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Egerton MS 1121
- Record Id:
- 032-001984205
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001984205
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000057.0x0000c7
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100132823494.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Egerton MS 1121
- Title:
-
Ulrich von Pottenstein, Das Buch der natürlichen Weisheit, a German translation of the Speculum Sapientiae, or Quadriparlitus Apologeticus
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains one of the twenty-two known extant copies of Das Buch der natürlichen Weisheit (The Book of Natural Wisdom), a German translation and expanded version of a Latin collection of 95 fables, known as the the Speculum sapientiae or Quadripartitus apologeticus, attributed to a certain 'Cyrillus Episcopus', that was highly popular in the later Middle Ages. The Latin text survives in more than 150 manuscripts, of which the oldest copy is dated to the second quarter of the 14th century.
The German translation is thought to have been made by Ulrich von Pottenstein (b. c. 1360, d. 1417), an Austrian clerk and court chaplain to Albert IV, Duke of Austria. The translation survives in two versions: this manuscript represents the second, longer version. The collection's principal aim is to teach Christian morals: these are introduced as proverbs and expanded upon in apologues (fables) to which the encounters and interactions between different protagonists - animals, but also plants, minerals, natural elements, personifications and humans - are central. Unlike the Latin manuscripts, almost all of the copies of the German translation are accompanied by miniatures. The Egerton manuscript is considered to be one of the finest illustrated copies: it was decorated in the 'Workshop of the Grillinger Bible' that was active in Salzburg in the first half of the 15th century.
Contents:
ff. 1r-127v: Ulrich von Pottenstein, Das Buch der natürlichen Weisheit, imperfect due to loss of folios.
Decoration:
73 miniatures in colours against a blue or red, or red and blue chequered background with fine gold lines in green or purple three-sided frames illustrating the fables; one miniature (f. 114v) has a green frame with purple floral decoration; one miniature, featuring God in a landscape with fishes, land animals, and birds, is drawn on a separate piece of parchment pasted over one illustration of a two-panel miniature on f. 2r (the other illustration accompanies the fable of the eagle and the fox). One green initial against a red background with pen-flourishing in green, red, and blue (f. 1r). Numerous red and blue initials with blue and red pen-flourishing throughout the manuscript.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Egerton Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001984205", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 1121: Ulrich von Pottenstein, Das Buch der natürlichen Weisheit, a German translation of the Speculum Sapientiae, or Quadriparlitus…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001984205
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001984205
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Egerton_MS_1121 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- German
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1435
- Date Range:
- c 1430
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 260 x 190 mm (text space: 175 x 140 mm).
Foliation: ff. i + 127 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the end).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: 15th-century blind-tooled and -stamped red leather binding with originally five brass bosses on the front and back cover; of these, respectively, one and four bosses are extant; originally with two leather and brass clasps, of which one survives; re-backed at the British Museum, inscribed on the spine: 'SPIEGEL DER WEISHEIT'.
- Custodial History:
-
Origins: Austria (Salzburg).
Provenance:
Adolphus Asher (b. 1800, d. 1853), Berlin bookseller and dealer to the British Museum 1841-1853 (see Paisley, 'Adolphus Asher' (1997), 131-53); Bought from him by the British Museum on 14 June 1845 (note on 1st flyleaf), using the Farnborough Fund (£3,000 bequeathed in 1838 by Charles Long, Baron Farnborough (b. 1761, d. 1838), a cousin of Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829), founder of the collection.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1841-1845 (London: British Museum, 1850), 1845, p. 72.
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), II (1893), pp. 357-67.
Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols (Erlangen: Junge, 1896–1901), II, pp. 107-08 (no. 92).
A Guide to the Exhibition of Some Part of the Egerton Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1929), no. 27.
Georg Scharf, Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der deutschen Cyrillus-Fabeln des Ulrich von Potensteins (Breslau: Nischkowsky, 1935), pp. 8-10.
Barbara Wohlgemuth, Die Werkstatt der Grillinger-Bibel in Salzburg am Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cod. lat. 15701) (Munich: Schön, 1973), passim.
Jürgen Werinhard Einhorn, 'Der Bilderschmuck der Handschriften und Drucke zu Ulrichs von Pottenstein Buch der Natürlichen Weisheit', in Verbum et Signum, ed. by Hans Fromm, Wolfgang Harms, and Uwe Ruberg, 2 vols (Munich: Fink, 1975), I, 389-424 (p. 329).
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), p. 67, pl. 57.
Gerhard Schmidt, 'Egerton MS. 1121 und die Salzburger Buchmalerei um 1430', Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 39 (1986), 41-58, 245-52 (figs. 1-25).
Ulrike Bodemann, Die Cyrillusfabeln und ihre deutsche Überlieferung durch Ulrich von Pottenstein: Untersuchungen und Editionsprobe, Münchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters, 93 (Munich: Artemis, 1988), p. 61.
Gerhard Schmidt, 'Das Atelier der Grillinger-Bibel und seine Ausstrahlung nach Innerösterreich', Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 42 (1989) 225-236 (pp. 225-28).
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), p. 168 (no. 147).
Robert Suckale and Jiří Fajt, 'Copy of the Bamberg Rationale', in Prague: The Crown of Bohemia: 1347-1437, ed. by Barbara Drake Boehm and Jiří Fajt (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), p. 251 (no. 103).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), p. 105, pl. 62.
Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters, ed. by Hella Frühmorgen-Voss and others, 7 vols (Munich: Beck, 1986-2017), 4/1, 3:37, Fabeln, ed. by Ulrike Bodemann and Kristina Domanski (2012), pp. 293-97 (no. 27.2.7).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)