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Add MS 15281
- Record Id:
- 032-002086986
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002086986
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000052.0x000234
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 15281
- Title:
-
Prayer book of Sigismund I of Poland
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript includes a collection of prayers known as the Prayerbook of Sigismund I of Poland, composed of two separate parts: ff. 4r-85v and 86r-197v, which were copied, decorated and assembled in the workshop of Stanisław Samostrzelnik.
The Prayerbook is appended by a collection of prayers and suffrages added in the early 17th century (ff. 198v-219r) and includes several notes relating to Bona Sforza, queen consort of Poland, wife of Sigismund I, and other members of the Jagiellon dynasty (ff. 1v-2r, 3r, 203v, 217r, 221v-222r), transcribed and edited in Borkowska, Królewskie Modlitewniki (1999), pp. 96-111, 309-11.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002086986", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 15281: Prayer book of Sigismund I of Poland" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "040-002355456", "parent" : "032-002086986", "text" : "Add MS 15281, ff 4r-85v: Prayerbook of Sigismund I of Poland (Part 1)" },{ "id" : "040-002355457", "parent" : "032-002086986", "text" : "Add MS 15281, ff 86r-197v: Prayerbook of Sigismund I of Poland (Part 2: Clipeus spiritualis)" },{ "id" : "040-002355458", "parent" : "032-002086986", "text" : "Add MS 15281, ff 198v-219r: Prayers and suffrages" }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002086986
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Contains:
- Add MS 15281, ff 4r-85v : Prayerbook of Sigismund I of Poland (Part 1)
Add MS 15281, ff 86r-197v : Prayerbook of Sigismund I of Poland (Part 2: Clipeus spiritualis)
Add MS 15281, ff 198v-219r : Prayers and suffrages
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Add MS 15281 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002086986
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 15281
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex; 222 folios
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_15281 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Italian
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1524
- End Date:
- 1640
- Date Range:
- 1524-Early 17th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment and paper (ff. 199-216; 218-219).
Dimensions: 165 x 115 mm (text space: 115 x 60 mm).
Foliation: ff. 222 (+ 6 unfoliated modern paper endleaves: 3 at the beginning and 3 at the end). Two printed extracts from the Gentlemen's Magazine (1845) are pasted in before the first front endleaf; another from Dodgson, Early German and Flemish Woodcuts (1911) is pasted in before the second front endleaf. Folios 1-2 and 220-222 are parchment endleaves. Folios 3, 59, 65, 90 are inserted single parchment leaves, bearing miniatures (ff. 3, 59, 65) or a title-page (f. 90) on one side.
Collation: i1 (f. 3), ii-vii8 (ff. 4-51), viii8-1 (ff. 52-58; 8th leaf excised after f. 58), ix1 (f. 59), x2 (ff. 60-61), xi6+1 (ff. 62-68; 4th leaf inserted after f. 64), xii8+1 (ff. 69-77; 1st leaf inserted before f. 70), xiii8 (ff. 78-85), xiv-xv2 (ff. 86-89), xvi6+2 (ff. 90-97; 1st leaf inserted before f. 91, 8th leaf inserted after f. 96), xvii-xviii8 (ff. 98-113), xix6 (ff. 114-119), xx-xxii8 (ff. 120-143), xxiii6 (ff. 144-149), xxiv-xxix8 (ff. 150-197), xxx6 (ff. 198-203), xxxi-xxxv2 (ff. 204-213), xxxvi2+1 (ff. 214-216; 3rd leaf inserted after f. 215), xxvii2+2 (ff. 217-220; 1st leaf inserted before f. 218, 4th leaf inserted after f. 219, both parchment; 2nd and 3rd leaves paper).
Layout: Written in one column of 14 lines; ruling in gold.
Script: Humanistic; humanistic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Velvet binding over wooden boards.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Poland, South (Cracow).
Provenance:
Stanisław Samostrzelnik (b. c. 1490, d. 1541), monk at the Cistercian monastery, Mogiła (Clara Tumba) near Cracow, painter and illuminator; in 1511-1532 granted the right to live outside the monastery as the chaplain and court artist of Kszysztof Szydłowiecki, castellan of Sandomierz and chancellor, and later running his own workshop in Cracow; illuminated by him: his initials 'SC' (f. 3v) and 'SCF' (Stanislaus Claratumbensis [or Cracoviensis] Fecit) (f. 194v), with a dated explicit of 1524 signed 'S': 'Laudans invocabo dominum et ab inimicis meissalvus ero 1524 .S.' (f. 197v).
Sigismund I (b. 1467, d. 1548), king of Poland: his portraits (ff. 59r, 65v), monogram 'S. R' (Sigismundus Rex) (f. 94r), and arms as the king of Poland (ff. 3v, 4r, 59r, 56v, 90v) and duke of Lithuania (ff. 33r, 58v, 66r, 90v, 92r); his initial included in one of the prayers 'indigno famulo tuo S' (f. 69r); inscriptions in decorated cartouches reading 'Salvum fac domine regem nostrum Sigismundum (ff. 4r, 90v); dedicated to him by an anonymous donor (ff. 86v-89v), with the coat of arms 'Junosza' of a possible donor, perhaps to be identified with Jan Karnkowski, bishop of Kujawy, active in royal diplomacy (f. 86v).
Added notes relating to the Polish royal family including the dates of birth of the children of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza: Isabella (the future queen of Hungary) on 18 January 1519, Sigismund Augustus (the future king of Poland) on 1 August 1520, Sophia (the future duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg) on 13 July 1522 (f. 222r), and the date of birth of Bona Sforza on 2 February 1494 (f. 222v), 16th century.
