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Add MS 15689
- Record Id:
- 032-002093374
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002093374
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000044.0x00012a
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165143564.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 15689
- Title:
-
Illustrated book of relics from Bamberg Cathedral
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
This manuscript is a so-called ‘Heiligthumsbuch’ that itemizes the relics of Bamberg Cathedral and those of some nearby churches. It contains descriptions of relics with 133 illustrations of reliquaries from Bamberg Cathedral, the churches of St Stephen, St James and St Gangolf, and the Benedictine monastery of Michelsberg. The reliquaries are organised according to their form, in groups of banners, vestments, monstrances, busts, caskets and crosses.
The text emphasises the relics of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (b. 973, d. 1024), patron of Bamberg Cathedral, and his wife Cunigunde of Luxembourg (b. 975, d. 1040), both canonized as saints (in 1146 and 1200 respectively). The text opens with the banners of St George, Bamberg Cathedral's patron saint, and Henry II, and ends with full page miniatures of a knight holding St George's banner, and a procession of the relics of Henry II. The manuscript also includes images of reliquaries of the Evangelists, early Christian martyrs, and the Virgin Mary and Christ: these include reliquaries with hair of the Virgin Mary, the incense that Christ received from the Three Magi, a nail used in the Crucifixion, and pieces of the Sudarium, the Cross, Christ's tomb, and the stone from which He ascended to heaven. The inventory also illustrates two complete vessels from the Marriage at Cana, at which Christ turned water into wine, according to the Gospel account.
ff. 2r-34r: Illustrated inventory of sacred objects from Bamberg Cathedral, begins ‘Das ist desz heiligen Ritters und Merteres Sant Georgen fenlein des wirdigen Stiffts haubt herren Das von himel is komen Das auch von fürsten Grauen Ritteren und Knechten Teutscher lande in veldt zügen und Streitten grosz gehalten und geert wirdet’.
[ff. 1r, 1v, 34v and f. 35r are blank].
Decoration:
135 wash-coloured illustrations, perhaps executed by Wolf Katzheimer (b. 1450, d. 1509), an artist employed by the bishop of Bamberg. Two are full page miniatures:
f. 35v: A man in full armour, holding St George's banner.
f. 36r: A reliquary procession for relics of Henry II before Bamberg Cathedral.
The other 133 illustrations are of reliquaries in frames of brown ink in the left-hand column on the pages, occupying either the entire, half or a third of the column.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002093374", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 15689: Illustrated book of relics from Bamberg Cathedral" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002093374
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002093374
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Paper codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165143564.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- German
German, Middle High - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1508
- End Date:
- 1509
- Date Range:
- 1508-1509
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 480 x 320 mm (text space: approximately 110 x 250 mm); f. 1 is smaller (370 x 320 mm).
Collation: ff. 36 (+ 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 6 at the end).
Script: Gothic (German cursive).
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum/British Library in-house, inscribed in gold on the spine: ‘BAMBERG CATHEDRAL VESTMENTS, ETC.’.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Germany (Bamberg?)
Adolphus Asher (b. 1800, d. 1853), Berlin bookseller and dealer to the British Museum 1841-1853 (see David Paisey, 'Adolphus Asher (1800-1853): Berlin bookseller, anglophile and friend to Panizzi', The British Library Journal, 23 (1997), 131-53): perhaps his inscription, f. 1r: ‘Heilig thumer in Bamberg in der Dom Kirche’; purchased from him on 24 January 1846 as part of an unspecified number of manuscripts sold for £ 113.8 in total: a note on f. 1r, ‘Purchased of A. Asher. 24 June 1846’.
- Publications:
-
Christoph Gottlieb von Murr, Merkwürdigkeiten der Fürstbischöflichen Residenzstadt Bamberg (Nuremberg: Grattenauer, 1799), pp. 92-119.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts of the British Museum in the Years 1846-1847 (London: Woodfall and Kinder, 1864), p. 8.
Walter Tunk, 'Der Bamberger Domschatz in der Darstellung eines Prachtkodex der Dürerzeit', in Monumentum Bambergense: Festgabe für Benedikt Kraft, ed. by Hermann Nottarp, Bamberger Abhandlungen und Forschungen, 3 (Munich: Kösel, 1955), pp. 430-38.
Renate Baumgärtel-Fleischmann, ‘Der Goldschmied Thomas Rockenbach (†1496)’, Bericht des Historischen Vereins Bamberg, 112 (1976), pp. 161-248, esp 182, figs 1a, 1b.
Renate Kroos, ‘Liturgische Quellen zum Bamberger Dom’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschicht, 39 (1976), pp. 105-46, esp. p. 125, fig. 6, p. 133, fig. 7, p. 143, fig. 9, p. 145, fig. 10.
Renate Baumgärtel-Fleischmann, ‘Die sogenannte Kunigundenkrone’, Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, 32 (1981), pp. 25-41, esp. p. 27, fig. 4.
Alexander Reitzenstein, Die Geschichte des Bamberger Doms von den Anfängen bis zu seiner Vollendung im 13. Jahrhundert (Munich: Prestel, 1984), fig. 11.
Renate Baumgärtel-Fleischmann, Das Bamberger Heiltum von 1508/1509 der British Library London (Add MS 15689) (Bamberg: Historischer Verein Bamberg, 1998), passim [facsimile].
Falk Eisermann, 'Heiltumsbücher', in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, 14 vols (Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 1978−2008), 11 (2004), pp. 604-09 (p. 605).
- Exhibitions:
- The Imperial Garments of Bamberg under the magnifier. Methods and Results of the current research, Diocesan Museum, Bamberg, 24 September 2020 - 30 September 2021
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)