manuscripts of the time. The specific context for Mary’s book is complex, made up of different spheres of influence: that of her youth in France and her new home in Guelders, which itself was a region in which different cultural tendencies are visible. In this section I will examine Mary’s book in comparison with other (genres of) books and demonstrate how different cultural influences are detectable, in order to come even closer to Mary’s own preferences and taste. To make this possible it is also necessary to make use of different national traditions in research. For example, the research on devotional books and Books of Hours in the Netherlands is dominated by research on Geert Grote’s vernacular version of the Book of Hours and the circumstances of its origins: the movement of the Devotio Moderna. Other historiographical traditions can be detected in France, England or in the research conducted on Books of Hours originating in the Southern Low Countries, since books from this region are in many aspects different from Books of Hours in the Northern Low Countries.87 Of course, it is not possible to deny that there are indeed certain common features that can be detected within devotional
Korteweg, “Tellen en meten. Noordnederlandse getijdenboeken in de database van het Alexander Willem Byvanck Genootschap,” Boeken in de Late Middeleeuwen. Verslag van de Groningse Codicologendagen 1992, eds. Jos M.M. Hermans and Klaas van der Hoek (Groningen 1994), 313-324, here 315. See for a clear overview of the relevant publications on this subject, Dückers, “The Hours of Catherine of Cleves as a Book of Hours,” 53-56. 85 Van Dijk, “Methodologische kanttekeningen bij het onderzoek van getijdenboeken,” in Boeken voor de eeuwigheid: Middelnederlands geestelijk proza, ed. Th. Mertens (Amsterdam, 1993), 210-229, here 210; Korteweg, “Tellen en meten,” 315. 86 For example, J.B. Oosterman, “Om de grote kracht der woorden. Middelnederlandse gebeden en rubrieken in het Brugge van de vroege vijftiende eeuw,” in Mertens (ed.), Boeken voor de eeuwigheid, 230-244, here 232-233. 87 It is interesting to note that a very different tradition is detectable in Germany, where the Book of Hours was not the main devotional book. See J. Hamburger, “Another perspective: The Book of Hours in Germany,” in Books of Hours Reconsidered, eds. Sarah Hindman and James Marrow (Turnhout, 2013), 97-152. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 201 manuscripts from a specific time and region. However, in the case of research on books such as that of Mary of Guelders, it becomes necessary to break through regional boundaries. Among other things, through intermarriage cul- tural boundaries were much more fluid than is suggested by some of the lit- erature.88 I will therefore analyse the prayer book of Mary of Guelders from different regional perspectives, making clear how this book is both part of the cultural traditions and also diverges from it. As seen above, there are some similarities between Mary’s book and the Book of Hours, inviting a closer look at the most common Book of Hours in the region: the Book of Hours of Geert Grote. Geert Grote was a founder of the spiritual reform movement known as the Devotio Moderna and named translator of the Book of Hours into Middle Dutch.89 Another reason to look into the influence of this movement is the fact that the scribe, Helmich die Lewe, was canon regular at Marienborn, a monastery belonging to the Windesheim Chapter, which was the monastic branch of the Devotio Moderna.90 The precise composition of the Book of Hours that Grote translated cannot be reconstructed, but it is clear that the Middle Dutch Book of Hours was enormously popular.91 It is termed the most popular book in the Low Countries in the fifteenth and
88 Bell, “Medieval Women Book Owners,” 743. 89 There is extensive literature on the Modern Devotion. See for a good overview, K. Goudriaan, “Empowerment through reading, writing and example: The Devotio Moderna”, in The Cam- bridge History of Christianity, vol. 4: Christianity in Western Europe, c. 1100 – c.1400, eds. Miri Rubin and Walter Simons, 405-419, and the literature cited there. 90 Marienborn was the third monastery to be founded after Windesheim itself, in 1392. On Marienborn see Monasticon Windeshemense III: Niederlande (Brussels, 1980), 127-144. 