Beyond words : illuminated manuscripts in Boston collections 9781892850263, 1892850265, 9781892850287, 1892850281

Table of contents :
Illuminating the Charles : collecting manuscripts in Boston -- Part 1. Harvard University, Houghton Library. Manuscripts from church & cloister. The monastic scriptorium -- Authors & readers -- Guides for good living -- Songs of praise -- Part 2. Boston College, McMullen Museum of Art. Manuscripts for Pleasure & piety. Making & meaning -- Holy writ -- Before the book of hours : the psalter & other prayer books -- Minding time : books of hours -- Love & death : the art of devotion -- Public worship -- The rise of professions : medicine & law -- Secular pleasures : edification & entertainment -- Part 3. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Italian Renaissance books. The Florentine humanist book -- Italian princely libraries -- Manuscripts of the classics -- Humanist texts -- Renaissance liturgical books -- Italian books of hours -- Book decoration & the advent of printing

Citation preview

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Edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburge Anne-Marie Eze, Lisa Fagin

McMullen Museum of A

The catalogue has been underwritten by Danie Rose Marrow Fund.

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE

Humanit

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in th

necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Human

II. Boston College, McMullen Museum Manuscripts for Pleasure & Piety 1. Making & Meaning 2. Holy Writ 3. Before the Book of Hours: The Psalter & Other 4. Minding Time: Books of Hours 5. Love & Death: The Art of Devotion 6. Public Worship 7. The Rise of the Professions: Medicine & Law

8. Secular Pleasures: Edification & Entertainment

6. Italian Books of Hours 7. Book Decoration

& the Advent of Pri

References

Index of Manuscripts & Printed Books General Index

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Chestnut Hill Boston College, John J. Burns Library

Medford Tufts University, Tisch Library, Special Collections

Waltham

Brandeis University, Robert D. Farber University Archiv

Watertown Armenian Museum of America

Wellesley

Wellesley College, Margaret Clapp Library, Special Coll

cat. no. 190, f. 80r

Stewart Gardner Museum, and the first scholar to undertake a comprehensive study of the museums rare books collection. Prior to joining the Gardner, she worked at the British Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Trinity College Library, Cambridge. She received her doctorate from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her dissertation was on the Venetian art-dealer Abbe Luigi Celotti (17591843), who is infamous for selling illuminated miniatures cut from the Sistine Chapel missals. She also catalogued the British Library’s collection of Italian cuttings for the online Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. Her publications include exhibition catalogues, articles and essays on the Gardner Museum’s books and wider collection, the history of collecting, and photography.

Lisa Fagin Davis has catalogued medieval manuscript collections at Yale Univer¬ sity, the University of Pennsylvania, the Walters Art Museum, Wellesley College, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Boston Public Library. Recent publi¬ cations include La Chronique Anonyme Universelle: Reading and Writing History

in Fifteenth-Century France (2014), the Directory of Collections in the United States and Canada with Pre-1600 Manuscript Holdings (2015, with Melissa Conway), and the ongoing digital reconstruction of the Beauvais Missal (brokenbooks2. omeka.net). She has served as executive director of the Medieval Academy of America since 2013 and regularly teaches an introduction to manuscript studies at the Simmons School of Library and Information Science.

Nancy Netzer is director of Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art and a tenured professor of art history in the Department of Art, Art History, and Film at the University. Her publications include books, catalogues, and articles on illuminated manuscripts and metalwork, primarily of Britain, Ireland, and the Continent in the first millennium, and on the reception and display of medie¬ val art from the Middle Ages to the present. Recent publications include “The Design and Decoration of Insular Gospel-Books and Other Liturgical Manu¬ scripts” in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain: Volume I, c. 400-c. 1100 (2012); and “The Book of Durrow and the Lindisfame Gospels” in The Lindis-

fame Gospels: New Perspectives (forthcoming).

cat. no. 117, no. 4

in ad

cesca Manzari, Barbara A. Shailor, Jim Waldo, and Roger S. Wieck. T thanks.

Grounded in new research, the production of this catalogue rep three scholars from around the world (listed on the preceding page)

mend Kate Shugert, who compiled and copyedited the book with e

John McCoy, who designed and laid out the volume to achieve a sta

counterparts; and Megan C. McNamee, who indefatigably (and conge mation on the manuscripts.

