A volume comprising twenty-four leaves of Bible Pictures by W. de Brailes, an English artist active in Oxford in the middle of the thirteenth century. Seven leaves from the same set of images are now in the Musee Marmottan in Paris. These 31 leaves are all that remain of an image cycle that once contained at least 98 miniatures, and which was the longest cycle of Bible miniatures surviving from the thirteenth century in England. In all probability these Bible Pictures were actually prefatory matter to a Psalter, now Stockholm, National Museum, Ms. B.2010. De Brailes also composed and wrote the captions that accompany many of the images. W. de Brailes is one of only two English artists of the thirteenth century whose name we can associate with surviving works. 11 manuscripts have been identified that contain miniatures in his hand. De Brailes has a quirky and chatty style, and he was extremely gifted at turning Bible Stories into paint.

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This elegantly calligraphed and illuminated codex contains a prayer (wird) entitled Miftāḥ al-najāḥ attributed to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the fourth caliph of Islam. The manuscript was executed by Shaykh Kamāl ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Sabzawārī in Astarabad (present-day Gorgan, Iran) in 941 AH / 1534 CE.

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The present work is a supergloss on the gloss (ḥāshiyah) by al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī (d.816 AH / 1413 CE) on the Lawāmiʿ al-asrār by Qutb al-Dīn al-Taḥtānī al-Rāzī (d.766 AH / 1364 CE), being in turn a commentary on a book of logic entitled Maṭāliʿ al-anwār by Sirāj al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Urmawī (d.682 AH / 1283 CE). Written for the library of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, it was executed in Bursa in 918 AH / 1512 CE, the year of his accession to the throne. It is very likely that the scribe is also the author of this work. This folio contains the end of the text and the colophon.

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This small anthology of Persian poetry consisting of poems by such authors as Jāmī, Azārī, Fayz̤ī, Navāʾī, and Saʿdī was put together by an anonymous scribe in 1105 AH / 1693 CE. Illustrated with six miniatures, the margins of this manuscript are embellished with stenciled designs of angels, men and animals. The folio illustrates a young man standing with a pomegranate in his right hand.

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This painting depicts courtiers of the Safavid ruler Shāh ʿAbbās I (r. 996 AH / 1588 CE -- 1038 AH / 1629 CE). It is the right side of a double-page composition, which most likely served as a frontispiece to a manuscript. Certain courtiers of Shāh ʿAbbās I are identified by name. In the far upper right two men stand wearing turbans with vertical extensions held at the center, who are identified as Alpān Bīk (Beg) (in a blue robe) and Qarajaghāy Khān (in a red robe). Their headdress is distinctive of high-ranking members of court during the early eleventh century AH / seventeenth CE. Qarajaghāy Khān, an Armenian of the royal household, held a number of political positions at court and was an important patron of the arts. Standing lower down on the right side is Shāh Vardī Bīk Ishik Aqāsī (master of ceremonies) (in a gold and black robe). An Uzbek envoy (īlchī-yi Ūzbak) (in a beige and blue patterned robe) is seated on the carpet. Falconers, two seated female figures (Gulparī and Dukhtar-i Dallālah), grooms, and a musician (Qubād-i Kurd) standing beside a man identified as Mīrzā ʿUmar (?) Shaykh (in a red and gold robe) are also shown. This page has been associated with Reception at the court of Shah`Abbas I, also housed at the Walters Art Museum (W.771, fol. 50a). However, it is unlikely that the two ever formed a double-page composition.

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This small Book of Hours is especially interesting for its profusion of humorous drolleries. Humans, animals, and hybrids are featured in the margins of each page of the book. The artists rendered in small scenes a variety of actions, like cooking, playing game, climbing, fishing, making music or moving the bodies in a dance. These drolleries amuse the faithful during his prayers, while showing scenes that work as metaphors of the soul fighting the vices. The original female owner seems to have been established in the diocese of Cambrai, judging from the use of the Office of the Dead. Several provenance episodes are evidenced by the book in the signatures on the leaves at the beginning and end of the manuscript. A priest in the sixteenth century wrote a message in code on fol. 1v asking to return to him the book if lost. Members of the ducal house of Savoy owned this book of prayer in the seventeenth century, as evidenced by the gilt armorial shield of Charles Emmanuel II (1634-75), duke of Savoy, stamped on the covers.

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This Book of Hours was likely produced for a member of the Augustinian Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre at Lille along the Flemish-French border. The patron may have had himself depicted in the opening initial for the Penitential Psalms on fol. 125r, shown kneeling before an altar in prayer with hands extended to heaven, from which God emerges in a cloud, blessing the man and carrying a black book. A significant number of feast days in the calendar are devoted to saints venerated at Lille, and the proximity of St. Peter to the Virgin in the Pentecost historiated initial on fol. 13r may further suggest a connection to Saint-Pierre at Lille. Historiated and inhabited initials, drolleries, and vignettes are painted simply with dark outlines to delineate forms. Decorated initials and marginal ornament combine a calligraphic elegance with bold outlines that ultimately circumscribe the ornament. The ivory plaque depicting the Coronation of the Virgin below a trefoil Gothic arch was inserted into the front cover in the nineteenth century, although the ivory itself dates to the fourteenth century and was carved in either Flanders or Germany.

