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Walters Ms. W.200, Alphabet Book

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Shelf mark

W.200


Manuscript

Alphabet Book


Text title
Alphabet Book

Abstract

The medieval alphabet is illuminated in two different styles. Without any accompanying text, the original purpose of the book remains unclear, but scholars have suggested that it was a sample or model book for manuscript illuminators, or that it was intended as a gift. The book was rebound in the eighteenth century, and in the same century extensive notes, which have since been erased, were made alongside the initials.


Date

Ca. 16th century CE


Origin

Paris, France (?)


Form

Book


Genre

Devotional


Language:

No linguistic content; Not applicable


Support material

Parchment

Thick, cream-colored parchment of very smooth and fine preparation; antique laid paper flyleaves


Extent

Foliation: vii+23+vi

Flyleaves have been foliated with the exception of the first leaf; front flyleaf vii (foliated as fol. 6) is eighteenth century parchment


Collation

Formula: Quire 1: 5 (flyleaf i-fol. 5v); Quires 2-7: 4 (fols. 7r-30v); Quire 8: 6 (fols. 30*r-35v, first folio has been double foliated as 30)

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments: Fol. 6 was added as a flyleaf, hooks around Quire 2; at least one quire has been removed between Quires 7 and 8


Dimensions

9.5 cm wide by 11.9 cm high


Contents:
fols. 1r - 35v:
  1. Title: Alphabet Book
  2. Decoration note: Twenty-four illuminated letters of the medieval alphabet (excludes J and V) in two alternating styles; Style 1: found on fols. 7v-8r, 9v-10r, etc.; stylistically tied to French 16th century illuminations; blue or rose initials with white patterning, ending in blue, orange, or rose foliate terminals, outlined in black, on black-outlined backgrounds of burnished and/or liquid gold, two or four green disks in corners of the background, infill of naturalistic flowers and fruits; Style 2: found on fols. 8v-9r, 10v-11r, etc.; stylistically tied to Dutch 15th century initials; burnished gold intials with lobed terminals, outlined in black, backgrounds in blue and deep red with white foliate patterning, floral motifs in some infills with lead tin yellow and malachite green detailing; Impression from a rectangular plaque in the front endleaves, showing a seated nimbed figure, possibly the Virgin Mary and Christ child

Decoration:

fol. 7v:

  1. W.200, fol. 7v
  2. Title: Initial "A"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 8r:

  1. W.200, fol. 8r
  2. Title: Initial "B"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 8v:

  1. W.200, fol. 8v
  2. Title: Initial "A"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 9r:

  1. W.200, fol. 9r
  2. Title: Initial "B"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 9v:

  1. W.200, fol. 9v
  2. Title: Initial "C"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 10r:

  1. W.200, fol. 10r
  2. Title: Initial "D"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 10v:

  1. W.200, fol. 10v
  2. Title: Initial "C"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 11r:

  1. W.200, fol. 11r
  2. Title: Initial "D"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 11v:

  1. W.200, fol. 11v
  2. Title: Initial "E"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 12r:

  1. W.200, fol. 12r
  2. Title: Initial "F"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 12v:

  1. W.200, fol. 12v
  2. Title: Initial "E"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 13r:

  1. W.200, fol. 13r
  2. Title: Initial "F"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 13v:

  1. W.200, fol. 13v
  2. Title: Initial "G"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 14r:

  1. W.200, fol. 14r
  2. Title: Initial "H"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 14v:

  1. W.200, fol. 14v
  2. Title: Initial "G"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 15r:

  1. W.200, fol. 15r
  2. Title: Initial "H"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 15v:

  1. W.200, fol. 15v
  2. Title: Initial "I"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 16r:

  1. W.200, fol. 16r
  2. Title: Initial "K"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 16v:

  1. W.200, fol. 16v
  2. Title: Initial "I"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 17r:

  1. W.200, fol. 17r
  2. Title: Initial "K"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 17v:

  1. W.200, fol. 17v
  2. Title: Initial "L"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 18r:

  1. W.200, fol. 18r
  2. Title: Initial "M"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 18v:

  1. W.200, fol. 18v
  2. Title: Initial "L"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

19bookmarkr:

  1. W.200, 19bookmarkr
  2. Title: Initial "M" with bookmark
  3. Form: Full-page illumination and bookmark

fol. 19r:

  1. W.200, fol. 19r
  2. Title: Initial "M"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 19v:

  1. W.200, fol. 19v
  2. Title: Initial "N"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 20r:

  1. W.200, fol. 20r
  2. Title: Initial "O"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 20v:

  1. W.200, fol. 20v
  2. Title: Initial "N"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 21r:

  1. W.200, fol. 21r
  2. Title: Initial "O"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 21v:

  1. W.200, fol. 21v
  2. Title: Initial "P"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 22r:

  1. W.200, fol. 22r
  2. Title: Initial "Q"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 22v:

  1. W.200, fol. 22v
  2. Title: Initial "P"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 23r:

  1. W.200, fol. 23r
  2. Title: Initial "Q"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 23v:

  1. W.200, fol. 23v
  2. Title: Initial "R"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 24r:

  1. W.200, fol. 24r
  2. Title: Initial "S"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 24v:

  1. W.200, fol. 24v
  2. Title: Initial "R"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 25r:

  1. W.200, fol. 25r
  2. Title: Initial "S"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 25v:

  1. W.200, fol. 25v
  2. Title: Initial "T"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 26r:

  1. W.200, fol. 26r
  2. Title: Initial "U"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 26v:

  1. W.200, fol. 26v
  2. Title: Initial "T"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 27r:

  1. W.200, fol. 27r
  2. Title: Initial "U"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 27v:

  1. W.200, fol. 27v
  2. Title: Initial "X"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 28r:

  1. W.200, fol. 28r
  2. Title: Initial "Y"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 28v:

  1. W.200, fol. 28v
  2. Title: Initial "X"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 29r:

  1. W.200, fol. 29r
  2. Title: Initial "Y"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 29v:

  1. W.200, fol. 29v
  2. Title: Initial "Z"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

fol. 30r:

  1. W.200, fol. 30r
  2. Title: Initial "Z"
  3. Form: Full-page illumination

Binding

The binding is not original.

Rebound in France, eighteenth century; pink brocade with floral and zig-zag striped patterning over boards, sewn on five bands; gilt edges; antique white paper pastedowns and first/last flyleaves, decorated with alternating rows of gold six-pointed asterisks and dots, turned green at edges, paper with matching pattern pasted over bottom 1.5-2cm on front and back boards and flyleaves, which conceal an inscription in capital letters; paper tag printed "83" at bottom of spine; green silk ribbon marker


Provenance

Created in the sixteenth century, likely in Paris

Rebound in eighteenth century France, truncated watermark on fol. 33 with date '1743'

Obliterated note in cursive hand on fol. 1r, likely eighteenth century

Note in dark brown ink, partly effaced "J... 609." on flyleaf iv, likely eighteenth century

Léon Gruel collection, Paris, late nineteenth or early twentieth century; note in pencil "... 1183" on flyleaf iv; Gruel and Engelmann bookplate inscribed 'No. 1183'

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel between 1895 and 1900


Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest


Bibliography

Loftie, W. J. Lessons in the Art of Illuminating, vol. 1. London, after 1874, p.4-7.

De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p.828, no. 423.

Fruit and Flowers, Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art (1961), no. 4, illus. p.3 (fol. 8r).

Oliver, J. "Medieval Alphabet Soup: Reconstruction of a Mosan Psalter-Hours in Philadelphia and Oxford and the Cult of St. Catherine," Gesta 24/2 (1985): 138.

Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 2, Part 2. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, pp. 643-644, app. 1.


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Vinson, Aubrey

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservator: Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Emery, Doug; Han, Yuna; Tabritha, Ariel; Vinson, Aubrey; Wiegand, Kimber


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.