91 The texts most commonly found in the Geert Grote Book of Hours are the Hours of the Virgin, the Long and/or Short Hours of the Cross, the Hours of the Holy Spirit, the Hours of Eternal Wisdom, the Penitential Psalms and Litany and the Office of the Dead. Various other texts may also appear, for example the Hours of the Trinity and various prayers. Not one of these books is precisely the same, however, as the inclusion of texts and their order varies significantly. See for a discussion of Geert Grote as translator and for the Geert Grote Book of Hours more generally R.Th.M. van Dijk, “Het getijdenboek van Geert Grote”; id., “Methodologische kanttekeningen;” R.Th.M. van Dijk and Frank van der Pol, “Het getijdenboek van het Agnietenconvent te Kampen,” Trajecta 7 (1998), 111-133. More recently Anne Korteweg has presented some new arguments concerning the Geert Grote Book of Hours and specifically Geert Grote’s role as a translator: “Books of Hours from the Northern Netherlands Reconsidered: The Uses of Utrecht and Windesheim and Geert Grote’s Role as a Translator,” Books of Hours Reconsidered, eds. Sarah Hindman and James Marrow (Turnhout, 2013), 235-261. An edition of the Geert Grote Book of Hours is N. van Wijk (ed.), Het Getijdenboek van Geert Grote naar het Haagse handschrift 133 E 21 (Leiden, 1940). See for Books of Hours more generally Roger S. Wieck, Time Sanctified. Two studies that are more concerned with the textual contents of the Book of Hours than its art historical or codicological elements are Eamon Duffy, Marking the Hours; Virginia Reinburg, French Books of Hours. Jeffrey Hamburger provides an interesting contrast with an over- view of German Books of Hours. He notes that the tendency is to include a much more varied table of contents, “such as snippets of sermons, meditations, pastoral epistles (known as Sendbriefe), and short edifying treatises.” In this context Hamburger states that in com- parison French and Dutch Books of Hours are “more regimented and restricted in what they do or do not include.” These German Books of Hours conform more closely to the liber 202 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN early sixteenth centuries, of which the estimates of extant manuscripts range between 800 and 2000.92 It is believed that Grote made his translation for the benefit of the Sisters of the Common Life, but owners of the text can be found among several other groups, including laywomen (and a few men), and other religious and semi-religious communities, of which Franciscan tertiaries form the largest group.93 It has been held as a distinguishable feature of the Devotio Moderna that they valued the vernacular as a vehicle for religious knowledge.94 Middle Dutch Books of Hours thus outnumber Latin Books of Hours in this region, although a systematic study of this phenomenon still needs to be con- ducted.95 Mary’s prayer book contains a mix of Latin and the vernacular in some of the texts, which hints at one of Mary’s cultural religious preferences. Nearly all the texts containing Latin are found in the Vienna manuscript. The Peniten- tial Psalms, Gradual Psalms and the Mass Offices are all entirely written in Latin and the Office of the Dead and the Hours of Eternal Wisdom are alter- nately in Latin and in the vernacular: the Psalms are in Latin and the other texts are in the vernacular. While it is possible to identify the vernacular parts as adaptions of the Geert Grote translation of the Book of Hours, it is unusual that scribe Helmich die Lewe would choose to keep the Psalms in Latin, at a time when translations of the Psalms were already available.96 Could this reflect a special preference of Mary of Guelders? She might have learned Latin as a child while reading and praying the Psalms, a common practice in learning precum, the more popular devotional book in German-speaking regions (Hamburger, “Another Perspective,” 99). 92 Van Dijk, “Het getijdenboek van Geert Grote”, 161 gives the estimate of “800-2000”; Van Dijk and Van der Pol, “Het getijdenboek van het Agnietenconvent”, 113 give the number of c. 2000. See also Mertens, “Praying in the Vernacular: Middle Dutch Imitative Forms of the Divine Office from the 1370s tot 1520s,” in Nuns’ Literacies in Medieval Europe: The Hull Dialogue, eds. Virginia Blanton, Veronica O’Mara, and Patricia Stoop (Turnhout, 2013), 133-146, here 138 and n.19. 93 Youri Desplenter has looked at overviews of known ownerships marks in Books of Hours and listed some preliminary findings in Al aertrijc segt lofsanc, vol. I, 161-225. 94 Gerard Zerbolt van Zutphen (1367-1398) wrote a treatise on reading in the vernacular: De precibus vernaculis, in which the use of the vernacular in prayer is defended, although not in the case of reading that was difficult to interpret. See for example Y. Desplenter, “Overgezet voor het gebed. Latijnse hymnen en sequensen in het Middelnederlands,” Tijd- schrift voor Nederlandse Taal en Letterkunde 122 (2006), 193-212; N. Staubach, “Gerhard Zerbolt van Zutphen und die Apologie der Laienlektüre in der Devotio Moderna,” in Laien- lektüre und Buchmarkt in späten Mittelalter, eds. Th. Kock and R. Schlusemann (Frankfurt am Main, 1995), 221-289. Edition in A. Hyma (ed.) “‘De libris teutonicalibus,’ by Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen,” Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis 17 (1924), 42-70. 95 Anne Korteweg, “Tellen en meten,” lists some preliminary findings on the occurrence of certain features of Northern Dutch Books of Hours, based on the study of about 600 man- uscripts. One of her findings is that 90% of these manuscripts is written in Dutch, only 7% in Latin and 3% is of a mixture of Latin and Dutch. 96 Youri Desplenter, “Middelnederlandse psaltervertalingen: ‘Het is nergens voor nodig om veel meer boeken dan het psalter te bestuderen,’” Middelnederlandse bijbelvertalingen, eds. A. den Hollander, E. Kwakkel and W.F. Scheepsma (Hilversum, 2007), 77-86. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 203
