Benedictional of Robert de Clercq (MS Nn.4.1)

Metadata

The metadata in this description derived from the IIIF manifest and can be incomplete.

Binding

Original brown leather over wooden boards; stamped with horizontal central fleur-de-lys frieze and four panels containing animals in vine scrolls, each framed by the words ‘Ob laudem Christi librum hunc recte ligavi Ludovicus Bloc’, Bruges binder (d. 1529).

Script

Gothic bookhand (textualis)

Origin Place

Bruges

Provenance

Robert de Clercq, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Les Dunes (Ter Duinen) at Koksijde, near Furnes, 1519-57 (for which see also Nn.3.5); abbey of Les Dunes (‘Liber Beate Marie de Dunis’, front pastedown), where it probably remained until dissolution, 1796; entered University Library by 1798 (appears in James Naysmith’s catalogue, Nn.6.45, completed in that year)

Physical Location

Cambridge University Library

Extent

119 fols (foliated 1-70^a, 70^b-118) Leaf height: 199 mm, width: 187 mm. Written height: 125 mm, width: 80 mm.

Funding

Abstract

A Benedictional contains blessings, prayers, and rites intended for the personal use of a bishop. This one was commissioned by Robert de Clercq, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Ter Duinen (‘Les Dunes’) at Kokside near Bruges from 1519 to 1557, sometime between when he took office and the death of Ludovicus Bloc in 1529. His arms, initials, and motto Sperans gaudebo (‘In hope I will rejoice’) are found throughout the volume. He is portrayed in the Crucifixion miniature (4v), wearing his white Cistercian habit, with his abbatial crosier and mitre. The manuscript was illuminated by Simon Bening (1483-1561), one of the foremost Flemish miniaturists of the sixteenth century. It preserves its original covers made by the well-known Bruges binder, Ludovicus Bloc (d. 1529)

Former Owner(s)

Robert de Clercq

Date of Creation

1519-1529 C.E.

Title

Benedictional of Robert de Clercq

Author(s) of the Record

Patrick Zutshi, Paul Binski, Stella Panayotova

Material

Parchment

Classmark

MS Nn.4.1

Note(s)

Miniatures attributed to Simon Bening (1483-1561), except those on 69v, 79v. Prayers in later hand inserted at beginning (1-3). Oath of bridegroom given in French and Flemish, 100v-101v

Decoration

Full-page miniatures:

Crucifixion, including Robert de Clercq kneeling at lower left with mitre and crosier, surrounded by representations of Agony in the Garden, Betrayal, Ecce Homo, and St Veronica with cloth before Christ carrying the Cross (facing text with rubricated heading Oratio sacerdotis ante missam, 4v)
Presentation of the Virgin in Temple (Professio noviciorum, 36v)
Christ blessing and holding orb surmounted by cross (Benedictio ornamentorum ecclesie, 69v)
Baptism of Christ (Ordo ad baptisandum puerum, 79v)

Smaller miniatures:

Entry into Jerusalem (2/3 page, In uigilia natalis domini benedictio, 46)
Wedding of Mary and Joseph (1/2 page, Sequitur benedictio super sponsum et sponsam, 98)
Dying man in bed surrounded by his family and a priest (1/2 page, funeral prayer, 102)
Virgin and Child (5 lines, text beginning Certissima spes omnium, 33)

Ornamental and minor initials: Brown-gold initials (3-4 lines) formed of knotted branches on blue, green or pink background (5, 17v, 31v, 37, 80); grey-white initials formed of knotted branches on brown-gold ground (1-3 lines)
Border decoration: Various borders framing miniature and text-pages at major divisions and often containing Robert de Clercq’s initials (33, 45v, 46, 97v, 101v), his coat of arms and/or motto ‘Sperans gaudebo’ (4v, 5, 17v, 36v, 45v, 46v, 69v, 102v); architectural designs outlined in gold ink on brown ground (5, 46v, 102v); precious stones and jewellery on violet or pink ground (17v, 69v); oak branches, animals, birds, berries and grotesques executed in brown-gold ink on green or blue ground, or in green and gold-brown ink on plain parchment (33, 46, 101v); tromp l’oeil borders (36v, 37, 70a, 79v, 80, 97v, 98, 102); landscape with birds (45v)
Line-fillers: Brown bars framed and ornamented in gold ink, and filled with white branches and foliage

Subject(s)

Benedictionals

Associated Name(s)

Bening, Simon, 1483 or 4-1561; Bloc, Ludovicus, (d. 1529)

Format

Codex

Data Source(s)

This catalogue entry derives from Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Cambridge, 2011 (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press).

Language(s)

Latin

Layout

14 lines, ruled in red ink, below top line, rubrics, 2^o fol. singulares apud te (2), tuum. tantum (6)

Bibliography

Bruckmann, J., "Latin Manuscript Pontificals and Benedictionals in England and Wales", Traditio: studies in ancient and medieval history, thought and religion vol. 29 pp. 391-458 (1973).

Jenni, Ulrike and Dagmar Thoss, Das schwarze Gebetbuch: Von Ulrike Jenni und Dagmar Thoss (Insel-Verlag, 1982) pp. fig. 103.

Testa, Judith Anne, The Beatty Rosarium (Davaco, 1986) pp. 44-45 ISBN: 9789070288228.

Bening, Simon and Sandra Hindman, Four Miniatures by Simon Bening (Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, 1994) pp. 17.

Smeyers, Maurits, Gosudarstvennyĭ Ėrmitazh (Russia) and Museo Bardini, Flemish illuminated manuscripts: 1475-1550 contributor: Jan van der Stock ([S.l] : New York: Ludion Press ; Distributed by Harry N. Abrams, 1996) pp. 44 ISBN: 0810963183.

Hindman, Sandra, Illuminations (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997) pp. 98 ISBN: 9780691059716.

Smeyers, Maurits, Flemish miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th century: the medieval world of parchment (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999) pp. 459 ISBN: 2503509665.