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The Stein Quadriptych was likely created in Bruges, and it has been attributed to Simon Bening and associates, ca. 1525-30. This collection of sixty-four miniatures is mounted in four panels, each in sets of sixteen miniatures per panel. The ensemble of miniatures was first cited in scholarly literature as the Stein Quadriptych because the earliest known owner of the collection was Charles Stein until 1886. The miniatures seem to have been dismantled at some point and then reassembled in these four panels. No texts have been found on the backs of these miniatures by the Walters Conservation Department. However, because it was normal practice for illuminated folios to be inserted into South Netherlandish prayer books without accompanying text on the back, the lack of textual evidence does not rule out the possibility that these miniatures were once part of a prayer book. Based on formal visual analysis and the use of color, however, these 64 miniatures appear to have been meant to be viewed as an ensemble. The recitation of prayers from a book or from memory may have been intended while the suppliant viewed the visual program.

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This Prayerbook was made for Marie de' Medici in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Beyond its provenance as a personal book owned by the famous queen, it is exceptional for its intricately cut borders, which transform the parchment margins into lace. This effect was created using a technique known as "canivet," in which a small knife was used to cut ornate patterns into paper or parchment. An art form that flourished originally among nuns in France, Germany, and the Netherlands beginning in the sixteenth century, it was employed to exceptional effect in several manuscripts connected with Marie de' Medici. The Walters manuscript, made for her while she was regent of France, and wife of King Henry IV, contains twenty-eight miniatures, including original religious imagery as well as several later additions: a gouache portrait of the elderly queen, and nine small miniatures produced in Bruges ca. 1450 by an artist influenced by the Eyckian and Gold Scrolls styles prevalent at the time; the coat-of-arms of Marie de Medici, as well as her monogram. The Walters manuscript retains its original binding composed of mosaic inlays in green and black leather, as well as fine gilt pointillé foliate tooling, and a replica of the binding was created by Léon Gruel for Henry Walters on one of his seventeenth-century printed books (92.467) that also connects to Marie de' Medici.

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This is a finely illuminated and iconographically rich Book of Hours, made in England at the end of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is incomplete and misbound. Its main artist can also be found at work in a Bible, Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Auct. D.3.2, and a Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge Ms. O.4.16. The manuscript contains a number of unusual texts including the Hours of Jesus Crucified, and the Office of St. Catherine. The patron of the manuscript is not clear: a woman is depicted as praying in many of the initials, but rubrics in the Office of the Dead mention "freres". The imagery is marvellously inventive, and the Hours of Christ Crucified are graced with images depicting the Funeral of Reynard the Fox in its margins. In the absence of a Calendar, it is not possible to locate the origin of the manuscript precisely.

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Originally composed in 932 AH / 1525 CE and dedicated to Sultan Süleyman I ("The Magnificent"), this great work by Piri Reis (d. 962 AH / 1555 CE) on navigation was later revised and expanded. The present manuscript, made mostly in the late 11th AH / 17th CE century, is based on the later expanded version with some 240 exquisitely executed maps and portolan charts. They include a world map (fol.41a) with the outline of the Americas, as well as coastlines (bays, capes, peninsulas), islands, mountains and cities of the Mediterranean basin and the Black Sea. The work starts with the description of the coastline of Anatolia and the islands of the Aegean Sea, the Peloponnese peninsula and eastern and western coasts of the Adriatic Sea. It then proceeds to describe the western shores of Italy, southern France, Spain, North Africa, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, western Anatolia, various islands north of Crete, Sea of Marmara, Bosporus and the Black Sea. It ends with a map of the shores of the the Caspian Sea (fol.374a).

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The wheel diagram at the top of the page shows the Earth at center, with the seven heavenly bodies--the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn--orbiting in concentric rings. The zodiacal names are given in the diagram’s frame. As had the ancients, medieval authorities believed that the Earth lay at the center of the universe, and that the Sun, Moon, and planets circled it. Also following ancient writers, medieval authors called the planets “wandering stars” because of their eccentric orbits: the word “planet” derives from the Greek “planetoi,” for “wanderers.” Their orbits were calculated according to the length of time it took them to complete one circuit of the zodiac. In the wheel diagram in the bottom half of the page, the Earth at center is surrounded by concentric bands containing the names of the heavenly bodies and the intervals of their orbits.

Created in England in the late twelfth century, this manuscript was intended to be a scientific textbook for monks. The manuscript is brief at nine folios, and was designed as a compendium of cosmographical knowledge drawn from early Christian writers such as Bede and Isidore, as well as the later Abbo of Fleury. Those writers, in turn, drew on classical sources like Pliny the Elder for their knowledge, but adapted it to be understood through the filter of Christianity. The twenty complex diagrams that accompany the texts in this pamphlet help illustrate them, and include visualizations of the heavens and earth, seasons, winds, tides, and the zodiac, as well as demonstrations of how these things relate to man. Although the exact grouping of texts and diagrams here is unique, the manuscript is related to other scientific compilations from this era, such as British Library, Royal Ms. 13 A.XI, Cotton Ms. Tiberius E.IV, and Oxford, St. John's College, Ms. 17.

