Cuttings from a Cistercian Gradual


I am currently (July 2016) aware of nine cuttings from this manuscript, and expect that there are others waiting to be recognised.

Four were were part of a collection of cuttings bought by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1883 from W.H. James Weale (1832–1917), who had lived in Bruges, worked on Flemish “primitives”, and was later to become the V&A’s Librarian. They were included in the published catalogues of the V&A's leaves and cuttings (1908, pp.25–26 and [1923], p.20) as “Flemish, early 14th cent. Rough work” together with another cutting (8977A) in an apparently unrelated style.
9005A [Source
9005B [Source]
8990A [Source]
8990B [Source]
The new professional V&A photos above all make the gold appear very flat, but my own show photos that it is in fact highly burnished, as in the example at the top of this page, taken in 2003.

Two cuttings (one retouched) were obtained from Kalebdjian (according to de Ricci, Census, II, p.1703, nos. A.10 and A.14; thus before 1937) by Robert Lehman (1891/2–1969), his MSS 18 and 19; they were later acquired by Jörn Günther Antiquariat and are now in a private collection:

One was sold by Christie's, 6 December 1989, lot 1:

One was in the Kofler-Truniger collection, Lucerne, and later Jörn Günther Antiquariat, Catalogue 6 (2002), no.27:

Most recently, one was sold by Sotheby's, 3 December 2013, part of lot 17, and subsequently De Brailes, Catalogue One, no.I and Catalogue Two, no.II:

The place in the parent manuscript from which four of the cuttings come can be determined, by the initial letter, iconography, text on the reverse, or other features:
  • Initial ‘A’. Introit for the first Sunday in Advent, “Ad te levavi”.
  • Initial ‘P’. Introit for the Nativity, “Puer natus est nobis”; the reverse (recto) has parts of the preceding mass
  • Initial ‘R’. Introit for Easter, “Resurrexi”
  • Initial ‘U’. Introit for the Ascension, “Viri Galilei”; the reverse (recto) has the beginning of the Offertory for the vigil of the Ascension
I am very keen to locate further cuttings or leaves from this manuscript; please do contact me if you know of any others: peter@manuscripts.org.uk

2 comments:

  1. strikes me there are messin elements here: spiral terminals with gold balls, and the flower motifs, but I don't see the figure style as messin. Perhaps the Germanic suggestions are better, though the notation is square not Hufnagel.

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  2. This is quite exciting, as Cistercians were not meant to use organs in their services, but clearly did.

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