Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist, with the coat of arms
of Queen Claude de France in the lower border, illuminated
by the Master of Claude de France, Prayer Book of Queen
Claude de France; France, Tours, ca. 1517, The Morgan Library
& Museum; MS M.1166 (fol. 15v), Gift of Mrs. Alexandre P.
Rosenberg, in memory of her husband Alexandre Paul
Rosenberg. Photography by Schecter Lee.
THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM TO EXHIBIT NEWLY ACQUIRED PRAYER BOOK MADE FOR QUEEN CLAUDE DE FRANCE AND THREE COPIES OF THE GUTENBERG BIBLE
The Morgan Library & Museum will put on special exhibition beginning May 20 an extremely rare Renaissance illuminated manuscript, the Prayer Book of Queen Claude de France (1499–1524), and 3 Gutenberg Bibles
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May 21st 2008 – The Morgan Library & Museum will put on special exhibition beginning May 20 an extremely rare Renaissance illuminated manuscript, the Prayer Book of Queen Claude de France (1499–1524), created around the time of her coronation in 1517. It is the most important single illuminated manuscript acquired by the Morgan in the last twenty-five years and will go on view in the East Room of the historic McKim building.
The tiny, jewel-like book, measuring just 2 ¾ by 2 inches, is richly illustrated with 132 scenes from the lives of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the apostles, and numerous saints. The work was created by an artist known as the Master of Claude de France and can be characterized as the pinnacle of delicacy in Renaissance illumination. The artist, named after this prayer book and a companion manuscript, was active in Tours during the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Barely a dozen of his works survive.
The prayer book was given to the Morgan by Mrs. Alexandre P. Rosenberg, a long time generous supporter of the Museum. The gift is in memory of her husband Alexandre Paul Rosenberg, who died in 1987. Mr. Rosenberg was founding president in 1962 of the Art Dealers Association of America and was for many years a prominent art dealer in New York.
Three Gutenberg Bibles
For the first time in more than a decade, The Morgan Library & Museum presents all three of its Gutenberg Bibles, the largest number of copies in any single collection. Three Gutenberg Bibles allows visitors to see important differences in copies of the first substantial printed book in the Western world, an epoch-making technological innovation, yet also a highpoint in the art of graphic design. The exhibition is on view from May 20 through September 28, 2008, in the Morgan’s Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery.
The invention of printing is commonly credited to Johann Gutenberg, who developed the technique of casting metal types and composing them letter by letter, line-by-line, to produce pages ready for the press, where they could be inked and printed on sheets of paper or vellum. To exploit this invention, he set up one, possibly two, workshops in Mainz, Germany, and raised a considerable sum of money for the production of the Bible, which was completed around 1455. Bibliographers believe that Gutenberg and his successors printed between 120 and 135 copies of the Bible on paper and between 40 and 45 copies on vellum, of which nearly 50 copies survive, not all in good condition. A complete copy contains the Latin Vulgate text of the Bible in 1,282 pages, usually bound in two stout volumes.
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