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This fine illuminated Book of Hours was produced in two stages in the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century. The manuscript contains eleven full-page miniatures and twenty historiated initials. The first stage of production includes a section attributed to the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg and the calendar (fols. 3r-14v, 52v-211v), while additional prayers illustrated in the style of the workshop of Willem Vrelant were added later in the fifteenth century (fols. 16r-50v, 213r-223r), presumably when the book was bound in its present binding. The Hours of the Virgin is for the Use of Rome. The Use of the Office of the Dead is unidentified, but the calendar is for the Use of Utrecht. The two separate parts of the manuscript were bound together in Flanders. The sections of W.168 attributed to the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg have been compared to Utrecht, Utrecht University Ms. 1037; Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum James Ms. 141; the second hand in New York, Pierpont Morgan Library Ms. M.87; Stockholm, Royal Library A 226, and Philadelphia, Free Library Lewis Ms. 88.

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Known today as the St. Francis Missal, this manuscript is traditionally believed to be the very book consulted by St. Francis and his companions in 1208. According to early accounts, St. Francis and two followers were debating what God’s plan for them might be. Unable to decide, they sought answers at the church of San Nicolò in Assisi, which Francis often attended. They opened the Missal, which sat on the altar, three times at random and in every case, the text on the page urged renouncing earthly goods. This pivotal moment laid the foundation for the Franciscan order. An inscription in the book on fol. 166r lends support to the legend that surrounds it, for it documents the Missal's creation for the church of San Nicolò, and also mentions the book's patron, Gerard of Ugo, who is documented in Assisi in the late 12th century. Due to its possible contact with the saint, Franciscans worldwide consider it to be a relic of touch, and every year many make pilgrimages to Baltimore to be in its presence, and to see the three places they believe Francis opened the manuscript to (fols. 119v-120r, 132v-133r, and 249v-250r). The manuscript underwent intensive conservation from 2017-2019, a special project made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

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This Prayerbook was made for Marie de' Medici in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Beyond its provenance as a personal book owned by the famous queen, it is exceptional for its intricately cut borders, which transform the parchment margins into lace. This effect was created using a technique known as "canivet," in which a small knife was used to cut ornate patterns into paper or parchment. An art form that flourished originally among nuns in France, Germany, and the Netherlands beginning in the sixteenth century, it was employed to exceptional effect in several manuscripts connected with Marie de' Medici. The Walters manuscript, made for her while she was regent of France, and wife of King Henry IV, contains twenty-eight miniatures, including original religious imagery as well as several later additions: a gouache portrait of the elderly queen, and nine small miniatures produced in Bruges ca. 1450 by an artist influenced by the Eyckian and Gold Scrolls styles prevalent at the time; the coat-of-arms of Marie de Medici, as well as her monogram. The Walters manuscript retains its original binding composed of mosaic inlays in green and black leather, as well as fine gilt pointillé foliate tooling, and a replica of the binding was created by Léon Gruel for Henry Walters on one of his seventeenth-century printed books (92.467) that also connects to Marie de' Medici.

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Created in England in the late twelfth century, this manuscript was intended to be a scientific textbook for monks. The manuscript is brief at nine folios, and was designed as a compendium of cosmographical knowledge drawn from early Christian writers such as Bede and Isidore, as well as the later Abbo of Fleury. Those writers, in turn, drew on classical sources like Pliny the Elder for their knowledge, but adapted it to be understood through the filter of Christianity. The twenty complex diagrams that accompany the texts in this pamphlet help illustrate them, and include visualizations of the heavens and earth, seasons, winds, tides, and the zodiac, as well as demonstrations of how these things relate to man. Although the exact grouping of texts and diagrams here is unique, the manuscript is related to other scientific compilations from this era, such as British Library, Royal Ms. 13 A.XI, Cotton Ms. Tiberius E.IV, and Oxford, St. John's College, Ms. 17.

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This small Book of Hours is especially interesting for its profusion of humorous drolleries. Humans, animals, and hybrids are featured in the margins of each page of the book. The artists rendered in small scenes a variety of actions, like cooking, playing game, climbing, fishing, making music or moving the bodies in a dance. These drolleries amuse the faithful during his prayers, while showing scenes that work as metaphors of the soul fighting the vices. The original female owner seems to have been established in the diocese of Cambrai, judging from the use of the Office of the Dead. Several provenance episodes are evidenced by the book in the signatures on the leaves at the beginning and end of the manuscript. A priest in the sixteenth century wrote a message in code on fol. 1v asking to return to him the book if lost. Members of the ducal house of Savoy owned this book of prayer in the seventeenth century, as evidenced by the gilt armorial shield of Charles Emmanuel II (1634-75), duke of Savoy, stamped on the covers.

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This is a finely illuminated and iconographically rich Book of Hours, made in England at the end of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is incomplete and misbound. Its main artist can also be found at work in a Bible, Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Auct. D.3.2, and a Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge Ms. O.4.16. The manuscript contains a number of unusual texts including the Hours of Jesus Crucified, and the Office of St. Catherine. The patron of the manuscript is not clear: a woman is depicted as praying in many of the initials, but rubrics in the Office of the Dead mention "freres". The imagery is marvelously inventive, and the Hours of Christ Crucified are graced with images depicting the Funeral of Reynard the Fox in its margins. In the absence of a Calendar, it is not possible to locate the origin of the manuscript precisely.