Latin.97 Praying the Psalms in the universal language of the Church might have added to the experience an extra devotional depth, “an aura of invariance and universality over the rite.”98 Almost all French Books of Hours are mainly in Latin; there was no equivalent to the Geert Grote Book of Hours. A combina- tion of Latin and French is often found in a French Book of Hours as a whole: the offices and the various series of hours are in Latin (but often with French rubrics), while additional prayers are sometimes in French. The same pattern is common in Flemish Books of Hours. Praying in Latin may have provided the devout pray-er more connection with the sacred performance of the liturgy, while it was not necessary to entirely understand all the words, as voicing the words was deemed to be sufficient for receiving the benefits from it.99 When Mary came to Guelders, this French practice of praying in Latin must have converged with the increasingly widespread practice in this region of translating Latin religious texts. The Modern Devotion valued the vernacular as a vehicle for religious knowledge and promoted the vernacular Book of Hours, as described above. The situation in the Low Countries, with the widespread dis- semination of the Book of Hours in the vernacular, is uncommon in Europe.100 Thus the choice for the vernacular for the bulk of the book may be a direct result of the influence of the Modern Devotion on the devotional culture of the region, also reflected in Mary’s prayer book. The choice for the vernacular is even more significant considering the fact that the local dialect must have been foreign to the duchess when she first came to Guelders. She may have learned the language quickly or could have used the book as a learning aid. Another suggestive explanation for the choice for the vernacular is that it may have been a political choice to show the people of Guelders that Mary made an effort for the local culture through the local language.101 Not only the inclusion of Latin is indicative of Mary’s preference of French traditions. The prayer book includes a number of rhymed prayers, a substantial part of the collection of prayers, which is unusual in the Northern Netherlands in this period. Johan Oosterman has demonstrated that in this period Middle Dutch rhymed prayers occur frequently in Flemish Books of Hours and prayer
97 Jonathan Black, “The Divine Office and Private Devotion in the Latin West,” in The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, eds. Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter (Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2001), 45-72, here 71. See for the use of devotional books as learning tools also Kathryn M. Rudy, “An Illustrated Mid-Fifteenth-Century Primer for a Flemish Girl: British Library, Harley 3828,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 69 (2006), 76-85. 98 Reinburg, French Books of Hours, 238. See also Paul Saenger, “Books of Hours and the Reading Habits of the Later Middle Ages,” in The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, ed. Roger Chartier (Princeton, 1989), 141-173. 99 Reinburg, French Books of Hours, 89-92. 100 Van Dijk, “Methodologische kanttekeningen,” 213. Interestingly, the vernacular was also used in Books of Hours from another region close to Guelders, in German devotional books: Hamburger, “Another perspective,” 104. 101 This is for example suggested by Helmut Tervooren, Van der Masen tot op den Rijn, 267. 