Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
i (parchment) + 108 folios on paper, watermark “tête de bœuf avec yeux et nez”, similar to Briquet 14177 (Utrecht 1423) and 14178 (Fleurus 1431), except mouth on the right, first leaf on parchment (containing the prologue), modern foliation in pencil, 1-108, lacking five leaves (collation i1 [single parchment leaf] ii12 [-11, -12, lacking two leaves after f. 11, with loss of text] iii12 [-5, lacking one blank leaf after f. 16] iv-ix12 x12 [-14, -16, lacking one leaf after f. 107 and one leaf after f. 108, with loss of text; f. 108 is only a fragment]), horizontal catchwords, frame ruled in hardpoint (justification c. 155 x 96 mm.), written by a single scribe in brown ink in Gothic cursive script in single column on c. 26-30 lines, rubrics usually underlined in red with occasional rubrics in red, paragraph marks in red, initials touched in red, 2- to 4-line initials in red, many decorated with foliage ornament left in reserve, large 8-line initial in the same style on f. 1, some stains and small tears, f. 108 is only a fragment, most of the leaf has been removed, in overall very good condition. In its ORIGINAL OR NEAR CONTEMPORARY BINDING of brown leather over wooden boards, covers blind-tooled with double fillets to form a frame and a cross, central clasp and catch lost, spine with four raised bands, fragment of a twelfth-century liturgical manuscript with neumes as a front endpaper (almost loose), a parchment page marker attached to the fore-edge of f. 21, a strip of parchment sewn in the middle of the quires, leather on the covers in very poor condition and detached on the spine. Dimensions 215 x 143 mm.
A previously unknown manuscript of the Rosarium Jesu et Mariae by the Carthusian prior, Jacobus van Gruitrode (1400/1410-1475), known in only seven other complete manuscripts and evidently a favorite text for nuns learning their profession. This early copy, made locally and probably very soon after its composition, during the lifetime of the author, is preserved in an early binding (likely original). The manuscript provides new information about the transmission of this text and its influence; the variant prologue is of particular interest, as is its ownership by a nun in the seventeenth century. An example of late medieval piety focusing on the life of Christ and of Mary, the work has never appeared in print.
1. The styles of script and decoration, as well as the watermark, suggest that the manuscript was made in the Low Countries soon after it was composed by Jacobus van Gruitrode (d. 1475), prior of the Liège charterhouse, likely in the middle decades of the fifteenth century, c. 1450.
2. In 1640 the manuscript belonged to a nun, whose family name Hinnisdael suggests her origin in Southern Netherlands (today Belgium); her dated ownership inscription in black ink is found in the upper margin of the prologue on f. 1: “1640 – S(oror) B. V. Hinnisdael Moderata Duran…(?)”.
f. 1r-v, [prologue], Iste prologus stabit post orationes de sacramento ante tractatum que dicitur Rosarium ihesu christe, incipit, “Promitto tibi secundum verissima lumina fidei .... Ita frater ego te fruar in domino [Philemon 1:20]. Consolemur iterum vivere in verbis istis. Amen. Explicit prologus. Deo gracias spiritus”;
This prologue should precede the Rosarium ihesu et marie on f. 21v, as indicated by the added note on that folio; the incipit here differs from the usual prologue to this work, which begins “Fasciculus myrrhe dilectus meus.”
ff. 2-21, [Prayers for before and after celebrating the Mass on each day of the week; the prayers for Saturday were never copied, although they are announced by the rubric on f. 14; the rest of f. 14 and ff. 14v-16v are blank, followed by the prayers for Sunday on ff. 17-21], Incipiunt orationes dicende ante et post celebracionem misse perceptionem quam sacramenti iuxta numerum dierum septimane. Oratio sive preparamentum ad celebrandum misse misteria feria secunda, incipit, “O domine ihesu christe sacerdos summe per me non sum dignus accedere ad sacrum altare tuum nec auderem secundum in virtute caritate sancte ecclesie sponse tue cuius me indignum ...”;
ff. 20v-108v, Incipit Rosarium ihesu et marie, [followed by the note “cuius prologum querere in primo folio libri huius”] Excerticium anime devote feria secunda. De incarnatione cristi filii dei vivi in utero virginis marie, incipit, “Domine ihesu christe redemptioni mea ... Ihesu sanctis daturus gaudium dum dictabis ... [ending imperfectly]”.
Jacobus van Gruitrode, Rosarium Jesu et Mariae; the text lacks a modern edition, and to our knowledge, has never appeared in print.
