Jena, Germany, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, MS 9
Provenance:
1) Apparently prepared for Henry VIII (heraldic arms above which a helmet, chapeau and a crowned lion passant guardant, f. 1v; tudor emblems - greyhound, griffins and white and red rose - in initials and borders, ff. 1v-2r), but acquired by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. Three manuscripts from the Alamire scriptorium today in Jena (Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, MSS 4, 7 and 9) contain heraldic arms of other rulers. Karl Erich Roediger suggested that all three manuscripts were made for Maximilian I (Roediger 1935, 11). As MS 4 contains portraits and heraldic devices of Maximilian I as well as of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Roediger assumed that at least MSS 4 and 9 were ordered as gifts for Henry VIII but when frictions developed between him and the English ruler in 1514 they remained with the Emperor and were sent later to Frederick the Wise (Roediger 1935, 7, 11). This hypothesis would explain how these manuscripts entered Frederick's collection. It contradicts, however, Flynn Warmington's dating of MSS 4 and 9 to 1516-1518 and 1515-1516 respectively, based on the chronology of her scribe X (Warmington 1999, nos. 13, 17). It remains furthermore unclear if MSS 4 and 9 were indeed ordered by Maximilian I as gifts for Henry VIII. 2). In the possession of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony (1486-1525), the manuscripts were probably used at the All Saints Church in Wittenberg. 3) When a later Elector, Johann Friedrich I, was deposed in 1547, he retired to Weimar, taking with him the court library. The collection was transferred to Jena in the following year to become the foundation of the library of the Hochschule (later Jena University).
Bindings:
20th century,
brown
paper over
pasteboard
no edges
Endpapers: front and back: 1 endpaper
Notes:
Manuscript damaged by water. According to (Roediger 1935, I, 49, the damage is caused by fire and water, but no signs of scorching are apparent).