Of course the entire project could not have been realized to suc

National Endowment for the Humanities, Harvard University, Bosto

Major support for the exhibition was also provided by Peter and L

Library Fund, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Edison an

Fund, the Bayard Livingston and Kate Gray Kilgour Houghton Librar

Mellon Foundation, the Patrons of the McMullen Museum, and the M

from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the National Endow

programming came from Christie’s, the Institute for Liberal Arts at Bo

the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Medieval Studies Committee of

sponsorship was provided by the Boston Globe. The catalogue has been with additional support from the Rose Marrow Fund. To all of these

It is our hope that the pleasure and edification this exhibition and cata

who visit the exhibition and consult this volume, will be beyond word

Thomas Hyr

Peggy Fogelman, Norma Jean Cal

cat. no. 112, p. 121

make this catalogue more than a mere record of the exhibition, but ra

further study for years to come. To aid in that endeavor, we have cre

images and information on each manuscript that surfaced in the cours will be updated in perpetuity as new discoveries are made.

Over the course of this project we have been aided by many. The

ton’s curatorial assistant Megan C. McNamee and research assistant L

designer John McCoy, indexer Florence Grant, and installation design

An advisory committee of distinguished experts Consuelo W. D

Marrow, Francesca Manzari, Barbara A. Shailor, and Roger S. Wieck p our heartfelt thanks.

We also gratefully acknowledge the scholarly contributions of co

on the Editors & Contributors page and others who aided our resear

Brambilla, Bodo Brinkmann, Albert Derolez, Meredith J. Gill, Margar

de Kesel, Anne Korteweg, Thomas Kren, Berthold Kress, John Lan

Nancy Southworth, and Ed van der Vlist. Christopher de Hamel and R

be displayed. For assistance with grant applications we thank Max Ma

At our lenders’ institutions we wish to acknowledge the cont

(Armenian Museum of America); Elizabeth Barker and Stanley Cus

Larsen, John McCoy, and Kate Shugert (Boston College, McMullen

Amy Braitsch, Barbara Hebard, and Kathleen Williams (Boston Coll

ical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine); Dav

brook, Beth Prindle, Kim Reynolds, and Vivian Spiro (Boston Public

of Theology Library); Anne Woodrum and Sarah Shoemaker (Brand

Special Collections); Martha Tedeschi, A. Cassandra Albinson, Maur

art (Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum); Laura Linard and Chris

Nell Carlson and Douglas Gragg (Harvard Divinity School, Andove

(Harvard Law School, Historical & Special Collections); Sarah Thom

erine Badot-Costello, Susi Barbarossa, Katherine Beaty, Alicia Bowli

Haqqi, Amanda Hegarty, Laura Larkin, Emily Lynch, Debora Maye

Abigail Merritt, Adam Novak, Joshua O’Driscoll, Graham Patten, Ke

Sokolowski, and Robert Zinck (Harvard University, Harvard Library a

cat. no. 107, f. 143r

12

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gradual now at Wellesley College (cat. no. 224, see opposite) and a fif woodcuts now at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (cat. no. 70).

Other individuals in the Boston area built the foundation of thei the first was Edward Everett (1794-1865), Eliot Professor of Greek

tinople, he presented one Latin and six Greek manuscripts to the H

manuscripts to Harvard was the bequest of the Hon. Charles Sumner (

gress, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an abolitionist, was

by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina in retaliation for

fiercely attacked slaveholders, including a relative of Brooks. This inci

history leading up to the Civil War. Sumner was badly injured and spe

during this period of convalescence that he probably acquired many o

the twenty-three manuscripts in his bequest two (cat. nos. 2 and 110) Harvard College (founded in 1636) purchased its first medieval

the London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819-99) from his Rough

the sale of the library of the famed English bibliomane Sir Thomas P

appear that after the Phillipps sale Harvard took advantage of a com

material on the market.6 It also seems that the purchasers were anxious

pasted into it a paper note stating: “This manuscript is bought with the

allowed to go into the hands of any instructor in that department for p

The note is signed by the college’s librarian, Justin Winsor (1831-17),

firm statement that it was not purchasing treasures or works of art, bu

subjects at the core of its mission to educate. In 1899, Harvard acqu

(1836-88), a collection relating to the Crusades that in addition to oth manuscripts.8 These are mainly textual manuscripts and one (cat. no.