Jacobus van Gruitrode [or Gruytrode](c.1400/1410-1475) was prior of the Carthusian charterhouse Alle Apostelen near Liège from 1440 until his death. He composed a long and a short version of the Rosarium Jesu et Mariae. Our manuscript contains the short version, which survives in only seven other manuscripts, and in three additional manuscripts with extracts only. Four of the surviving manuscripts originated in Utrecht, where they are still present, housed in the Utrecht University Library, MSS 170 (written by the novice Johannes Mersen in St. Paul’s Abbey in Utrecht), 227 (written in the Carthusian charterhouse Nieuwlicht around 1460), 228 (written in 1495 by a novice Augustinian canon regular in Utrecht, probably a copy of MS 229), 229 (written in the 1440s). Two manuscripts originate from the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco, east of Rome: London, British Library, Harley MS 2926, written in 1470, and Toledo, Archivo y Biblioteca Capitulares, MS 21-34, written in 1481 (cf. Deschamps, 1985). Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, A X 92 originated at the charterhouse in Basel (not listed by Deschamps; see Jaski, Online Resources). In addition, three manuscripts have excerpts from the Rosarium Jesu et Mariae. One of these is the earliest known copy of the work, made in 1439 at the Carthusian charterhouse in Wesel, now Darmstadt, Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek, MS 2274. Another fifteenth-century manuscript with excerpts from the Rosarium is Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 953, which originates from Jacobus’s Alle Apostelen monastery near Liège, and Basel, UB, A X 142 (c. 1450, from the Dominican monastery near Basel; Jascki, Online Resources). In 1742 the Carthusian charterhouse Bethlehem near Roermond had a copy, the location of which is now unknown. Another manuscript at the University of Basel contains quotations from the Rosarium, MS A IX 95.
The long version is entitled Hortus aurearum rosarum Jesu et Mariae (“Garden of the golden rosary of Jesus and Mary”) in the incipit and the second prologue, whereas the short version is always entitled Rosarium Jesu et Mariae (cf. Deschamps 1985). Jacobus composed the long version first, around 1430-1435, probably with four other authors. It survives in only one manuscript, Brussels, Royal Library, Ms. II 468, which Jacobus himself had bound and added the titles and rubrics to the text. Soon after finishing the work, Jacobus made another, shortened version of the work at the request of two fellow monks, Rosarium Jesu et Mariae. This version is about half as long as the original but includes additions that are not present in the earlier version. The oldest known complete manuscript of the short version is Utrecht University Library, MS 229, dating from the 1440s (Deschamps, 1985, pp. 112-114). Before 1445 Jacobus translated his work into Middle Dutch under the title Die roesenghaert Jhesu ende Marie; the translation survives in eight manuscripts (Deschamps, 1985). In translating the work, Jacobus changed some parts of the text. For instance, the various spiritual exercises, arranged around the days of the week, were moved around. In the original Latin text the greetings to the body parts of Jesus and Mary were exercises for Saturday, whereas in the Dutch translation, the prayer to Christ’s body parts was moved to Friday, and the prayer to the Virgin’s body parts was not translated (cf. Deschamps, 1985b, p. 75; Rudy, 2017, p. 175).
The Rosarium contains spiritual exercises concerning episodes from the lives of Jesus and Mary, with extracts drawn from texts by Church Fathers and spiritual writers. The most frequently cited author is Ubertino of Casale (1259-c.1329), one of the leaders of the Fraticelli, a stricter branch of the Franciscan order. Other authors from whose works Jacobus draws on include Augustine, Bonaventure, Bernard of Clairvaux, Anselm of Canterbury, John Hoveden, Ludolph of Saxony, Pope Leo, Guibert de Tournai, Albert the Great, Jean Gerson, John Damascene, and Jan Van Ruysbroeck. In the prologue the author draws attention to his limited capacities and to the fact that he had compiled his work from other sources. It is notable that many of the surviving manuscripts were copied by novices; the instructional character of the Rosarium made it very suitable for candidates wanting to enter a monastery, as Bart Jaski highlighted (see Online resources).
Our manuscript will certainly be important to the future editors of this text, as well as to scholars studying its transmission and influence; the variant prologue is of particular interest, as is its ownership by a nun in the seventeenth century.
Deschamps, J. “De lange en de korte redactie van het Rosarium Jesu et Mariae van de kartuizer Jacobus van Gruitrode en de Middelnederlandse vertaling van de korte redactie,” Codex in context: studies over codicologie, kartuizergeschiedenis en laatmiddeleeuws geestesleven: aangeboden aan prof. Dr. A. Gruijs, ed. by C. de Backer et al., Nijmegen, 1985, pp. 105-128.
Available online:
Deschamps_Lange en korte redactie van Gruitrode's Rosarium Jesu et Mariae.PDF (cartusiana.org)
Deschamps, J. “Middelnederlandse vertalingen en bewerkingen van werken van de kartuizer Jacobus van Gruitrode,” Hulde-album Dr. F. Van Vinckenroye, Hasselt, 1985, pp. 67-81.
Hoekstra, E. G. “Jacques de Gruytrode,” Dictionnaire de spiritualité, vol. 8, Paris, 1932, col. 36-38.
Rudy, K. Rubrics, Images and Indulgences in Late Medieval Netherlandish Manuscripts, Leiden, 2017.
Seynaeve, K. De kartuis van Alle Apostelen te Luik (1357-1520): Een historische en prosopografische studie, Leuven, 1981, pp. 191-218.
Seynaeve, K. “Jacobus van Gruitrode,” Historia et spiritualitas Cartusiensis, ed. by J. De Grauwe, Destelbergen, 1983, pp. 313-336.
Verjans, M. “Jacob van Gruitrode, karthuizer (d. 1475),” Ons Geestelijk Erf 5 (1931), pp. 435-460.
Bart Jaski, Utrecht University, “Rosarium Jesu et Mariae by Jacobus van Gruitrode”:
https://www.uu.nl/en/special-collections/collections/manuscripts/other-medieval/rosarium-jesu-et-mariae-by-jacobus-van-gruitrode
TM 1363
