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![SERVICE BOOK for a Flagellant Confraternity, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Tuscany, probably Florence, final quarter 15th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16019_0019_002(service_book_for_a_flagellant_confraternity_in_latin_and_italian_illum073034).jpg?w=1)
![SERVICE BOOK for a Flagellant Confraternity, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Tuscany, probably Florence, final quarter 15th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16019_0019_000(service_book_for_a_flagellant_confraternity_in_latin_and_italian_illum070754).jpg?w=1)
Details
SERVICE BOOK for a Flagellant Confraternity, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Tuscany, probably Florence, final quarter 15th century]
A rare survival: a formal manuscript from the defining expression of penitential extremism in the late Middle Ages.
238 x 168mm. 68 leaves, complete. 17 lines, ruled space: 135 x 94mm. Three historiated initials, one accompanied by a full-page border, with print infills to two of the three roundels, another with three-sided border, the third with the impression from the burnishing of the gold of the full-page border on the conjoint folio (f.1); two illuminated initials with part borders; large initials of gold or blue with elaborate flourishing of blue and red (pigment loss and heavy thumbing). Contemporary panelled goatskin stamped in blind (edges scuffed, rebacked, lacking clasps, catches and bosses).
Provenance: (1) Made for the use of a confraternity of ‘blue penitents’ in Tuscany: the style of illumination and the presence of Sts Miniato and Zenobius point to the origin and most probably the use of the manuscript in Florence, and the opening initial shows the blue habits worn by the brothers. (2) A prayer on f.52, added in a near-contemporary hand, is for the protection of the city of Pistoia. (3) Schoyen Collection, Oslo and London, MS 119; bookplate inside upper cover, bought Sotheby’s 21 June 1988 lot 94, sold Sotheby’s 1 December 1998 lot 98.
Content: Orders of service for meetings of a confraternity of blue penitents: initiation ceremony for the admission of a novice, avowal and enrobing ff.1-7v; night offices of the Virgin, concluding, from f.34, with the rite for administering ‘la disciplina’ ff.8-36; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.36-51; added prayers to the plague saints Sebastian and Roch, followed in a different hand by a prayer for the city of Pistoia ff.51v-52v; variations and order for the Tenebrae, from lauds for Maundy Thursday concluding with the hymn to be said during the washing of feet, ‘Dulcis yh’u memoria/dans vera cordis gaudia’ ff.53-67; Added prayers, in different but contemporary hands, to Saint Joseph and Saint Anne, and capituli for the Nativity and its Vigil ff.67-68.
Religious confraternities, serving both the spiritual and temporal aspirations of lay people, were a ubiquitous feature of medieval and early modern Europe. One dramatic and particularly ascetic class of these were the disciplinati: their self-flagellation in public and private sought to bring both individual and group forgiveness through emulating the suffering that Christ had endured to ensure the salvation of mankind. The 16th-century historian Benedetto Varchi noted that in Florence there were 38 confraternities known as companies of discipline because they whipped themselves after Holy Office and four others, more secret and devout, known as companies of the night because that was the time they met. All of the flagellant groups wore hooded habits to preserve their anonymity, most were white or black but the opening initial makes it clear that the present manuscript was made for one of the ‘blue penitents’. The copious rubrics in Italian give a detailed and vivid account of the proceedings, giving instructions and texts for the Governor, priest and the brothers, even to detailing the tone of voice to be used, the time for the flagellants to reclothe themselves and the whips to be put away.
Whatever the asceticism of the fraternity, it did not extend to the production of this manuscript: highly burnished gold is not restricted to the illuminated initials and borders and the exquisite large flourished initials but also to the one-line versals throughout. The heavily thumbed margins are suggestive of fervent use.
Illumination: The initial that opens the manuscript and the initiation ceremony (f.1) show the Governor in his hooded blue habit placing a similar robe onto the young man kneeling in front of him. The other two historiated initials open the Office (Virgin and Child f.34) and the Penitential Psalms f.36v). The style of the historiated initial, and the layout and decorative forms of the illuminated borders suggest an attribution to Littifredi Corbizzi, who was born in Florence in 1465 and whose work shows strong influence from Attavante, but who moved to Siena and died there in 1515. It is a particularly interesting feature of the opening border that it seems to have been designed to accommodate two prints, of the Annunciation and the Crucifixion, in roundels of exactly the right size.
