The collections of medieval manuscripts held at Leeds University Library
exhibit miniature and decorative paintings by artists from France, the Netherlands,
the Low Countries, England, Germany, Italy and Spain. Some of the finest
and richest cycles of illuminations are found in the fifteenth-century French
and Dutch books of hours in the collection. Although most medieval artists
are anonymous, some are recognised by their most famous patrons, and by
the workshops of their master illuminators. The illumination in the fragmentary
fifteenth-century book of hours, Brotherton Collection MS 1, has been identified
as work of the Bedford Master Group. The image of the Sagittarius on the
right is one of the miniatures found in the Calendar of this manuscript.
The master illuminator is known by the name of his most famous patron, John,
Duke of Bedford, for whom he illuminated the celebrated book of hours known
as the Bedford Hours, now in the British Library. The style of the Calendar
miniatures and the miniature of King David (detail below), the only main
miniature that survives in the fragmentary Brotherton Collection manuscript,
is very similar to that in the miniatures known to have been painted by
the Bedford Master himself for the Bedford Hours. And the layout of King
David page follows the model that the Bedford Master adopted from the Boucicaut
Master: the main miniature is accompanied by scenes in the surrounding medallions,
telling the story of David and Bathsheba.
The style of the illumination in two mid-fifteenth-century French books
of hours, Brotherton Collection MS 2 and Brotherton Collection MS 4, is
similar to the work of the Mansel Master, named after his most famous patron,
Jean Mansel. A German artist, Jacob Elsner (1486-1517) may have been responsible
for the naturalistic flowers, birds, and insects that fill the borders of
a German book of prayers, Brotherton Collection MS 11. An example of manuscript
illumination from the Low Countries is the early sixteenth-century book
of hours, Brotherton Collection MS 7. The Master of the Adair Hours is responsible
for its small, but very detailed initials and accompanying border decorations,
as well as for its large historiated initials in the beginning of the main
text sections. He painted them around 1490. One of the Masters of the Dark
Eyes is responsible for the full-page miniatures at the beginning of hours
and prayers, which were inserted later, around 1500-1510. The artist is
so named as he tended to use dark pigment around the eyes of the figures
he depicted.
Inscriptions, signatures, mottoes, obits added in calendars, coats of arms
and patron portraits give clues to the original patrons and subsequent owners
of the manuscripts. A miniature in a Dutch book of hours, Brotherton Collection
MS 7, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin shows a couple kneeling in
prayer on the foreground. The couple, the original owners of the manuscript,
are portrayed with their arms, unidentified, but with characteristics suggesting
north-west France as origin. Their clothing can be dated to around 1500-1510,
coinciding with the date of the manuscript. A French book of hours, Brotherton
Collection MS 8, bears the arms of the Berry family of Bouer, supposedly
the first owners of the manuscript. The arms are painted on the shield that
covers the nude bodies of the twins depicting Gemini in the calendar miniature
for May. An inscription elsewhere in the manuscript reveals its sixteenth-century
owner: Marie de Cumières.
The Library holds a manuscript known as the Anonimalle Chronicle, Brotherton
Collection MS 29, an important historical chronicle in French, which includes
a version of the 'Brut' chronicle, and also unique accounts of the Good
Parliament (1376) and the Peasant's Revolt (1381). It was written at St
Mary's Abbey in York, in the late fourteenth century.
The collections also have a copy of Bede's In epistolas canonicas, Brotherton Collection MS 22, written in southern Germany in the first half of the twelfth century. A detail from the manuscript reproduced on the right shows a zoomorphic initial 'S' in the form of a wyvern blowing a horn. The manuscript belonged to the Benedictine abbey of Reichenbach am Regen, in Bavaria.
There are two manuscript copies of the late medieval best seller The
Golden Legend, or Legenda Aurea, MS 122 and Brotherton Collection
MS 23, one written in the Low Counties in the late thirteenth century and
the other, possibly in Spain in about 1330. The text is a collection of
lives of the saints, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine around 1260.
The Library also holds the medieval manuscripts owned by the Ripon Cathedral Library, and within this collection is a large single-volume Bible, Ripon Cathedral MS 1. It is beautifully illluminated with numerous historiated initials on gold grounds to mark the beginning of books. The detail on the left shows an initial enclosing the scene of Moses, depicted with horns on his head, leading the Israelites. This historiated initial begins the book of Exodus. Throughout the manuscript both English and French schemes of iconography are used side by side, but it is likely that the manuscript was produced in Oxford, around 1260.
An interesting historical manuscript, not only for its contents but also
for its format, is an 18 metres long and 63 centimetres wide illuminated
roll. This genealogical history roll narrates the integrated Christian and
pagan history of the world from the Creation onwards, ending with the reign
of Louis XI of France. The manuscript was written in France sometime during
the reigning period of Louis XI, between 1461 and 1483. Thirty-four copies
of such "Chronique Anonyme Universelle" have been identified by
scholars, but only five other copies in roll format are known to be held
within UK libraries. The manuscript has 64 roundel miniatures depicting
subjects ranging from the Temptation of Eve to the Destruction of Troy.
Genealogical trees accompany the text and the images, showing the descent
of French and English kings from their mythological Trojan anchestors. The
text of the universal history includes brief chronicles of the popes and
Roman emperors alongside passages documenting the life Christ. The image
on the right is a detail from one of the roundel miniatures showing Evilmerodach
chopping the body of his father Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, into three
hundred pieces in order to seize the throne.
The Library holds three Middle English manuscripts, two of which include the long didactic poem The Prick of Conscience and one contains the copy of John Mirk's The Festial (Brotherton Collection MS 500, 501, 502). In addition to complete manuscripts there are various fragments that show examples of different Middle English dialects, including an early-15th-century fragment of Mandeville's Travels, found written in a northern dialect on a wrapper of a sixteenth-century printed book from the Ripon Cathedral collection (Ripon Cathedral Library XIII.A.35). Apart from English vernacular writing, the Library holds a manuscript written in Anglo-Norman, a copy of the Manuel des Péchés, a poem written in England in the late thirteenth century and usually attributed to William of Waddington (MS 1).
