German devotional miscellany (1510)
One-volume collection of devotional texts and prayers in German and Latin, which were copied over a period of 30 years by various German scribes on different paper stock. The manuscript, organized into twelve booklets, was probably compiled for Euphemia Pirckheimer (1486-1557), abbess of the Benedictine convent of the Holy Cross at Bergen, in Neuburg an der Donau, Bavaria. She was the sister of the German humanists Caritas Pirckheimer (1467-1532) and Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530).
Three scribes (3, 4, and 5 above) were responsible for copying most of the text in the early sixteenth century, based on the evidence of the script and watermarks. The third scribe's attribution of an indulgence to Pope Julius II (r. 1503-13) on fol. 6v shows that booklet III could not have been copied before the beginning of his papacy. The fourth scribe not only copied most of the manuscript, but may also have been its compiler. The manuscript could not have been completed earlier than 1530, when Euphemia Pirckheimer succeeded her sister Sabina as abbess. Though the manuscript lacks any definitive indication of her ownership, the evidence suggests that the fourth scribe was in fact Euphemia Pirckheimer herself, who not only copied part of the manuscript but supervised its compilation and was an early owner of the manuscripts, as asserted on the second flyleaf, 19th century?): "Passions betrachtungen und Gebete von Eufenia Pirkhamerin circa 1500." Internal evidence suggests that this manuscript was almost certainly copied for use at Bergen. Third, the hand of the fourth scribe bears an extremely close resemblance to those attributed to Euphemia and Sabina Pirckheimer in their correspondence with their brother Willibald.
90r-105v: German translations of eight hymns from the Commons of the Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors, followed by an assortment of prayers including several focused on the Holy Trinity (beginning on fol. 95v) and one attributed to Saint Odilia, patron saint of Alsace (beginning on fol. 101r). The earlier of two versions of a rhyming prayer attributed to Nicholas of Flüe (1417-87), a Swiss soldier and judge who became a hermit and mystic in 1467 and was henceforth known as "Brother Klaus." Prayer attributed to Kaspar Schatzgeyer (1463-1527), a Bavarian friar who belonged to the Observant branch of the Franciscan order and defended the Catholic faith and religious orders against Reformation attacks.
Bound in nineteenth-century quarter leather over pasteboards, with 15th-century parchment on the sides (from a single manuscript leaf containing verses from Hosea and Isaiah and a German rubric copied in a fifteenth-century semihybrida script), smooth spine blind-stamped along top and bottom and lettered in gilt, "Deutsches Gebetbuch. 1500 1 Hälfte."
Keywords: Mechthild, -- of Hackeborn, -- 1241 or 1242-1299?; Pirckheimer, Euphemia, -- 1486-1547.; Benedictine monastery of the Holy Cross, Bergen (Neuburg an der Donau, Germany); Christianity -- Prayer-books and devotions -- German; Convents -- Germany -- Bavaria -- History -- 16th century -- Sources; Nuns -- Germany -- Bavaria -- History -- 16 century -- Sources; Prayer-books -- 16th century; Manuscripts, German -- 16th century