A reflection of and a stimulus to this acquisition activity may ha books, including at the Boston Public Library in 1897 and 1898, and

pher Seymour de Ricci (1881-1942) reported in his survey of manus collectors and nineteen institutional repositories, for a total of 1,177

Bostonians acquire so many manuscripts, and where are they now? So

now at the Houghton Library or the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.11 O

cat. no. 224, f. 189r

collection to the city of Boston.21 Gardner was one of th

rare books toward the end of his life, as he was anxious a books from Norton’s library in 1905 through donations

William King Richardson (1859-1951) was a mem

a double first at Balliol College, Oxford University (pur

library was begun at the Lord Amherst of Hackney sale

and the means to collect printed books and manuscrip

interests throughout his life; his library was similarly wid

and early printed books; he owned forty-nine of the for

Library constituted one of its most important accessio

librarian of Houghton Library, wrote that “from the be

whose aid in forming the collection is apparent on every

tini, Tregaskis, Belin, Goldschmidt, Quaritch, Olschki, M

he obtained, either directly or soon after, some few tre Schiff, Clumber, Mensing, Peckover, and Lothian sales

marks of ownership of the distinguished collectors of e

manuscripts to Houghton prior to his bequest. The twen

his discernment as a collector (see Index of Manuscripts

One of Richardson’s mentors and advisors was Ph

1921. The founding curator of Houghton Library’s Dep opment of letterforms and the arts of the book,25 Hofer

as “The Grand Acquisitor.” He used both personal and Renaissance manuscripts in Boston, which he donated

built equally important collections in the book arts, prin

which is represented in this volume by eighty-two manu

friends who have endowed acquisition funds in his hono

In 1901, Wellesley College received a 600-volume “

bibliophile George Arthur Plimpton (1855-1936) in m

The collection included manuscripts and printed editio

(cat. no. 215), Dante, and Boccaccio, as well as later Itali

during the 1880s, and, after her marriage, shared this pu

|6

founder. The three by John Singer Sargent, James Abbott McNeill W

fourth will have escaped the notice of many.32 It lives in a corner of t

book.33 Its placement there by Gardner is a reminder to visitors that s

her collecting has been largely overlooked, even though her library is s

The museum’s book collection was known as the Library while Gardn

2,500 volumes. Like the art collection, they are located in the gallerie

famous stipulation of her will bequeathing the museum to Boston “fo

Gardner dictated that should any of the artworks or books be moved f

and the proceeds donated to Harvard. Gardner distributed her books

archical arrangement that corresponds to the installation of her artwo

and sculpture occupy the grander galleries on the museum’s two uppe

minated manuscripts, eleven incunables, and other prized books. The

the poet’s death mask in the Long Gallery adjoining the Titian and Go

Much credit for the Gardner Museum’s remarkable trove is owe

Norton. Gardner audited his undergraduate course on the history of th

edy at his home, and belonged to the Dante Society, of which Norton

Norton alerted Gardner to the forthcoming sale of the library of Edwa ommended that she purchase three early printed books: two editions

printed in Brescia in 1487, and the other, the first pocket-sized edition (cat. nos. 248-49). The third book, also issued from the Aldine press,

antiquarian romance considered one of the most beautiful illustrated b

of a two-decade role for Norton as library advisor and purveyor of rare

philic relationship in a letter to him following the Cheney sale: “Owin

of several valuable books....Books, I fear are a most fascinating and d

entirely to you, if I have made a good beginning.”36 Norton introduce

libraries, such as the Crawford and Ashburnham collections, which w

to appoint Bernard Quaritch, London’s leading rare bookseller, to act

don sales. Gardner did not only buy books recommended by Norto

and good eye are evident from her most spectacular acquisition, whic

holiday in Venice. There she bought an exquisitely illuminated early six

Since Gardner’s death, experts have hailed it as a mature work of Jean B

assist her in preparations of the catalogue. Just prior to ment that, after June 1st, when I begin to be an employe if she should undertake the publication of catalogues, I m joined the museum, Gardner suffered a debilitating strok called him) as well as librarian. Together they completed her death after which Carter, a librarian not an art histori This essay on the topic of collecting manuscripts in to be an exhaustive “de Ricci-esque” survey, but its purp tions of the city’s rare bookholdings. Two notable omiss Boston. One might marvel that there are just two manu and 140). Founded in 1807, the Athenaeum is one of th the United States. Its origins date, however, to an era in format or rarity. Consequently, the Athenaeum was set u encyclopedias, newspapers, and atlases to serve the nee to its roots as an elegant working library, the library now

that have become rare due to the passage of time as well and was appointed its first curator of rare books and man Of undoubted importance for the history of manus Waldo Ross (1853-1935), Harvard professor of design helped to build the collection, and most notably the cr Western manuscripts to the museum (cat. nos. 9-10).44 out in this new area of collecting Islamic manuscripts be to further acquisitions in this direction by Gardner. It has been shown that Boston’s rich and diverse co is the result of considerable individual and institutional itance, deserving appreciation for the beauty contained in this city. They reflect not only Boston’s growing cultur nating its residents.