A rare survival: a formal manuscript from the defining expression of penitential extremism in the late Middle Ages.
238 x 168mm. 68 leaves, complete. 17 lines, ruled space: 135 x 94mm. Three historiated initials, one accompanied by a full-page border, with print infills to two of the three roundels, another with three-sided border, the third with the impression from the burnishing of the gold of the full-page border on the conjoint folio (f.1); two illuminated initials with part borders; large initials of gold or blue with elaborate flourishing of blue and red (pigment loss and heavy thumbing). Contemporary panelled goatskin stamped in blind (edges scuffed, rebacked, lacking clasps, catches and bosses).
Provenance: (1) Made for the use of a confraternity of ‘blue penitents’ in Tuscany: the style of illumination and the presence of Sts Miniato and Zenobius point to the origin and most probably the use of the manuscript in Florence, and the opening initial shows the blue habits worn by the brothers. (2) A prayer on f.52, added in a near-contemporary hand, is for the protection of the city of Pistoia. (3) Schoyen Collection, Oslo and London, MS 119; bookplate inside upper cover, bought Sotheby’s 21 June 1988 lot 94, sold Sotheby’s 1 December 1998 lot 98.
Content: Orders of service for meetings of a confraternity of blue penitents: initiation ceremony for the admission of a novice, avowal and enrobing ff.1-7v; night offices of the Virgin, concluding, from f.34, with the rite for administering ‘la disciplina’ ff.8-36; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.36-51; added prayers to the plague saints Sebastian and Roch, followed in a different hand by a prayer for the city of Pistoia ff.51v-52v; variations and order for the Tenebrae, from lauds for Maundy Thursday concluding with the hymn to be said during the washing of feet, ‘Dulcis yh’u memoria/dans vera cordis gaudia’ ff.53-67; Added prayers, in different but contemporary hands, to Saint Joseph and Saint Anne, and capituli for the Nativity and its Vigil ff.67-68.
Religious confraternities, serving both the spiritual and temporal aspirations of lay people, were a ubiquitous feature of medieval and early modern Europe. One dramatic and particularly ascetic class of these were the disciplinati: their self-flagellation in public and private sought to bring both individual and group forgiveness through emulating the suffering that Christ had endured to ensure the salvation of mankind. The 16th-century historian Benedetto Varchi noted that in Florence there were 38 confraternities known as companies of discipline because they whipped themselves after Holy Office and four others, more secret and devout, known as companies of the night because that was the time they met. All of the flagellant groups wore hooded habits to preserve their anonymity, most were white or black but the opening initial makes it clear that the present manuscript was made for one of the ‘blue penitents’. The copious rubrics in Italian give a detailed and vivid account of the proceedings, giving instructions and texts for the Governor, priest and the brothers, even to detailing the tone of voice to be used, the time for the flagellants to reclothe themselves and the whips to be put away.
Whatever the asceticism of the fraternity, it did not extend to the production of this manuscript: highly burnished gold is not restricted to the illuminated initials and borders and the exquisite large flourished initials but also to the one-line versals throughout. The heavily thumbed margins are suggestive of fervent use.
Illumination: The initial that opens the manuscript and the initiation ceremony (f.1) show the Governor in his hooded blue habit placing a similar robe onto the young man kneeling in front of him. The other two historiated initials open the Office (Virgin and Child f.34) and the Penitential Psalms f.36v). The style of the historiated initial, and the layout and decorative forms of the illuminated borders suggest an attribution to Littifredi Corbizzi, who was born in Florence in 1465 and whose work shows strong influence from Attavante, but who moved to Siena and died there in 1515. It is a particularly interesting feature of the opening border that it seems to have been designed to accommodate two prints, of the Annunciation and the Crucifixion, in roundels of exactly the right size.
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