Chronik des Constanzer Concils

Collection History

The New York Public Library possesses one of the largest and finest collections of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts in North America, yet its manuscript holdings are scarcely known to scholars, much less to a wide public audience. Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts are vehicles of the collective memory of western European culture, and provide a material connection between the scribes, illuminators, and patrons who produced these works and the audiences who view them today.

The works represent diverse genres, from Bibles and missals to romance literature and science texts. Dating from the turn of the 10th century until well into the period of the Renaissance, these works give vivid testimony to the creative impulses of the often nameless craftsmen who continually discovered new ways of animating the contents of hand-produced books through inventive and sometimes exuberant manipulations of all the elements of the book: form and format, layout, script, decoration, illustration, and binding.

Drawn from the Library's Spencer Collection and the Manuscripts and Archives Division, these works focus on the 9th through the 16th centuries -- seven hundred years of profound political, ecclesiastical, social, and intellectual change in Western Europe and the world. Among these rare items are a 10th-century Ottonian manuscript, with its imitation of Byzantine textile with gold decoration; the Towneley Lectionary, illuminated by Giulio Clovio (once praised as the "Michelangelo of small works"), which originated in Rome and probably belonged to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese; and a late 15th-century Book of Hours, which represents the leading style of illumination from Besançon, one of the French Regional Schools.

Background

"The Digital Scriptorium" originated in the mid-1990s as an image database, intended to unite scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research. NYPL curators have augmented the Digital Scriptorium's primary documentation of NYPL's contribution of 259 manuscript parts with images of the works' most significant illuminations. Some works in this digital presentation also appeared in the exhibition, "The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at The New York Public Library," held October 21, 2005 - February 12, 2006 in the Library's D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall.

- Collection History and Background text excerpted from the press release and exhibition catalog descriptions for "The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at The New York Public Library."

Related Resources

Alexander, Jonathan J. G., James H. Marrow, and Lucy Freeman Sandler. The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at The New York Public Library. (2005)

NYPL. "The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at The New York Public Library." (2005-2006) <http://www.nypl.org/research/calendar/exhib/hssl/hsslexhibdesc.cfm?id=354>

University of California, Berkeley. "The Digital Scriptorium." (c1996-2004) <http://www.digital-scriptorium.org>

Collection Data

Description
Illustrated manuscript. On paper, written in Southern Germany (diocese of Constance) in the first half of the fifteenth century (about 1435-1440). Folio. With 115 full-page illustrations in pen drawing and finely coloured, moreover with about 850 coloured coats-of-arms. 505 pages. 2 columns. In the original binding of wooden boards covered with sheepskin. Enclosed in full levant morocco case, together with a copy of the modern reproduction.35 lines per page in two columns. Ruled in drypoint. Irregular gatherings; see Kup, "Bulletin of the NYPL", 5.
Names
Richental, Ulrich von, ca. 1365-1437? (Author)
Dates / Origin
Date Created: 1460 (Approximate)
Place: Germany (Swabia)
Library locations
Spencer Collection
Shelf locator: Spencer Coll. MS. 32
Topics
Council of Constance (1414-1418)
Genres
chronicles
Manuscripts
Illuminations
illuminated manuscripts
Miniatures (Illuminations)
Notes
Ownership: Collection of Count von Königsegg-Aulendorf.
Content: 837 colored coats of arms. 1-line, 2-line and 3-line red initials. Red slashes as placemarkers.
Citation/reference: De Ricci, 1342. Kup articles. Library dossier.
Date: Kup articles and notes in dossier date the ms. to ca. 1450-60, the earliest surviving copy. Date derives from evidence of the watermarked paper, made ca. 1450-60 in Perpignan, as well as from writing and illustrations (Suabian school).
Acquisition: Acquired for Spencer, 1936.
Biographical/historical: Ulrich von Richental was an eyewitness to the proceedings at Constance, 1414-1418. The original Latin manuscript of his "Chronicle" is lost.
Exhibitions: Splendor of the word (89)
Biographical/historical: Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts are vehicles of the collective memory of western European culture, and provide a material connection between the scribes, illuminators, and patrons who produced these works and the audiences who view them today. The works represent diverse genres, from Bibles and missals to romance literature and science texts. Dating from the turn of the 10th century until well into the period of the Renaissance, these works give vivid testimony to the creative impulses of the often nameless craftsmen who continually discovered new ways of animating the contents of hand-produced books through inventive and sometimes exuberant manipulations of all the elements of the book: form and format, layout, script, decoration, illustration, and binding. Drawn from the Spencer Collection and the Manuscripts and Archives Division, the New York Public Library’s collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts focus on the 9th through the 16th centuries -- seven hundred years of political, ecclesiastical, social, and intellectual change in Western Europe and the world.
Physical Description
Extent: 505 pages; 6 1/8 x 11 13/16 in. (41 x 30 cm)
Initials are red.
Type of Resource
Still image
Text
Identifiers
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b22848039
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): ead93990-c6b2-012f-fda2-3c075448cc4b
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