204 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN books, but hardly in books originating in the Northern Netherlands.102 Rhymed prayers are also present in French or Latin form in books from France. This might indicate a special preference that Mary brought with her. Furthermore, it might be that the later occurrence of rhymed prayers in the Northern Neth- erlands has travelled through the region of Guelders, just like the development of manuscript illumination. This fits the general characterisation of Guelders as a region in which creativity flourished.103 An interesting comparison of Mary’s book can be made with a book of French origin, now known as the London Hours of René of Anjou, which was made for an unknown person before it came into the possession of René of Anjou.104 It is dated around 1409-1410, connected to the Valois court. It has been suggested that the manuscript was made for liturgical use at the Sainte- Chapelle in Paris.105 This manuscript is thus far the only other example I have found that has arranged the suffrages of the saints in the manner as the book of Mary of Guelders, according to the liturgical year, starting with St Andrew (fol. 80v).106 The London Hours of René of Anjou include a number of 99 saints and feasts, a number that Harthan calls “astonishing.” In comparison, Mary of Guelders’ book contains 161 saints and feasts, and it is fairly certain that at least two folios of the Sanctorale are now lost. Might this practice of prayers according to the liturgical year be more common at the Valois court? The Calendar again indicates a preference for French-style Books of Hours.107 It is illustrated (although in the second phase of production, by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht), which at this point is very common in French Books of Hours. Furthermore, the calendar is written in the colours blue and red alterna- tively for the list of saints and the colours gold to mark the important feast days. This use of colour is common in (luxury) French devotional books of the time, but unusual, maybe even unique in the context of the Northern Nether- lands at the beginning of the fifteenth century, where the calendars normally use black ink for the regular feast days and red ink for the important feast days.108 A close look at the Office of the Dead and the Litany of All Saints compli- cates matters. While the vernacular sections of the Office of the Dead and the Hours of Eternal Wisdom are taken from the Geert Grote translation of the Book of Hours, this is not the case with the Office of the Dead and Litany. When analysing the lessons and responsories of the Office of the Dead it becomes clear that the Office of the Dead in Mary’s prayer book is not the use of Windesheim or Utrecht, which would be expected, but for the more general
102 Oosterman, De gratie van gebed, 51-52; 114-115; Id., “Om de grote kracht der woorden,” 232. 103 See the inaugural lecture of Oosterman, In daz Niderlant gezoget (Nijmegen, 2007). 104 London, British Library, Ms. Egerton 1070. 105 Harthan, Books of Hours and their owners, 92-93. 106 Harthan, Books of Hours and their owners, 92. 107 Dückers,”The Hours of Catherine of Cleves as a Book of Hours,” 60-61, and n. 41. 108 See for example, Byvanck, “Aantekeningen,” 114. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 205 use of Rome.109 Furthermore, even though the litany of All Saints is in the vernacular, it does not have the petitions that Geert Grote added.110 This seems to be contradictory to the close similarity that can be detected in the texts of the prayers, which suggests a direct relation in the textual tradition. There are two possible explanations. One option is that Helmich die Lewe copied from a previous manuscript. This unknown exemplar would then reflect a devotional book that did not conform to the most common Books of Hours that circulated in the circles of the Devotio Moderna, of which so many examples have sur- vived. A second possibility is that he carefully selected and shaped each text to fit the exact preferences of his commissioner, occasionally deviating from his exemplar. This second possibility fits the characterisation of the book as one that was specifically designed for and adapted to the taste of Mary of Guelders. More cultural diversity is indicated by some hints of influence from the region of Cologne and even the diocese of Liège. This can be detected in the illumination, which has been argued to have points of contact with the ‘Cologne- Style’. Also the dialect the book is written in points at Cologne.111 The calendar has a hybrid character, it has been identified as the use of Cologne, but also includes some saints venerated in the diocese of Liège.112 All this makes clear that the book has been created at an intersection of different cultural spheres, a conclusion that suggests that Mary of Guelders was “an arbiter of piety and an ambassador of culture.”113
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The importance of the prayer book of Mary of Guelders has long been recog- nized. Although there have been plans to write a monograph on the book114 and publish a facsimile of the entire book,115 both intentions have not been realised. There are still many questions to be answered and issues to be explored regarding this intriguing book. In this sixth and last part of this article I will present some of the issues that can be developed in further research.
