"Manuscript on vellum, Benedictine prayer book. Ff. 90. Augsburg or its environs, a collection of various parts ranging in date from the later 15thcentury till c. 1530. Written in brown, black and red ink in various hands, 18 to 25 lines per page, and with four illustrations, bound in blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards with two brass clasps, ca. 1530-40, the stamps represent medallion heads of warriors and floral ornaments, central emblem with remains of gilding on front cover, depicting a round object (a helmet?) at the top, the rounded tip of a crosier to its right, all placed on a tree trunk resting on a skull and flanked by two cocks emblem and some other parts rubbed and worn, some minor cracks in spine, but nevertheless a well-preserved and completely unrestored binding, (c.9,5 x 7,5 cm) Contents: Ff 1-14: Calendar, black and red ink, ca. 1500, including two blanks and one leaf for each month (most of them slightly shaved at top); gives feast days, both common and local, and symbols indicating moon phases, Local saints named point to Augsburg: Saints A(u)fra, Vodalricus, Erhardul, Colomannus, Wolfgangus, Othmarus, Cunradus are mentioned, as well as under Sep. 28 apparently the anniversary of the Augsburg cathedral, 'Dedica(ti)o cat(hedralis) Augs(burgiensis)', several corrections and additions to entries; the names of some saints, such as Thomas Aquinas, have been erased, though no explanation for this is evident, the calendar is clearly Benedictine (St. Benedict is thus the only saint of the calendar for whom both his feast day and his octava is entered), on the back of last leaf is a heraldic drawing in ""fake"" gold ink (now mostly oxidised into a green colour) representing a coat of arms divided diagonally into a field of horizontal stripes to left and a cock to right, all surmounted by a closed feathered helmet with a sword to its left and a crosier to its right; above the date ""MCCCC"" (1400: date of granting of arms?), the cock obviously suggest the coat of arms to be that of the Beno von Rothenhan mentioned later in the book; likewise, the gilt emblem with cocks on the book's cover must represent this man. The calendar is followed by prayers, psalms and hymns (beginning: ""Incipit accesue altarie""), written by various hands (at least 13 different ones can be identified), including that of the calendar, with portions of text erased or replaced in several places, on 29v an early engraving, ca. 1500, (worn and abraded) on paper, representing the Ascension of Mary Magdalene assisted by six angels, and hand-coloured in red, green and yellow, has been glued onto the page, the image is accompanied by biblical passages on and prayers to Mary Magdalene among others, on 32v a miniature (ca. 1530-40?) is painted in rather pale colours (yellow, reddish brown, brown, light violet and orange): Madonna with child in a roundel enclosed in a large ""M"", on f 46r is a monogram crowned by a seven-spiked baronet's (Freiherr) crown, below which is written the name Beno v(on) Rothenhan (ca. 1530?), on f 88r is mentioned indulgences granted by Pope Nicolas, no doubt in connection with the small jubilee of 1450.
The collation of the book is extremely complex; apparently the owner, Beno von Rothenhan, of the various pieces in the volume had them assembled and bound for his personal use, we have unfortunately not been able to trace Freiherr Beno von Rothenhan, fl. ca. 1530 at (or around) Augsburg; the family is found in Siebmacher's Wappenbuch, vol. 22, p. 20 & 54 with pl.s. 14 & 56, though the coat of arms illustrated there only has the image of a cock in common with that in our book. All the pieces represent Roman-Catholic orthodoxy, and none of the numerous erasures in the book seems explicable in terms of the religious struggles of the time."
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A445368/datastre...