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This Book of Hours was completed in the 1480s for Adolph, duke of Cleves, count of La Mack, lord of Ravenstein and Wijnendale (1425-92), and member of the entourage of the dukes of Burgundy until 1477 and thereafter in a position of personal trust under Archduke Maximilian, husband of Mary of Burgundy (d. 1482). The manuscript is highly illuminated and includes two portraits of Adolph of Ghent: a full-page miniature portraying the duke kneeling before a portrait of the Virgin and Child (fol. 13v), and a smaller portrait of Adolph revering the Virgin in an initial at the opening of a prayer to Mary (fol. 80v, "O beatissima virgo Maria"). The manuscript was likely made after the year 1470, when Adolph of Cleves married his second wife Anne of Burgundy (1441-1508). The presence of an inscription by Anne of Burgundy (fol. 71r: "A / B votre mieulx aimee / Anne") suggests that she may have commissioned the volume. A full-page illumination of Adolph of Cleves' heraldry includes the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, duke of Burgundy.

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This eleventh-century Gospel Lectionary was written in a clear Carolingian minuscule in Regensburg, Germany. Its remarkable treasure binding, which is original to the manuscript, is extremely fragile due to the Byzantine or Islamic silk that constitutes the spine; therefore it is not possible to image the entire manuscript. The cover, which alone has been photographed, is a rare survival and a rich example of Ottonian art. Bound in silver, the front cover displays an impressive mastery of filigree, segments of which have been gilded. A variety of textures and substances, including niello bosses in the corners, ivory plaques depicting the four Evangelists, gemstones (now lost), and a golden image of the Crucifixion beneath a polished rock crystal, give the cover an opulence rarely seen in medieval bookbinding. The back cover, necessarily flat to lie on the altar without damaging the decoration, consists of a sheet of hammered and gilded silver, engraved with an image of St. Michael slaying a dragon. This image has traditionally led to an association with the abbey of SS. Peter and Michael in Mondsee, Austria, but its more recent attribution to Otloh, a scribe active in Regensburg, suggests that it is more likely of German manufacture.

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The Stein Quadriptych was likely created in Bruges, and it has been attributed to Simon Bening and associates, ca. 1525-30. This collection of sixty-four miniatures is mounted in four panels, each in sets of sixteen miniatures per panel. The ensemble of miniatures was first cited in scholarly literature as the Stein Quadriptych because the earliest known owner of the collection was Charles Stein until 1886. The miniatures seem to have been dismantled at some point and then reassembled in these four panels. No texts have been found on the backs of these miniatures by the Walters Conservation Department. However, because it was normal practice for illuminated folios to be inserted into South Netherlandish prayer books without accompanying text on the back, the lack of textual evidence does not rule out the possibility that these miniatures were once part of a prayer book. Based on formal visual analysis and the use of color, however, these 64 miniatures appear to have been meant to be viewed as an ensemble. The recitation of prayers from a book or from memory may have been intended while the suppliant viewed the visual program.

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This Book of Hours was completed in the 1480s for Adolph, duke of Cleves, count of La Mack, lord of Ravenstein and Wijnendale (1425-92), and member of the entourage of the dukes of Burgundy until 1477 and thereafter in a position of personal trust under Archduke Maximilian, husband of Mary of Burgundy (d. 1482). The manuscript is highly illuminated and includes two portraits of Adolph of Ghent: a full-page miniature portraying the duke kneeling before a portrait of the Virgin and Child (fol. 13v), and a smaller portrait of Adolph revering the Virgin in an initial at the opening of a prayer to Mary (fol. 80v, "O beatissima virgo Maria"). The manuscript was likely made after the year 1470, when Adolph of Cleves married his second wife Anne of Burgundy (1441-1508). The presence of an inscription by Anne of Burgundy (fol. 71r: "A / B votre mieulx aimee / Anne") suggests that she may have commissioned the volume. A full-page illumination of Adolph of Cleves' heraldry includes the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, duke of Burgundy.

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Known today as the St. Francis Missal, this manuscript is traditionally believed to be the very book consulted by St. Francis and his companions in 1208. According to early accounts, St. Francis and two followers were debating what God’s plan for them might be. Unable to decide, they sought answers at the church of San Nicolò in Assisi, which Francis often attended. They opened the Missal, which sat on the altar, three times at random and in every case, the text on the page urged renouncing earthly goods. This pivotal moment laid the foundation for the Franciscan order. An inscription in the book on fol. 166r lends support to the legend that surrounds it, for it documents the Missal's creation for the church of San Nicolò, and also mentions the book's patron, Gerard of Ugo, who is documented in Assisi in the late 12th century. Due to its possible contact with the saint, Franciscans worldwide consider it to be a relic of touch, and every year many make pilgrimages to Baltimore to be in its presence, and to see the three places they believe Francis opened the manuscript to (fols. 119v-120r, 132v-133r, and 249v-250r). The manuscript underwent intensive conservation from 2017-2019, a special project made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

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This English manuscript was made in East Anglia in the mid-thirteenth-century for a patron with special veneration for St. Olaf, whose life and martyrdom is prominently portrayed in the "Beatus" initial of Psalm 1. Known as the "Carrow Psalter," due to its later use by the nunnery of Carrow near Norwich, it is more accurately described as a Psalter-hours, as it contains the Office of the Dead, the Hours of the Virgin, and Collects. The manuscript is striking for its rich variety of illuminations, including full-page cycles of saints, martyrs, and Biblical scenes, as well as historiated initials within the Psalter, and heraldry added in the fifteenth-century to undecorated initials in the Hours of the Virgin. Especially notable is the miniature portraying the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, for after Henry VIII found him guilty of treason in 1538, his image was concealed by gluing a page over it, rather than destroying it, and it has since been rediscovered.