109 Knud Ottosen, The Responsories and Versicles of the Latin Office of the Dead (Aarhus, 1993). The use of Rome is also not standard in French Books of Hours at the time, which followed the use of Paris, but is found in Flemish Books of Hours. The rationale for this choice is so far unexplained. 110 Van Dijk, “Methodologische kanttekeningen,” 228-229. 111 The language is a point of discussion and also a matter for further research. Gorissen states that the book is written “in kölnischer Sprache,” and points out that this is the dialect that was in use at the court of Guelders since at least 1378. “Ein Reisesegen,” 106. 112 See for an extensive discussion of the calender Gorissen, “Ein Reisesegen,” 106-107. 113 Term derives from Bell, “Medieval Women Book Owners.” 114 Vermeeren, “Kodikologische Notizen,” 473. 115 See Keller, 2 Stundenbücher, 7. 206 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
First of all, research on the prayer book of Mary of Guelders may enhance our understanding of the development of manuscript illumination in the Northern Netherlands. It could help to answer questions about the different workshops active in the Northern Netherlands in the first decades of the fifteenth century and the collaboration between them. Furthermore, future art historical research will also be able to look into fascinating new issues, such as collaboration between different artists and use of colour. This is possible through the technical analysis of both the Berlin and Vienna manuscripts, which will examine material aspects of the book, such as the use of pigments, parchment, and ink.116 This might answer questions about the division of labour between the artists and the way the decoration came about, among other things. The analysis of the textual material will likely also yield new and rich insights into devotional culture in the early fifteenth century. The few examples given in section five may suffice as a glimpse into the sort of prayers that can be found in this remarkable book. In her recent monograph Virginia Reinburg advocated the term “archive of prayer” to describe Books of Hours. She argues that most owners of Books of Hours used their book as an object to collect textual and visual material for use as “scripts for personal prayer.”117 The prayer book of Mary of Guelders is a prime case study to study as such an archive. It opens up new lines of enquiry. On a first level, this prayer book may be used to examine textual traditions of prayers and prayer collections. Some of the prayers can be found in many other prayer books and Books of Hours of the time, but because of its early date Mary’s book may be the first point of comparison. Further research might indicate other prayers to be unique or may find that the book is the first place that some prayers occur in a Middle Dutch translation.118 For example, a number of rhymed prayers seem to be unique in Middle Dutch prayer books.119 It is possible that Helmich die Lewe was the translator and maybe even creator of many of the prayers. Further research could thus look into the translation techniques, from Latin to Dutch. But even if he was not the translator or creator of prayers, the book is an invaluable col- lection since it demonstrates the extensiveness of the prayers available in this region at this time. The prayers may also be analysed to find out more about the various cultural influences detectable in the book. It is clear that in some respects the prayer book of Mary of Guelders was adapted to French models, making it certainly worth investigating whether this influence from France can also be detected in the selection of prayers. A parallel example of this process can be found in the Book of Hours of Joanna of Castille,120 which includes some textual choices
116 This research is already in progress, made possible through the crowdfunding project as mentioned in note 3. 117 Reinburg, French Books of Hours, 5. 118 The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting, 69. 119 They are not included in the study on Middle Dutch rhymed prayers by J. Oosterman, De gratie van het gebed. Or the prayer book includes a version of the prayer that was previously unknown, as is the case with the Stabat Mater translation (as Johan Oosterman has pointed out to me). 120 London, British Library, Add MS 35313, c. 1500. