Ms. leaf. In Latin. Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis and on entry no. 75 in the Beyond Words catalog. Collation: Parchment leaf. Folio number "3" written in upper right corner of recto in black ink, also in center of upper margin. Layout: One column, five staves. Bounding and writing lines in light plummet. Square notation on a four-line red staff, C and G lines noted. Script: Written in a rounded Gothic bookhand in black ink with red rubrics. Decoration (primary): On recto, two-staff-high floriate initial "A" in colors on gold background, for "Aspiciens a longe," the first Responsory of the First Sunday of Advent, historiated with the Holy Hunt; the Virgin sits in an enclosed garden, a small unicorn on her lap. At the left, the Angel Gabriel, as the Huntsman, holds a spear and three leashed hounds with his left hand and brings a... Decoration (secondary): Scrolling vines and flowers in upper and lower margins in colors, enclosing busts of Old Testament figures, each with a banderole of an Old Testament quote said to foretell the coming of Jesus, some periphrastic. Upper margin, left to right: Jeremiah: "Mortum faciet dominus super terram" (sic. Jer. 2:6); Baalam: "Orietur stella ex Jacob" (Numbers 24:18). Lower margin... Binding: Tipped into custom matte. Origin: Written in South Germany or Switzerland in the late fifteenth century. Two other leaves from the same manuscript are MS pb Med.205 and MS pb Med.207. Provenance: Round pink label reading "Ball Collection 33" in upper right recto. Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by the BPL from Maggs in 1961. Call number: MS pb Med.206. Bibliography: Jeffrey Hamburger, et al., eds. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. (Chestnut Hill: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2016): no. 75; Sacred/Secular exhibition, no. 15; Einhorn, J. Spiritalis Unicornis (Munich, 1976), see esp. pp. 212-215, 359-375 and figs. 110-120.
Do you have more information to share with the Holding Institution about this manuscript or would you like to suggest a correction? Contact information is available for member institutions via our member directory.