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This late fifteenth-century prayer book was made for the use of Rome and is illuminated by followers of Willem Vrelant of Bruges. The manuscript was probably created for the couple depicted in two full-page miniatures (fols. 13v and 103r). The representation of the bride in the full-page miniatures, as well as references to her in suppliant prayers, indicates that the manuscript was commissioned primarily for the bride’s use. Further evidence of this is the prominence of women throughout the illuminations and drolleries, from one who was caught in adultery being brought before Christ to Veronica extending her cloth before Christ. The decorations in the manuscript stray from the typical border designs of this time period, focusing more on illusionistic Ghent-Bruges’ illumination (post-1475) and less on the Vrelant acanthus-floral borders. Among the number of full-page miniatures, fol. 229v stands out as an exceptional example of an imitation of a late fifteenth-century panel painting.

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The Stein Quadriptych was likely created in Bruges, and it has been attributed to Simon Bening and associates, ca. 1525-30. This collection of sixty-four miniatures is mounted in four panels, each in sets of sixteen miniatures per panel. The ensemble of miniatures was first cited in scholarly literature as the Stein Quadriptych because the earliest known owner of the collection was Charles Stein until 1886. The miniatures seem to have been dismantled at some point and then reassembled in these four panels. No texts have been found on the backs of these miniatures by the Walters Conservation Department. However, because it was normal practice for illuminated folios to be inserted into South Netherlandish prayer books without accompanying text on the back, the lack of textual evidence does not rule out the possibility that these miniatures were once part of a prayer book. Based on formal visual analysis and the use of color, however, these 64 miniatures appear to have been meant to be viewed as an ensemble. The recitation of prayers from a book or from memory may have been intended while the suppliant viewed the visual program.

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This mid-fifteenth century illuminated Book of Hours is written entirely in Dutch on fine vellum, and is remarkable for its eighteen grisaille miniatures. The technique, wherein the figures are modeled primarily in a gray wash, became a favorite in the Netherlands, and the hand behind the paintings in this manuscript has been identified with a group of artists known as the "Masters of the Delft Grisailles." This manuscript has been grouped with more than a dozen related works, including New York PML M. 349, London, Victoria and Albert Geo. Reid Ms. 32, Leiden B.P.L. 224, Brussels, BR 21696, Antwerp, Plantein Moretus Ms. 49, and the Hague K.B. Ms. 74 G 35. The manuscript is comprised of 152 folios and is almost completely intact, lacking only two miniatures, and retains its original brown leather binding decorated with mythological beasts and a now illegible inscription. The calendar is for the use of Utrecht, which helps localize its original ownership, as might a mostly erased ownership inscription that has been partially recovered by Marrow. The illumination begins the prayer to the five wounds.

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This is a finely illuminated and iconographically rich Book of Hours, made in England at the end of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is incomplete and misbound. Its main artist can also be found at work in a Bible, Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Auct. D.3.2, and a Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge Ms. O.4.16. The manuscript contains a number of unusual texts including the Hours of Jesus Crucified, and the Office of St. Catherine. The patron of the manuscript is not clear: a woman is depicted as praying in many of the initials, but rubrics in the Office of the Dead mention "freres". The imagery is marvellously inventive, and the Hours of Christ Crucified are graced with images depicting the Funeral of Reynard the Fox in its margins. In the absence of a Calendar, it is not possible to locate the origin of the manuscript precisely.

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A complete illuminated copy of the Koran (Qur'an) penned in 1282 AH / 1865-6 CE by a Turkish scribe Muḥammad ibn Muṣṭafá Izmīrī, a pupil of al-Rudūsī.

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This is a finely illuminated and iconographically rich Book of Hours, made in England at the end of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is incomplete and misbound. Its main artist can also be found at work in a Bible, Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Auct. D.3.2, and a Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge Ms. O.4.16. The manuscript contains a number of unusual texts including the Hours of Jesus Crucified, and the Office of St. Catherine. The patron of the manuscript is not clear: a woman is depicted as praying in many of the initials, but rubrics in the Office of the Dead mention "freres". The imagery is marvellously inventive, and the Hours of Christ Crucified are graced with images depicting the Funeral of Reynard the Fox in its margins. In the absence of a Calendar, it is not possible to locate the origin of the manuscript precisely.

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Known today as the St. Francis Missal, this manuscript is traditionally believed to be the very book consulted by St. Francis and his companions in 1208. According to early accounts, St. Francis and two followers were debating what God’s plan for them might be. Unable to decide, they sought answers at the church of San Nicolò in Assisi, which Francis often attended. They opened the Missal, which sat on the altar, three times at random and in every case, the text on the page urged renouncing earthly goods. This pivotal moment laid the foundation for the Franciscan order. An inscription in the book on fol. 166r lends support to the legend that surrounds it, for it documents the Missal's creation for the church of San Nicolò, and also mentions the book's patron, Gerard of Ugo, who is documented in Assisi in the late 12th century. Due to its possible contact with the saint, Franciscans worldwide consider it to be a relic of touch, and every year many make pilgrimages to Baltimore to be in its presence, and to see the three places they believe Francis opened the manuscript to (fols. 119v-120r, 132v-133r, and 249v-250r). The manuscript underwent intensive conservation from 2017-2019, a special project made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

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The Stein Quadriptych was likely created in Bruges, and it has been attributed to Simon Bening and associates, ca. 1525-30. This collection of sixty-four miniatures is mounted in four panels, each in sets of sixteen miniatures per panel. The ensemble of miniatures was first cited in scholarly literature as the Stein Quadriptych because the earliest known owner of the collection was Charles Stein until 1886. The miniatures seem to have been dismantled at some point and then reassembled in these four panels. No texts have been found on the backs of these miniatures by the Walters Conservation Department. However, because it was normal practice for illuminated folios to be inserted into South Netherlandish prayer books without accompanying text on the back, the lack of textual evidence does not rule out the possibility that these miniatures were once part of a prayer book. Based on formal visual analysis and the use of color, however, these 64 miniatures appear to have been meant to be viewed as an ensemble. The recitation of prayers from a book or from memory may have been intended while the suppliant viewed the visual program.