Bona Sforza (b. 1493 or 1494, d. 1557), queen consort of Poland, Sigismund’s widow: notes in her hand (ff. 1v, 2r, 203v, 221v, 222r), including dates of birth of her two daughters, Anna (the future Anna I of Poland) and Catherine (the future queen of Sweden), reading 'Alli 18 de Octobro 1523 nasci Anna sonante 13 hora', and ' Allo primo de Novembro 1526 nasci Catarina sonante 4 hora' (f. 221v); the date of birth of her mother Isabella of Aragon, duchess of Milan in 1524 (f. 222r), a medical recipe (f. 1v), two notes with dates 1554 and 1552, and the name 'Simon de Lolosa' (f. 202r); added notes listing the Zodiac signs of the members of the Jagiellon family beginning with Sigismund I (f. 203v); notes in Italian recording two marriages of Sigismund II Augustus, king of Poland: to Elizabeth of Austria in 1543 and to Catherine of Austria in 1553 (f. 217r); note relating to Bona's dowry (f. 1v) and Bona's 58 birthday, 'Anni 58 compiti et notij alij Annus nativitatis die II februarii' (f. 203v); taken by Bona to Bari in c. 1555: a partially trimmed note about her arrival in Bari: 'la Ser[enissi]ma reina Bona si parte / da Varsovia il p[ri]mo giorno de Febr[aio] / che fù di Sabbato del anno 15[cut out] / et arrivo in Bari nel porto alli [cut out] / di Maggio del medesimo anno es [cut out] / la sua felicissims intrata den[tro?] / città di Bari alli xiii di de[to] [cut out] / mese che fù di Mercordi' (f. 3r).
Added note recording Bona Sforza's death and funeral in Bari on 4 October 1558, 'Ser[enissima] do[mi]na Bona Sfortia Regina Polonie e vita discessit, in castro Bari, ubi stetit usque diem quartum mensis Octobris anni sequentis 1558 et ipso die sepulta fuit [in ecclesia?] archiepiscopali in civitate Bari et illic jacet...' (f. 222v).
Sigismund III Vasa (b. 1566, d. 1632), king of Poland (1587-1632) and Sweden (1592-1599): his signature (f. 203v); probably expanded for him with new prayers and suffrages to saints (ff. 198r-219v).
Mary Clementine (Maria Klementyna) Sobieski (b. 1702, d. 1735), granddaughter of John III Sobieski (b. 1629, d. 1696), king of Poland, and wife (from 1719) of James Francis Edward Stuart, taken by her to Rome and passed on her death to her younger son Henry Benedict Maria Clement: see a note on f. viii recto.
Henry Benedict Maria Clement Stuart [styled Henry IX; known as Cardinal York] (b. 1725, d. 1807), cardinal and Jacobite claimant to the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones: according to the above-mentioned note (f. viii recto) obtained by Gregoire de Berardi in Frascati near Rome in 1838 or 1839 'from the possessor of the papers of Cardinal York', probably to be identified with Sigismondo Malatesta, heir of Monsignor Cesarini, Bishop of Milevi, and cardinal York’s secretary and executor.
Augustus Frederick (b. 1801, d. 1843), duke of Sussex. presented to him by Gegoire de Berardi: his armorial bookplate f. vii recto].
Purchased by the British Museum at the Duke of Sussex's sale, 31 July 1844, lot 292, for £73 10s: see note by Sir Frederic Madden (f. viii verso) and extract from the Gentleman's Magazine (1845) (f. ii verso).
- Administrative Context:
- Poland, South (Cracow).
- Publications:
-
F.W. Madden, 'Prayer-book of Sigismond I of Poland', Gentleman's Magazine (1845), pp. 25-28.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1841-1845 (London: British Museum, 1850), p. 122.
G. D'Adda, 'L'Arte del minio nel ducato di Milano dal secolo XIII al XVI', Archivio Storico Lombardo, 12 (1885), 759-60.
J.W. Bradley, A dictionary of miniaturists, illuminators, calligraphers and copyists...from the establishment of Christianity to the eighteenth century, 3 vols (London: Quaritch, 1887-89), I, p. 203.
C. Dodgson, Early German and Flemish Woodcuts preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1903 and 1911), II, p. 448.
A.M. Mars, 'Polish Miniature Painters in the first half of the 16th century', Burlington Magazine, 85 (1945), 17-20.
Zofia Ameisenowa, Cztery rękopisy iluminowane z lat 1524-1528 w zbiorach obcych (Krakòw: Nakł. Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 1967), pp. 5, 11-17 and passim.
S. Sawicka, 'A propos du catalogue des manuscrits enluminés de la bibliothèque bodléienne', Scriptorium: Revue Internationale des Études Relatives aux Manuscrits, 27 (1973), 306-08.
A.G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library (London: British Library, 1979), I, no.123.
O. Pächt and J.J.G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), I, pp. 13-14.
Barbara Miodońska, Miniatury Stanisława Samostrzelnika (Krakòw: Wydawn. Artystyczne i Filmowe, Auriga, 1983), pp. 48-52.
Barbara Miodońska, Małopolskie malarstwo książkowe (Krakòw: PWN, 1993), p. 186 and passim.
Urszula Borkowska, Królewskie Modlitewniki: Studium z kultury religijnej epoki Jagiellonów (XV i początek XVI wieku) (Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, 1999), pp. 96-111, 309-11.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)