A Unique Prayer Book Manuscript on Parchment by Hieronymus Oertl with 16 Illuminated Copperplate Engravings after Marten de Vos

(Oertl, Hieronymus). Der christliche Glaube (/) Mit Gottseligen christlichen und hoch tröstlichen Gebeten wie ein jeder Christ Täglich vor den Augen des HERRN seines Gottes erscheinen mag. Manuscript on vellum. 37 leaves; 1 separate leaf. 16 mounted full-page copperplate engravings by the Collaert brothers after Marten de Vos, richly illuminated in gold and colours by H. Oertl, 12 plates with single-line Latin captions. Nuremberg, around 1600. Quarto (c. 212 x 156 mm). Modern violet silk binding over wooden boards.

Hieronymus Oertl’s calligraphic prayer book manuscript on vellum, dedicated to the articles of the Christian faith, is illustrated by 16 full-page copperplate engravings illuminated by him in gold and colours, mostly by the Collaert brothers after Marten de Vos. The illumination is the pinnacle of the great art of colouring of the 16th century, creating ravishing paintings in their own right – the work can be dated precisely to the time around 1600.

In addition to Hieronymus Oertl's prayer book with Dürer's engraved Passion (lot 9 in our catalogue 90 Wunderkammer), we have here another "neo-illuminated manuscript" [Baeyer] from his production. It was probably produced a short time later, larger, more extensive and conceived with a different thematic focus and pictorial material. As one of eight known manuscripts by Oertl, it joins the illustrious series of these "unique examples of the art of book arts around 1600" [ibid. 6].

Hieronymus Oertl was not only "a fine scribe, but was one of the best illuminators of his generation. He was responsible for the selection of the Biblical texts, for writing the prayers, for colouring and gilding the drawings and for illuminating the prints" [ibid. 54].

The engravings boast a richly differentiated colourfulness, "ranging from delicate and sensitive translucent washes to pastose soluring" [ibid. 64]. While the graphic structures are still clearly visible, the intense, vivid colouring makes the prints look like miniatures. In this, Oertl goes further than in the colouring of Dürer's 1587 engraved Passion, which suggests a later date of origin, as "sheets in which the graphic character is increasingly overlaid by the opaque colour painting seem to have been created in their overwhelming majority after 1600" [Gmelin 192]. Baeyer felt reminded by him of "contemporary Mannerist paintings by Bartholomäus Spranger and the earlier Rosso Fiorentino" [Baeyer 5], Truulsje Goedings of the style, "favoured by the court of Rudolf II in Prague around 1600, and, more specifically, of prints by the Augsburg master-colourist Dominicus Rottenhammer" [ibid. 47]; the quality of Oertl's work was "equal to or even slightly better than Rottenhammer's and surpasses the rather mechanical approach of the Mack family" [ibid. 61]. While such "hybrid" artworks were highly valued throughout Europe at the time of their creation, today they are rather "underexposed in current art and book history, and unjustly so" [ibid. 30]. The innovative and elaborate combination of old and new also makes our illuminated prayer manuscript by Hieronymus Oertl "a precious possession" [ibid. 47].

Literature: Baeyer, p. 146 (this copy). – On the engravings after de Vos: Nagler, Künstler-Lexicon 20, 559. – On Oertl: Grieb 1097f.; Will 3, 71f.

This manuscript is lot 10 in our catalogue 90 Wunderkammer, available in our Online Shop.

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