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 207 that “ensured that her past life in Spain would be preserved and incorporated into her new life as a Burgundian duchess.”121 If it were found that some of the prayers specifically have a French source, this would suggest that the duchess herself was indeed involved in the selection of the prayers. The comparison of Mary’s book with the London Hours of René of Anjou is an example of what placing her book within the context of the Valois court might reveal. It might have been a practice more common at the Valois court to have prayers in an arrangement that made it possible for the user to offer prayers at the most important feasts of the year, a practice that Mary wanted to be repeated in her new (mainly) vernacular prayer book. This suggestion cer- tainly invites further research. So far, the actual use of the prayer book has not been discussed. It is well known that some luxury devotional manuscripts served as status symbols, to show off wealth and cultural refinement. The little poem of Eustache Deschamps, originating in the circles of the French court at the end of the fourteenth century, is often cited to illustrate this point: A Book of Hours, too, must be mine, Where subtle workmanship will shine, Of gold an azure, rich and smart, Arranged and painted with great art, Covered with fine brocade of gold; And there must be, so as to hold The pages closed, two golden clasps.122 The wealth of the decoration in Mary’s prayer book can also point to this kind of use. However, this book was certainly not only a ‘coffee-table-book’. As demonstrated above, it was adapted to the specific tastes and preferences of the duchess of Guelders and thus different cultural influences can be detected. The selection of texts clearly shows a devotional ambition that certainly surpassed general lay interests. Furthermore, the material book also gives us clues that the book has certainly been used. Many pages show signs of wear and certain parts are more heavily ‘thumbed’ than others.123 This suggestion of intensive use adds a new dimension to the study of the book. This article has demon- strated some of the issues that are to be explored in relation to the prayer book
121 Joni M. Hand, Women, Manuscripts and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350-1550 (Farn- ham, 2013), 77. 122 Heures me fault de Nostre Dame / Qui soient de soutil ouvraige, / D’or et d’azur, riches et ceintes, /Bien ordonnées et bien pientes, / De fin drap d’or bien couvertes, / Et quant elles seront ouvertes, / Deux fermaulx d’or qui fermeront. Translation by Panofsky, Early Neth- erlandish Painting, vol. I, 68. Cited in Bell, “Medieval women book owners,” 160-161; Harthan, Books of Hours, 34-35; De Hemptinne, “Reading, writing, and devotional prac- tices,” 119, n. 32, 121. 123 Kathryn M. Rudy, “Dirty Books: Quantifying Patterns of Use in medieval Manuscripts Using a Densitometer,” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 2:1 (2010), 1-26. Further research might find out which parts are used more than others. See also Rudy, “Kissing Images, Unfurling Rolls, Measuring Wounds, Sewing Badges and Carrying Talismans: Con- sidering Some Harley Manuscripts through the Physical Rituals they Reveal,” British Library Journal, eBLJ (2011), article 5, 1-56. 208 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN of Mary of Guelders. Although the book has been well known, mainly in art historical scholarship, there are still many issues that could be studied to shed new light on the development of book illumination and open up various new lines of enquiry into the devotional culture of the time. To these promising lines of analysis can be added the study of the actual use and history of the materiality of the book, making the research of Mary’s book a rewarding venture that reveals a glimpse of what the personalised prayer life of a duchess of Guelders may have looked like.
APPENDIX CONTENTS OF THE MANUSCRIPTS
Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. Germ. qu. 42 Vellum, 184x132 mm, litera textualis. Composite manuscript: I: 1r-2v, 184x132 (113x79) mm., 19 lines, hand A; II: 3r-424v, 184x132 (92x58) mm., 14 lines, hand B (Helmich die Lewe); III: 425r-482v, 184x132 (130x87) mm., 20 lines, hand C.
1r-2v: Prayer, Hand A,Vernacular 3r-14v: Calendar (use of Cologne), Hand B (Helmich die Lewe) Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Labours of the Month 3r January: a man and two women sitting and eating at a table. A fireplace is burning. (miniature in the margin) 4r February: two women holding burning candles (miniature in the margin) 5r March: a woman holding a bowl with seeds while man is digging (miniature in the margin) 6r April: two men pruning a fruit tree (miniature in the mar- gin) 7r May: a man and woman holding flowers (miniature in the margin) 8r June: two men with bundles of crop (miniature in the mar- gin) 9r July: man holding a reaping hook/sickle (miniature in the margin) 10r August: a man reaping grain while a woman gathers it in bundles (miniature in the margin) 11r September:two men threshing (miniature in the margin) 12r October: one man crushing/trampling grapes with his feet while another brings more grapes (miniature in the margin) 13r November: two men slaughtering an ox (miniature in the margin) 14r December: a women kneading bread while a man shoves loaves in an oven. MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 209