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A small size illuminated copy of the Koran (Qurʾan), complete in one volume. It was executed in Iran by an anonymous scribe probably in 1230 AH / 1814-5 CE and is enclosed in lacquer covers.

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A leaf from an elegantly calligraphed and illuminated large codex containing a part of the Qur'an with the suras 78 through 114 and executed probably in Iran in the 9th AH / 15th CE century.

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This manuscript was made in 1262 by T’oros Roslin, an extremely prominent illuminator, who extended the range of manuscript illuminations by introducing a whole cycle of images into the gospels rather than, as was traditional, only including the portraits of the evangelists. This particular manuscript was created at the scriptorium of Hromkla, which became the leading artistic center of Armenian Cilicia under the rule of catholicos Constantine I (1221-1267). As an extensive colophon starting on fol. 406v explains, T’oros created this manuscript under commission from the nephew of Constantine, a priest also named T’oros. It is one of seven known manuscripts bearing T’oros Roslin’s signature, and it is the most sumptuous of them all, with 15 miniatures and 67 smaller illustrations. The style of the images suggests that T’oros had several assistants helping with the illustrations, though the overall quality remains extremely high. The manuscript was long cherished within the Armenian church. Even in the seventeenth century, its illumination served as a model for Armenian scribes, particularly Bargham and his son Mik’ayel; see Jersualem, Armenian Patriarchate, no. 3438 and Washington DC, Freer Gallery, ms. 36.15; in the latter manuscript, Mik’ayel explicitly refers to “the excellent scribe T’oros, surnamed Roslin.”

Non-original binding. Brown stamped leather with flap and three straps. The latter are modern replacements attached to the lower cover by old engraved silver sheaths which swivel on rosettes, and loop over ornamental silver pegs on the upper cover. To the center of the upper cover is nailed a large jeweled silver-gilt plaque shaped as a cross. This is flanked by four small gilt-metal crucifixes cast in relief, and four corner pieces with representations in relief of the symbols of the Evangelists. Inscription on the upper crucifix on the left: "This holy cross is a memorial for the soul of Mkrtitchm in the year 1092" (1643 CE); on the right: "This holy cross is a memorial for the soul of Hovannes, 1092" (1643 CE). Inscription on the triangular base of the large cross: "This is the work of the deacon Mik'ayel. Whoever remembers [me], may he be blessed by God. Father, I have sinned." Framing the upper cover is a silver band, 3 cm wide, engraved with floral and geometric designs and nielloed.

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A fragment of the Koran (Qur'an) covering the chapters 19 (Mariam) through 23 ( al-Muʾminūn) written on Italian paper in a large Maghribi script, with vocalization in red ink, in the 12th AH / 18th CE century. Shown here is the illuminated incipit page with a headpiece carrying the chapter heading (Maryam) in a decorative New Abbasid Style ('broken cursive') in the central medallion in gold.

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This is a deluxe copy of the Quintet (Khamsah) of Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī (d.725 AH /1325 CE). Although now incomplete, this manuscript was penned in nastaʿlīq script by the famous late 16th century Mughal calligrapher Muḥammad Ḥusayn Zarrīn Qalam al-Kashmīrī and decorated by a number of illuminators and painters. Its illustrations are signed by eleven painters: Laʿl (Lāl), Manūhar, Sānwalah, Farrukh, Alīqulī, Dharamdās, Narsing, Jagannāth, Miskīnā, Mukund, and Sūrdās Gujarātī. On the other hand, its headpieces and a medallion are inscribed with the names of Ḥusayn Naqqāsh, Manṣūr Naqqāsh, Khvājah Jān Shīrāzī, and Luṭf Allāh Muẕahhib. The codex has beautifully decorated borders with vegetal, bird, animal motifs and human figures. The figures are portrayed in various traditional activities such as praying, reading and hunting.

This illustration depicts the story of two divs (demons) who, out of boredom, wreak havoc on the world. Recognizing the dangers of idleness, the wise King Solomon consigns them to a life of futile activity: filling the sea with sand and the desert with water. The inscription naming the artist ‘Ali Quli is composed in red ink at the bottom of the page.

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The Stein Quadriptych was likely created in Bruges, and it has been attributed to Simon Bening and associates, ca. 1525-30. This collection of sixty-four miniatures is mounted in four panels, each in sets of sixteen miniatures per panel. The ensemble of miniatures was first cited in scholarly literature as the Stein Quadriptych because the earliest known owner of the collection was Charles Stein until 1886. The miniatures seem to have been dismantled at some point and then reassembled in these four panels. No texts have been found on the backs of these miniatures by the Walters Conservation Department. However, because it was normal practice for illuminated folios to be inserted into South Netherlandish prayer books without accompanying text on the back, the lack of textual evidence does not rule out the possibility that these miniatures were once part of a prayer book. Based on formal visual analysis and the use of color, however, these 64 miniatures appear to have been meant to be viewed as an ensemble. The recitation of prayers from a book or from memory may have been intended while the suppliant viewed the visual program.

