bavarikon4UDescription
The sumptuously decorated Romanesque manuscript is a mixed form of book of psalms and breviary. It contains ten full-page miniatures of Jesus' life from the Annunciation to Pentecost and 14 historiated initials containing the martyrdoms of the apostles. Conspicuous are the liturgical instructions in the vernacular inserted by the main writer's hand into the current text. Prayer instructions have also been added retrospectively to indicate which psalm to read or speak in which situation of life, e.g. to Psalm 2: 'These psalms speak about robbers and thieves that God may make them better or that he may free Christendom of them.'The saints in the calendar (in particular emphasised are Erhard and Emmeran) and in the litany (Kilian, Willibald, Rupert, Walpurgis) suggest that the manuscript may have been created for the diocese of Regensburg, but in any case for a southern German diocese. Stylistically, the illumination dates back to the middle of the thirteenth century. The depiction of the crucifixion (fol. 151v) gives a further indication of the date: beneath the cross, next to Mary and John, there are also the saints Francis (canonised 16 July 1228) and Dominic (canonised 13 July 1234). During the seventeenth century at the latest, the manuscript belonged to the Dominican nunnery Hirschthal near Bregenz (founded 1422); in 1672, the Hirschthal prioress gave it to the Benedictine monastery at Mehrerau near Bregenz. It is unknown how it eventually arrived later at the Oettingen-Wallerstein collection. // Datum: 2017