15r [blank] 15v-17v: Prayer (vernacular translation of Salve sancte facies), Hand B Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht 15v Angel holding sudarium (full-page), 18r [blank] 18v Last judgment (full-page) 19r Rubric: Hier beghint van den heilige(n)/ alle dat iair durch. / Van S(int) Andriese dem apostele A(ntiphona). 19v Master of Mary of Guelders: Portrait of Mary of Guelders in hortus conclusus (full-page) 20r-44v: Hours of the Passion, Hand B Passion Master of Mary of Guelders 20r-23r [Lauds] 20r Arrest of Christ (half-page miniature) 23v-25r Prime 23v Christ before Pilate (half-page miniature) 25r-27r Terts 25r Scourging of Christ (half-page miniature) 27v-30r Sext 27v Christ carrying the cross (half-page miniature) 30r-36r None 30v Crucifixion (half-page miniature) 35v-37v Vespers 36r Descent from the cross (half-page miniature) 38r-39v Compline [Probably one leaf missing between fols. 38 and 39 with minia- ture.] 39v-43v the Resurrection of Christ 39v Resurrection (half-page miniature) 43v-44v The Ascension of Christ 43v Ascension (half-page miniature) rubric at end of folio 44v: missio sp(irit)us s(anc)ti 45r-145v: Suffrages arranged according to the Proprium de Tempore, Hand B Passion Master of Mary of Guelders 50v Emperor Augustus with the Sybil (half-page miniature) 59r St John the Evangelist and St Stephen (half-page minia- ture) 67v Baptism of Christ (half-page miniature) 72r Christ among the Doctors (half-page miniature) 77r Temptation of Christ in the Desert (half-page miniature) 83r Christ enters Jerusalem (half-page miniature) 85v Last Supper ((half-page miniature) Between 94 and 95 one folio missing, possibly with a min- iature. 210 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
103r the three women visit the empty grave ((half-page miniature) 114v Doubting Thomas with Christ (half-page miniature) 119r Ascension of Elijah (half-page miniature) 121r Moses receives the law (half-page miniature) 126r Angel offers help to Elijah (half-page miniature) 127v Trinity (half-page miniature) 132v Lazarus and the Rich Man (half-page miniature) 146r-268r: Suffrages arranged according to the Proprium Sanctorum, Hand B Master of Mary of Guelders 146r St Barbara, St Andrew, unidentified female saint (half-page miniature) 147v Madonna with Child, St Nicholas, St Lucia (half-page min- iature) 150r St Thomas apostle, St Lazarus, St Thomas Becket (half- page miniature) 152v St Silvester, St Titus, St Reginald (half-page miniature) 155r St Maurus, St Pontian, St Anthony (half-page miniature) 157r St Marcellus, St Sebastian, St Fabian (half-page miniature) 158v St Agnes, St Vincent, St Bathild (half-page miniature) 161r Conversion of St Paul (half-page miniature) 162r St Polycarp, Charlemagne, St John Chrysostom (half-page miniature) 164r St Bridget, St Ignatius, Madonna with Child (half-page miniature) 166r St Agatha, St Blaise, St Dorothea (half-page miniature) 168v St Appollonia, St Julian, St Scholastica (half-page minia- ture) Between 170 and 171 one leaf missing, likely with minia- ture of St Peter and others (as can be deduced from the suffrages that follow). 172v St Marinus, St Matthew, St Asterius (half-page miniature) 174r St Perpetua, St Gregory, St Felicity (half-page miniature) 175v St Gertrude, St Benedict, Madonna with Child (half-page miniature) 178r Grieving Mary with Man of Sorrows surrounded by the Arma Christi (half-page miniature) 179r St Guntram, St Balbina, St Quirinus (half-page miniature) 181r St Theodora, St Ambrose, St Mary of Egypt (half-page min- iature) 183v St Tiburtius, St Leo, St Valerian (half-page miniature) 184v St George, St Mark, St Vitalis (half-page miniature) 186v St Philip apostle, St Walpurga, St James apostle ((half- page miniature) MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 211
188r St Appollonius, St Alexander, St Sigmund (half-page min- iature) 190v St Palmatius, St John Evangelist, St Simplicus (half-page miniature) 192r St Servatius, St Helen, St Urban (half-page miniature) 193v St Marcellian, St Erasmus, St Peter Martyr (half-page min- iature) 195r St Primus, St Boniface, St Felician (half-page miniature) 196v St Vitus, St Barnabas, St Mark (half-page miniature) 198r St Gervasius, St Protasius, St Edeltrudis (half-page miniature) 199v Ten thousand martyrs, St Albinus, (half-page miniature) 201r St John Martyr, St John the Baptist, St Paul martyr (half- page miniature) 202v St Peter apostle, St Benignus, St Paul apostle (half-page miniature) 204r Madonna with child, the seven holy brothers (Januarius, Felix, Phillip, Silvanus, Alexander, Vitalis, Martialis), St Margaret (half-page miniature) 206v St Praxedes, St Alexius, St Mary Magdalene (half-page miniature) 209r St James apostle, St Christine, St Christopher (half-page miniature) 211r St Anna, St Pantaleon, St Martha (half-page miniature) 213v St Abdon, St Germanus, St Sennen (half-page miniature) 215r St Peter apostle, St Stephan, St Dominic (half-page miniature) 217r Transfiguration of Christ (half-page miniature) 219r St Cyriacus, St Susanna, St Lawrence (half-page miniature) 221r St Tiburtius, St Clara, St Hippolytus (half-page miniature) 223v Assumption of Mary (half-page miniature) 228v St Serena, St Radegund, St Helena (half-page miniature) 230r St Agapetus, St Bernard, St Magnus (half-page miniature) 232r St Louis the King, St Bartholomew, St Augustine (half-page miniature) Between 233 and 234 one leaf missing, with miniature of presumably St Sabina and St Giles and the Virgin Mary (as can be deduced from the suffrages that follow). 