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Known today as the St. Francis Missal, this manuscript is traditionally believed to be the very book consulted by St. Francis and his companions in 1208. According to early accounts, St. Francis and two followers were debating what God’s plan for them might be. Unable to decide, they sought answers at the church of San Nicolò in Assisi, which Francis often attended. They opened the Missal, which sat on the altar, three times at random and in every case, the text on the page urged renouncing earthly goods. This pivotal moment laid the foundation for the Franciscan order. An inscription in the book on fol. 166r lends support to the legend that surrounds it, for it documents the Missal's creation for the church of San Nicolò, and also mentions the book's patron, Gerard of Ugo, who is documented in Assisi in the late 12th century. Due to its possible contact with the saint, Franciscans worldwide consider it to be a relic of touch, and every year many make pilgrimages to Baltimore to be in its presence, and to see the three places they believe Francis opened the manuscript to (fols. 119v-120r, 132v-133r, and 249v-250r). The manuscript underwent intensive conservation from 2017-2019, a special project made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

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Chi parle du celestiel paradis

Concentric spheres of the universe labeled from the center to the top: "Terre," "Yaue," "Air," "Feus," "Luna," "Mercurius," "Venus," "Sol," "Mars," "Jupiter," "Saturnus," "Firmamentum," "Celum nonu[m]," "Celum cristallinum," "Celum imperium"; names of the evangelists are inscribed on the scrolls held by the symbols

This manuscript is one of the three known fifteenth-century copies of a rare vernacular cosmography composed in verse under the title "Image du Monde" (The Mirror of the World) in Lorraine dialect in 1245-46. The manuscript provides descriptions of the seven liberal arts along with astronomical theories especially about the earth, the creatures that inhabit it, and its movements within the universe. Each one of the liberal arts is illustrated with a small miniature in grisaille, and extraordinary geometric astronomical diagrams recur throughout the book. The importance of W.199 is both textual and pictorial. Illuminated by followers of Willem Vrelant, active in Bruges 1454-1481, the manuscript reveals affinity of format and content with a 1464 copy of the Mirror of the World made in Bruges (London, British Library, Royal 19 A.IX).

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An elegantly illuminated and illustrated copy of the Khamsah (quintet) of Niẓāmī Ganjavī (d.605 AH / 1209 CE) executed by Yār Muḥammad al-Haravī in 922 AH / 1516 CE. Written in four columns in black nastaʿlīq script, this manuscripts opens with a double-page decorative composition signed by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ ibn ʿAlī, of which this is one side. It contains 35 miniatures. Bahrām Gūr in the blue pavilion.

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This is one of twenty-six known manuscripts by the hand of Luke the Cypriot (active 1583-1625), an accomplished Greek calligrapher who worked after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (1453). He copied it in 1594 at his episcopal see of Buzǎu (in Wallachia, now Romania) and soon took it to Moscow, where it was richly illustrated with New Testament scenes by a team of anonymous Russian artists. The book contains passages taken from the four Gospels and arranged in the order in which they are read out loud in church in the course of the year (hence its name Lectionary, from the Latin "lectio," reading). Short intructions in Slavonic accompany some of the miniatures, offering a glimpse of the painters' working process.

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This is an album (muraqqaʿ) of Persian and Indian calligraphy and paintings, most probably compiled in the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE. The album contains thirty-four illustrations, three of which are attributed to the Mughal painter Abū al-Ḥasan (Nādir al-al-Zamān), two to Manūhar, and one each to Dawlat and Ṣādiqī. There are several portraits of rulers and courtiers, as well as scenes from historical manuscripts, such as Bāburnāmah and Gulistān by Saʿdī. This album is also significant for the number of works by the artist Shayk Abbāsī, who worked in the eleventh century AH / seventeenth CE. The signed calligraphic pieces bear the names of ʿImād al-Ḥasanī (d. 1024 AH / 1615 CE), ʿAlī Riz̤ā-ʾi ʿAbbāsī, Mīr ʿAlī, and ʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Daylamī (d. 1081 AH / 1670-1 CE). The album was initially in an accordion format and was later made into a codex. The lacquer binding with central ovals and pendants decorated with flowers dates to the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE.

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This Prayerbook was made for Marie de' Medici in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Beyond its provenance as a personal book owned by the famous queen, it is exceptional for its intricately cut borders, which transform the parchment margins into lace. This effect was created using a technique known as "canivet," in which a small knife was used to cut ornate patterns into paper or parchment. An art form that flourished originally among nuns in France, Germany, and the Netherlands beginning in the sixteenth century, it was employed to exceptional effect in several manuscripts connected with Marie de' Medici. The Walters manuscript, made for her while she was regent of France, and wife of King Henry IV, contains twenty-eight miniatures, including original religious imagery as well as several later additions: a gouache portrait of the elderly queen, and nine small miniatures produced in Bruges ca. 1450 by an artist influenced by the Eyckian and Gold Scrolls styles prevalent at the time; the coat-of-arms of Marie de Medici, as well as her monogram. The Walters manuscript retains its original binding composed of mosaic inlays in green and black leather, as well as fine gilt pointillé foliate tooling, and a replica of the binding was created by Léon Gruel for Henry Walters on one of his seventeenth-century printed books (92.467) that also connects to Marie de' Medici.

