Facsimiles of Medieval Manuscripts and Incunabula

Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, D.5.22

The Estense Apocalypse is a printed block-book from circa 1460, whose images were hand colored. Block-books were printed from a technique where the whole mise-en-page, text and image, was made in woodcut as a potentially cheaper alternative to using typeset. The imagery of the Estense Apocalypse is similar to the early 15th-century, Flemish school and contemporary German Bibliae Pauperum.

High Quality Color Facsimile with Italian Commentary

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex Vindobonensis 1856

The Black Hours of Galeazzo Maria Sforza are known because of the unusual choice to dye the border page black. The manuscript was produced in Bruges between 1466 and 1476 by the Master of Anthony of Burgundy.

High Quality Color Unbound Plates with German Commentary

Pannonhalma, Abbey of Pannonhalma, MS 118.I.43

High Quality Color Facsimile with English Commentary

Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Codex Vindobonensis 1857

This book of hours was made for Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles the Bold. An ornately decorated royal manuscript, it was made in the southern Netherlands around the year 1477.

High Quality Color Facsimile with French Commentary

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex Vindobonensis 1859

The Older Prayerbook for Emperor Charles V was produced in early 16th century Belgium for the Spanish King and Emperor Charles V. It is written in both Latin and French features elongated pages.

High Quality Color Facsimile with German Commentary

Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, MS A120

The Tschachtlanschronik is a Swiss history chronicle manuscript with miniature illustrations. It was produced by Berner Ratsherren Benedikt Tschachtlan and Heinrich Dittlinger in 1470.

High Quality Color Facsimile

New York City, Morgan Library and Museum, MS 917 and MS 945

The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is one of the most famous Dutch illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages and Northern Renaissance. It’s decoration is extremely ornate and individualized. The artist’s interest in everyday objects seems to precurse Dutch still-life painting of the 17th-century.

High Quality Color Facsimile with English Interspersed Transcription

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 219-220

The Hours of Engelbert of Nassau is a Flemish illuminated manuscript in the Dominican Rite, produced in Ghent. It was illuminated by the same artist who produced the Hours of Mary of Burgundy, eponymously known as the master of Mary of Burgundy.

High Quality Color Facsimile with English Introduction

The Hastings Hours is an illuminated manuscript produced in Ghent or Bruges between 1475 and 1483. The book apparently belonged to the English lord William, Lord Hastings, but patronage is debated because the coat of arms might have been a later addition.

High Quality Color Facsimile with English Commentary

The Breviary of Mayer van den Bergh is a liturgical book from about the year 1500 and is known for its Flemish style miniature painting. It contains the calendar, psalter, temporal prayers, and offices of the saints. It is written in Latin and Portuguese, and was probably made for a Portuguese patron.

High Quality Color Unbound Plates with English Commentary

The Vita Sanctae Coletae is an account of the life of St. Colette of Corbie, a French abbess who founded the Colettine Poor Clares. She is the patron saint of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers, and sick children.

High Quality Color Facsimile with Captions and Multilingual Introduction

Rotterdam, Maritiem Museum "Prins Hendrik"

The Mercator Map was made using an updated cartographic technique called the Mercator projection, where bearing sailing courses were mapped to straight line on the plane. The technique and map were developed by Gerardus Mercator, a 16th-century German-Flemish cartographer and geographer.

High Quality Black and White Facsimile