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1977, 1. Karo compiled a short title catalogue of highlights from the c

1979. During this period, the Museum’s (now defunct) annual journal,

books in the collection. The 1977 edition was dedicated to Gardner’s bo 32

Hendy 1978, 222-24, 292-93, 297-98.

33

Painted by Martin Mower (1870-1960) in 1917. See Hendy 1978, 1

Gardner taken on December 14, 1906 by Otto Rosenheim in the Lond merchant and collector of Renaissance art. 34

Hawley, Campbell, and Wood 2014,53.

35 36

For Gardner and Norton’s shared love of Dante, see Cunningham 1973.

37

Letter from John Marshall to Isabella Stewart Gardner, July 17 of an uns

38

New York, PML, MS M.l. For the Lindau Gospels, see Needham 1979

Letter from Isabella Stewart Gardner to Charles Eliot Norton, London, J 1088,687,2494.

acquire, see Hadley 1980.

Society of Arts & Crafts 1899, 49-51; Monthly Bulletin of Books 1897a a

39 40

I. Gardner 1902 and 1906.

41

Isabella Stewart Gardner to Bernard Berenson, July 9, 1907. Hadley (19

42

Letter from Morris Carter to Daniel Berkeley Updike. Museum of Fine A lections and Botanical Gardens, mss Merrymount Press.

43

Wentworth 1994.

44

Melton 2009, 150.

45

Horioka, Rhie, and Denny 1975,105-8 (nos. 45 and 47).

Church &

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The final chapter of part I explores manuscripts necessary for the

Praise” are some of the mostly elaborately decorated volumes; they we

Their beauty was seen to reflect the glory of God, something for which W. Dutschke explains, “the medieval liturgical day revolved around

Mass was the dramatic centerpiece of the cycle, with the giving and rec was set by the eight offices.”

cat. no. 48, f. 4r

the calligraphic tradition of the French monastery of Corbie. Both o

missal from southern Italy (cat. no. 17) that was copied c. 1075-1100

is distinctive with its tall broken-back C, and the soft shades of yellow, uscripts written in Beneventan script.

Whatever the script or scripts used, the goal of a scriptorium wa

organized books both for reference, and for reading or singing aloud.

Morimondo, contains both decorative initials that are spirited in desig

text with pronunciation “ticks” above particular letters (e.g., line 7 at le

today may have difficulty deciphering the dense letterforms, the jux

initial, and the carefully written text script (with the occasional pronu to navigate elegantly through the manuscript.

The Houghton Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston are fo

important Cistercian monasteries that flourished in the twelfth centur

Cistercian order, founded at Citeaux in 1098, established strict rules

these manuscripts reveal how Cistercian scriptoria functioned. The u

monastic order, which emphasized austerity in all areas of monastic l

able to interpret those rules in distinctively recognizable ways. The vol certain Cistercian characteristics: large-size formats, bold text hands,

Cat. no. 7 is a cutting from what was once a bible with dazzling, ye

for the Cistercian monastery of Pontigny in Champagne. The cutting

remarkable beauty—with the clarity of the calligraphy as striking as th

(with its little border extension) skillfully illuminated with gold and co

(cat. nos. 5 and 6) mentioned above, it is possible to discern an overa

exhibits the influence of an English Cistercian monk from Canterbury

commissions. Manuscripts might travel in the Middle Ages for person

travel, and thus influence the book-making practices in a neighboring

1

Palmer 2009a.

cat. no. 5, f. 178r

2. Peregrinus de Oppeln, Sermones de sanctis; Jean de Fribourg, Tractatus de Confessionibus audiendis and other texts Germany, c. 1400-1500 Paper, ft. 194, 220 x 140 (160 x 95) mm Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Lat 2692 Originally at Erengall (?); in an unidentified English catalogue, c. 1870; bequest of Charles Sumner, 1874.

26

3

De Ricci 1935-40,2:2102 (as Pennsylvania Museum of Art C.3.E.6); Fowler

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1947, 208-9. 4

ISTCin00215000,MEI 02013870.

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5

Blades 1892, 49 as quoted in Morgan 2010, 337.

p

i

5. Office lectionary

D

f Morimondo, Italy, before 1174

o

Parchment, ff. i + 233, 370 x 240 (272 x 159) mm

n

Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Typ 223 Joseph Martini (1931); bequest of Philip Hofer, 1984.

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