235v St Adrian, St Fiacre, St Gorgonius (half-page miniature) 237v Exaltation of the Cross (half-page miniature) 238v St Lambertus, St Cornelius, St Cyprian (half-page miniature) 240r St Mauritius, St Matthew, …? (half-page miniature) 241v St Cosmas, St Tecla, St Damian (half-page miniature) 243r St Wenceslaus, St Michael, St Dagobert (half-page miniature) 245r St Remigius, St Jerome, St Leodegar (half-page miniature) 247r St Ewald, St Francis, St Ewald (half-page miniature) 212 JOANKA VAN DER LAAN
248v St Victor, St Denis, St Gereon (half-page miniature) 250r St Gall, St Callixtus, St Luke (half-page miniature) 252r St Ursula and the virgins (half-page miniature) 253r St Crispin, St Severin, St Crispin (half-page miniature) 254v St Judas Thaddeus, St Quentin, St Simon apostle (half-page miniature) 256v St Eustachius, St Hubert, St Leonard (half-page miniature) 258r St Willibrord, St Theodore, St Martin (half-page miniature) 260r St Cunibert, St Elisabeth, St Boethius (half-page miniature) 262v St Katherine, St Clemens, St Cecilia (half-page miniature) The collect of the suffrage for St Cecilia is in Latin (fol. 263r). 265r St Chrysogonus, St Linus, St Edmund of England (half- page miniature) 267v-284v: Prayers arranged according to the Commune Sanctorum, Hand B Master of Mary of Guelders 267v Jacob’s dream of angels descending and ascending from and to heaven (half-page miniature) 274v St Felix, St Justus, St Audactus (half-page miniature) 284v Mary with Christ on a throne (half-page miniature) 285r-409v: Prayers, Hand B 410r: Colophon identifying the commissioner, scribe, location and date. Hand B 410v-424v: Hundred articles,Hand B Rubric at bottom of fol. 424v: Hore de misericordia. Ad ma/tutinas. 425r-482v: Prayers, Hand C Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht 467v Coronation of the Virgin Mary (full-page miniature) 475r Raising of Lazarus (in-text miniature) 476v Virgin and Child on crescent moon, with praying donor (presumably Mary of Guelders as a widow) (full-page miniature)
Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 1908 Vellum and paper, 184x132 (92x58) mm., 14 lines; litera textualis by Helmich die Lewe.
2r-9v: Office of the Dead, (vernacular with psalms in Latin) Probably a leaf with opening miniature taken out. 9v: rubric in French: Pour une femme or[aison]. 10r-34v: Hours of Eternal Wisdom (vernacular with psalms in Latin) Prologue and first part of matins missing (with miniature?). 35r-47v: Penitential Psalms (Latin) A leaf with the opening lines and probably a miniature missing. 47v-58v: Litany (Vernacular, end missing) MARY OF GUELDERS AND HER BOOK 213
59r-61av: [blank] 62r-103v: Office of the Dead (vernacular with psalms in Latin) Office continues in the first nocturne: the first part of Matins missing. Probably 1 or 2 leafs. Breaks off at the end. 104r-116r: Gradual Psalms (Latin) 116r-122v: Litany of Our Lady Breaks off at the end. 123r-128r: Mass of the Holy Spirit 128r-131r: Mass of Holy Cross 131v-134r: Mass of Our Lady 134r-137v: Mass for the Soul
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Zimelien: abendländische Handschriften des Mittelalters aus den Sammlungen der Stif- tung Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin: Ausstellungskatalog (Berlin/Wiesbaden, 1975).
SUMMARY
This article discusses the early fifteenth century prayer book commissioned and owned by duchess Mary of Guelders. This book – which is now divided into two manuscripts, one in Berlin (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, MS Germ. qu. 42) and one in Vienna ((Öster- reichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1908) – has been known in (art historical) scholar- ship for more than 150 years. However, this research has been limited to examination of the place of the decoration of the book within the development of manuscript illu- mination of the Lower-Rhine region and the Netherlands more generally. This publica- tion seeks to provide discussion of current arthistorical and textual aspects of the book and examine the prayer book in its context, which makes clear that the book was adapted to the specific tastes and preferences of the duchess of Guelders and that dif- ferent cultural influences can be detected. Analysis of the book within this context opens up many lines of enquiry, which promise to reveal more insight into not only the artistic richness of the region, but also the devotional possibilities of a noble laywoman in the early fifteenth century.
Address of the author: University of Groningen, Historical Dutch Literature, Oude Kijk in ’t Jatstraat 26, NL–9712 EK Groningen ([email protected]).