Physical description
This single leaf from an Antiphonal comprises 8 lines of text written in Gothic Book Script (textualis), in black ink with occasional letters in red ink. There are three minor initials, one in red ink (E), the others (C and B) in black ink with red and black ink decoration. Above each line of text are four horizontal lines equal distance apart, ruled in red ink. These lines carry the appropriate musical notation, written in black ink. Further text, smaller in size and mainly in red ink, occurs at the end of the fifth line of the main body of text and in the lower and left page margins.
The page has an historiated initial ‘D' the centre of which shows the Virgin flanked by the Apostles with the Holy Ghost (the Pentecost).
The initial is enclosed on three sides by a blue painted border encased within a gilded surround. Both the blue and the gold extend into the margins of the page fusing with a decorated bar-border running along the left, upper and lower margins, each end of which becomes a foliate branch bearing tri-pointed leaves with a bird perched on it (in the case of the lower branch this may be a heron). The same tri-pointed leaves extend from the stem of the initial ‘D’ itself into the left margin.
A small female figure dressed in the habit of a Franciscan nun appears in an attitude of prayer in the margin next to the historiated initial ‘D’. This is Heylwigis von Beechoven, Abbess at the Convent of St Klara at the time the manuscript was produced. A pair of small hybrid grotesques facing one another are perched on the upper and lower bar borders, a fifth, slightly larger one, occurs beneath the stem of the letter ‘D’.
Place of Origin
Köln (city), Germany (illuminated)
Date
ca. 1350 (illuminated)
ca. 1350 (written)
Artist/maker
Loppa de Speculo (Sister) (illuminator)
Materials and Techniques
Water-based pigments, gold leaf and ink on parchment
Dimensions
Height: 37.7 cm, Width: 25.3 cm, Weight: 0.44 kg
Object history note
This manuscript leaf was one of a group of seemingly unrelated leaves purchased from W. H. J. Weale on April 9th 1883. As a whole, the group cost £26.17.6. Individually, this leaf cost 2 shillings.
The entry in the Register of Drawings 1880 to 1884 (museum numbers 8526 to 11002) lists the leaf as:
One leaf with storied versal: D, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, and an abbess of the Order of S. Francis, Sovor Heyl-wigis, kneeling. Netherlandish, xiv cent.
Historical significance: The Antiphonal this leaf comes from was one of a number of manuscripts produced at the convent of St Klara in Cologne. Another surviving leaf from the same manuscript states that it was paid for by one of the nuns, Sister Jutta, and that another of the nuns, Sister Loppa de Speculo, carried out the writing, ‘lining’ (putting in the staves for the music), notation and illumination ‘in the year 1350, when there was a great plague everywhere’.
The figure kneeling next to the historiated initial ‘D’ is Heylwigis von Beechoven, the abbess who had ruled the convent since 1344. Rowan Watson suggests that by being portrayed next to this particular initial the abbess associates her prayer with the ‘crucial event when the Holy Spirit came to earth and the mission of the Apostles to spread the Christian revelation began’ (Pentecost). In doing so he says ‘the prayer of her convent was thus part of the mission’.
Such layers of meaning and significance through the careful layout of the page were common during the middle ages and would have been readily recognised by a contemporary audience. It was also not unusual to include portraits of people connected with the manufacture of a specific manuscript on its pages. However, in this case it is interesting that the kneeling figure is neither the person who paid for the manuscript nor the person who wrote/illuminated it.
According to Watson, the historiated initial ‘looks German, but the three-pointed leaves on their swirling stems may show an effort to copy Parisian or other French styles’. It is possible that examples of such ‘foreign’ styles came to the convent through other books given as gifts or by travelling itinerant artists. It is also possible that Sister Loppa did not undertake all the work on the manuscript herself – parts of it may have been contracted out. Either way, it appears that hybrid grotesques and birds (seen in the borders) were an accepted form of ornament even in this convent environment.
Other leaves from the manuscript are in Stockholm and Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz Museum).
Historical context note
Background to Music and Christian Liturgy
Music was incorporated into the Christian Liturgy early on and had been influenced by the use of music in the synagogue. Plainchant (unison singing, originally unaccompanied) was the traditional music of the western Church and from about 1000, vocal polyphony (music with two or more melodically independent parts) was being practiced. Polyphony made certain chants of the Mass longer and more complex.
The notation of liturgical music initially appears in the form of neumes - graphic symbols written above the text and indicating the rise and fall of melodic movement or repetitions of the same pitch. From the 11th century they were commonly written on a four-line staff. Two hundred years later, eastern European music manuscripts adopted Gothic notation, produced with a thick, square-cut nib, with the points and curves of neumes being replaced by broader, more angular forms. A similar development in the Île de France gave rise to the use of square notation in the late twelfth century, especially in France and Italy.
Music Manuscripts
There are many different types of medieval music manuscripts including the Gradual, Kyriale, Sequentiary, Troper, Missal, Antiphonal, Hymnal and Breviary.
The Antiphonal (also called an antiphoner or antiphonary) contains the sung portion of the Divine Office (cycle of daily devotions - the prayers of the canonical hours - performed by members of religious orders and the clergy). Antiphonals were often large in format so that they could be used by a choir.
The above is adapted from Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms by Michelle P. Brown (London, 1995)
Data taken from notes compiled by Rowan Watson. The full text of the entry is as follows:
'Cat. no 2.
8997.I (MS 39)
ANTIPHONER
Leaf, with 2-line historiated D (beige letter-shape, Pentecost scene with burnished gold ground ); in margin,
Franciscan abbess Heylwigis (Order of Poor Clares) in red/brown cloak over gray habit with black veil over white, caption in red "Domina abbatissa soror Heylwig'" ; Panel frame on three sides of page with birds and grotesque animals
Rubric: Iste tres Ant' ad noctes dicuntur omni nocte per totam ebdoman cum psalmis. Dum complerentur dies
Germany (Colegne). c. 1320
375 x 250 mm; written space 290 x 180 mm.
8 lines of music (staves of 4 red lines; 19-21 mm) and text; square notation
Bought from W. H. J. Weale, 1883 (2s.)
Pub: 1908 cat, 14-15; 1923 cat, 12-13 cat; Joyce Irene Whalley, `The Pen's Excellencie, Calligraphy of Western Europe and America'
(London: Midas Books, 1980), P. 57 (b/w plate)'
Descriptive line
Leaf from an antiphoner from the Franciscan Convent of St Klara; Cologne; ca 1350
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Illiminated Manuscripts and their Makers, Rowan Watson, London, 2003, pp. 88-89
Exhibition History
Medieval and Renaissance Galleries (Victoria and Albert Museum 01/01/2009-31/12/2009)
Labels and date
LEAF FROM AN ANTIPHONAL
About 1350
Loppa de Speculo (active about 1350)
An antiphonal is a service book
containing the choral parts for the
various daily services celebrated by
a monastic community. This leaf
comes from an antiphonal made at
the convent of St Clare in Cologne
by one of the nuns, Sister Loppa
de Speculo. The abbess, Heylwigis
of Beechoven, kneels by the initial D.
Germany, Cologne
Ink on parchment, with
watercolour and gold
From the convent of St Clare
Museum no. 8997I [2009]
Production Note
Acquired as Netherlandish.
Subjects depicted
Birds; Dragons; Music; Grotesques; Nuns; Marginal illustrations
Categories
Religion; Christianity; Manuscripts; Books
Collection code
PDP
