Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg (University Library Augsburg)

Bestand der ehem. Bibliothek der Fürsten Oettingen-Wallerstein (Collections of the former library of the princes Oettingen-Wallerstein)

Cod. I.3.2° III und IV

Augsburger Furtmeyr-Bibel

The two-volume Furtmeyr-Bible of the Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg is considered one of the most excellent works of mediaeval illumination from the transitional period from handwritten to printed books.

The manuscripts – luxury editions for noble laypeople that were probably intended more for visual delight than for actual reading – were created between 1468 and 1472 in Ratisbon. The calligrapher Georg Rorer (or Rörer) wrote the German text of the Bible in the bastarda script as was typical at the time. The decoration with miniatures and scrollwork was undertaken by the important illuminator Berthold Furtmeyr. The same scribe also executed the comparable Bible manuscripts in the German language Cgm 502 and 503 in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Bavarian State Library Munich) and Ms Egerton 1895 and 1896 in the British Library; the miniatures of the Bible in London were also made by Furtmeyr.

The patrons of the work were the high-ranking Bavarian functionary Hans III von Stauff zu Ehrenfels (d. 1478) and his wife Margarethe Schenk von Geyern. Von Stauff, from 1465 a baron of the empire, held a high position in the retinue of the Bavarian duke.

Even before 1500, both volumes became part of the possessions of the Bavarian ducal couple, Albrecht IV (1447-1508) and Kunigunde von Österreich (of Austria) (1465-1520). Perhaps they were acquired in connection with the so-called Löwlerkrieg of 1491/92, during the course of which Duke Albrecht had conquered the ancestral castle of the von Stauff familiy, Ehrenfels Castle near Beratzhausen. Probably at the change of ownership of the manuscripts, the coats of arms of the original patrons were covered by those of Duke Albrecht and of his wife (Cod. I.3.2.° IV, fol. 1v). Furtmeyr’s pictorial inventions obviously enjoyed the special appreciation of the duchess. When the Habsburg widow entered the Munich Püttrichkloster after the duke’s death in 1508, she took with her to the convent the two magnificent volumes of the Bible as well as a world chronicle of the early fourteenth century, the devotional miniature of which was also created by Berthold Furtmeyr.

All three manuscripts arrived in ca. 1800 as a group in the collection of the princes von Oettingen-Wallerstein. While the world chronicle was sold back in 1933 at an auction in Munich and was only recently rediscovered among the collections of the J. Paul Getty-Museum in Los Angeles (Ms. 33, olim Cod. I.3.2° I), the Fürstlich Oettingen-Wallersteinsche Bibliothek (Princely Oettingen-Wallerstein Library) – and with it the die Furtmeyr-Bible – went in 1980 to the Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg (University Library Augsburg). The two volumes are considered the most valuable manuscripts of the collection.