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This manuscript was created ca. 1315-25 in the region of Ghent, likely for the woman depicted in the margin of fol. 171r. Combining both a Psalter and a Book of Hours, and including a series of hymns, this manuscript provided its owner with extensive texts for personal devotion. A series of thirty-three historiated initials provide visual associations with the readings, while its rich marginal drolleries would have delighted the reader. The illumination is in the style of the Master of the Copenhagen Hours (Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, MS. ThoU 547 4). Added prayers, as well as ownership inscriptions ranging from the fifteenth through twentieth centuries, attest to the long life and use of the manuscript.

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This is a finely illuminated and iconographically rich Book of Hours, made in England at the end of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is incomplete and misbound. Its main artist can also be found at work in a Bible, Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Auct. D.3.2, and a Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge Ms. O.4.16. The manuscript contains a number of unusual texts including the Hours of Jesus Crucified, and the Office of St. Catherine. The patron of the manuscript is not clear: a woman is depicted as praying in many of the initials, but rubrics in the Office of the Dead mention "freres". The imagery is marvellously inventive, and the Hours of Christ Crucified are graced with images depicting the Funeral of Reynard the Fox in its margins. In the absence of a Calendar, it is not possible to locate the origin of the manuscript precisely.

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Office of the Dead: Vespers

Created in the fifteenth century and rebound slightly later, this small Book of Hours may still appear much as a sixteenth-century viewer saw it. In that period, it was covered in either Belgium or England with an opulent red velvet embellished with silk and silver embroidery. The manuscript itself was produced in Flanders around 1480-1490, and was likely destined for Cambrai, as indicated by the selection of saints in the calendar. Painted by a group of artists referred to as the Associates of the Master of Antoine Rolin, the manuscript contains several interesting full-page miniatures representing St. John the Evangelist and the Pentecost painted in blue grisaille; a similar grisaille technique was used in the Suffrages to create sculpture-like figures of the saints evoked in the prayers. Full-color miniatures introduce each hour, while illusionistic borders enhance several folios throughout the book.

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This English manuscript was made in East Anglia in the mid-thirteenth-century for a patron with special veneration for St. Olaf, whose life and martyrdom is prominently portrayed in the "Beatus" initial of Psalm 1. Known as the "Carrow Psalter," due to its later use by the nunnery of Carrow near Norwich, it is more accurately described as a Psalter-hours, as it contains the Office of the Dead, the Hours of the Virgin, and Collects. The manuscript is striking for its rich variety of illuminations, including full-page cycles of saints, martyrs, and Biblical scenes, as well as historiated initials within the Psalter, and heraldry added in the fifteenth-century to undecorated initials in the Hours of the Virgin. Especially notable is the miniature portraying the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, for after Henry VIII found him guilty of treason in 1538, his image was concealed by gluing a page over it, rather than destroying it, and it has since been rediscovered.

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This large-scale manuscript contains the first eight Old Testament books, Genesis through Ruth. The date of completion is given, February 2, 1507. The illumination of the Creation within a cosmographic scheme is based in part on the woodcut illustrations of Creation in the 1483 Koberger Bible, and the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle by the same printer. Large historiated initials mark the beginning of each book. This large format form of the bible was revived in the low countries and Rhineland in the mid fifteenth century, and later in the century they were being made in south east Germany and Bohemia. The style of the miniatures in this manuscript is typical of upper Austrian miniature painting of the later fifteenth century.

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Hans Carl Erlenwein and his classmates in seminary school, all teenage sons of German aristocrats, composed this Liber Amicorum, or friendship book, for his Latin alter ego “Joannes Carolus Erlenwein.” The book’s creation was itself a game: friends one-upped each other through impressive family crests, heartfelt Latin inscriptions, and charming images. Through images, Joannes became the hero of his own story as he and his friends jousted, played tennis, hunted, and rescued damsels in distress. Their choice to convey their strong emotional bond through these images is extraordinary. Yet as boys on the cusp of manhood, they juxtaposed light-hearted joys of youth with images of war and quests for honor, which resonate with prints of the Trojan War interleaved throughout.

This friendship book was bound in 1615 for Joannes Carolus Erlenwein (Hans Carl Erlenwein), a student in the seminary at Fulda. The value of this book lies not only in the heraldry of fifty-five aristocratic German families at the time, but also in the printed book contained within it as well: the complete first (and only) edition of Isaac Hillaire's Speculum Heroicum, including half-page engravings by Utrecht artist Crispin de Passe the Elder. The personal inscriptions in the book, the majority from Erlenwein's classmates at Fulda, date from 1615 to 1619, with several additional hands visible throughout. One hand has written the family names over the coats of arms on most of the personal messages from 1615; a later hand (possibly from the Erlenwein family) has added notes to many pages on the dates of births, deaths, marriages, and offices held; an even later hand created an almost complete index of the family names in the book on the last pages, and is possibly the same hand that added a second set of notations on important dates to several pages. It should be noted that the family names are spelled up to three or four different ways in the course of the friendship book; the primary spelling followed here is taken from the personal inscriptions.

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