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Manuscript
Unknown - Enlarge image
Manuscript
- Place of origin:
Mainz, Germany (illuminated)
- Date:
1490 (illuminated)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Water-based pigments, gilding and ink on parchment
- Museum number:
1107:19
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E, case I, shelf 81, box V
This is a page from an Antiphoner. This book contains the choral parts of the Divine Office or Mass celebrated by a monastic or other community. Its size enabled the whole choir to read the music at once.
With their large folios and rich ornament, choirbooks were highly prized by 19th-century collectors. Early in the Museum's history, probably before 1863, a large number of folios were acquired from a single German Antiphoner. One of the leaves is inscribed '149[-]'. Sets of such choirbooks were often produced over a period of years, and the date may represent a local tradition for some event with which the books were associated. The text and music are for the Office of several feasts and saints' days. Two martyr saints are depicted in the initial letter A. They are St Laurence, holding a grill and book, and St Erasmus, with crosier and winching handle.
