Prayerbook of Georg II of Waldburg

Prayer Book of Georg II of Waldburg

Little is known of the origins of this manuscript and its history of ownership can only be traced back to the time before the year 1800. All that is certain is the patron of the manuscript, Georg II von Waldburg (1430-82), and the year it was completed, 1476, which is dated on the first page with his coat-of-arms. The text itself does not offer much in the way of clues as to where the manuscript originated, however a hidden calendar in the manuscript and other clues do.
It is not known how the manuscript came to Stuttgart or Ludwigsburg, where Duke Karl Eugen von Württemberg founded the Ducal Library in 1765. Thus, the entire period from 1476 to the late 18th-century remains a mystery. The original binding of the manuscript was replaced sometime in the first half of the 19th century with the current binding, whose simple appearance belies the value and significance of its contents: a masterfully illuminated, uniquely designed German prayerbook from the beginning of the Northern Renaissance.

A Splendid Codex for a Noble Knight

Aside from the depictions of religious figures and symbols, the Arma Christi included, Waldburg is depicted numerous times, usually kneeling before a holy figure, but also appears once as his namesake: St. George slaying a dragon. Altogether, 46 mostly full-page miniatures, seven historiated initials, and dozens of three- and four-line initials in bright colors and gold. The scribe used a Gothic Textura script that usually appears in liturgical manuscripts. It is therefore sometimes called “missal script” because it has predominantly shaped the image of missals from this period. The rubricator and illuminator then filled in the remaining spaces with headings, decorative initials, flowering tendrils, and miniatures as far as was possible.

The “Hidden Calendar”

Unlike most prayer books, this manuscript has no calendar at the beginning of the codex, but the Litany of All Saints beginning on fol. 64r has an internal structure that is made up of chronological blocks arranged according to the church year, which is completely unique for the Litany. The compiler was not aware of the appropriate number of saints nor their proper placement in the litany but appears to have used a calendar to select the saints without any serious theological considerations. This surely could not have been the result of a monastic scriptorium, whose experience compilers would never make such mistakes. Perhaps the selection of saints was made by Waldburg himself, because this amateurishness is inconsistent the quality of both the calligraphy and the illumination. However, similar chronological lists of saints point to a tradition from the old diocese of nearby Constance.

Clues in Local Saints

There is further evidence of the manuscript’s geographic providence: among the no less than 178 saints listed in the manuscript, which are divided into apostles, martyrs, confessors, and women is Saint Magnus of Füssen, the so-called Apostle of the Allgäu. He was strongly venerated in the countryside around Waldsee, where Georg II resided, which thus points to the Allgäu region of Upper Swabia. This is also attested to by the fact that Magnus was patron of the nearby Premonstratensian monastery at Schussenried. Other local saints include Bishop Gebhard of Constance, Bishop Narcissus of Augsburg, St. Einsiedler Meinrad, and the rarely mentioned Ulrich von Zell. As such the work must have emerged in an area where the old dioceses of Constance and Augsburg overlap. A likely candidate would be an atelier or court artist in the town of Kempten, the oldest urban settlement in Germany, as the possible place of manufacture.