Catalogue of illuminated manuscripts of French origin in the Bavarian State Library, Munich. Part 2: Manuscripts dating from the 15th and early 16th century

• Applicant: Dr. Klaus Ceynowa
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411776068

Illuminated manuscripts constitute an essential corpus for the history of art in the Middle Ages, as they have survived in much greater numbers than other two-dimensional works of art such as frescoes or paintings. They are also highly relevant sources for other disciplines of mediaeval studies, ranging from history and theology over Latin and vernacular philology to the history of medicine and law. Not only do they transmit textual and visual information, but they also enable researchers to gain insights into interests of recipients, levels of decoration and text-image-relations. For systematic access to this material, detailed descriptions of illuminated manuscripts with regard to their art-historical evaluation based on stylistic features and history of origin as well as their content and iconographic meaning are required. The project undertakes to create a reliable and coherent basis for further research in this area for specialized art historians and general mediaevalists alike.The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich holds not only substantial numbers of Latin and vernacular manuscripts decorated in the German-speaking areas and Italy, but also – compared with other German institutions – an outstanding collection of mediaeval manuscripts illuminated in France. Due to the mobility of mediaeval artists and manuscripts, neighbouring areas like modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain are included in the corpus, which as a result comprises 437 manuscripts, of which about 293 were catalogued in a first project phase, namely French manuscripts from the 10th to the 14th century, and all illuminated manuscripts from Spain and England. The current project aims at cataloguing the 144 manuscripts of French, Belgian and Netherlandish origin dating from the 15th century and later and thus to complete the description of the BSB’s holdings of illuminated manuscripts from France and other Western European countries in a final phase of three years. The descriptions will follow the DFG's cataloguing rules and will be published both in a printed catalogue as well as an online repository under open access.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)