Abstract

The substantial pre-1526 book connection of the Zagreb cathedral chapter (those marked MR are kept by Metropolitanska knjižnica, those indicated by a letter and Arabic number after a Roman numeral are in the Hrvatske akademija znanosti i umjetnosti) is a little explored source of Hungarian manuscript illumination. Adjusted to Orsolya Csomó’s musicological investigations I had a chance to study manuscripts with varying painted decoration. I was primarily interested in their age and place of creation, as well as their style. The Crucifixion image before the Canon of the Mass in the missal dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian (MR 13) dates the manuscript to the end of the 14th century. The exquisite Canon picture of the codex marked IV.C.59. seems to be a work produced in Zagreb and dates from the second-third decade of the 15th century. It has connections mainly in Austrian art. Another Zagreb missal (MR 62) was so-far dated by literature to the turn of the 13-14th centuries or the mid-15th century. The present paper reckons with the beginning of the period between 1425 and 1450 and emphasizes the south German, Austrian peculiarities of the Crucifixion image. Finally, a missal (III.D.23.) containing a Canon picture whose underdrawing is also unfinished displays the influence of Viennese works incorporating Prague elements as well from the years between 1430 and 1450. The codices oriented toward the art of Central European, particularly neighbouring Lower Austrian, Styrian and Carinthian areas is followed by a discussion of the Salzburg Missal (Salzburg, Unversitätsbibliothek, III 23) of the Zagreb rite. After the iconographic analysis of the images in the codex possibly belonging to the late period of the Salzburg-Augsburg workshop associated with Johannes Bämler the paper enquires into the possible relation of archbishop of Salzburg Johannes Beckensloer to the manuscript. It is not impossible that the codex is a relic of the high priest’s attraction to liturgical codices, particularly missals. Nor can it be precluded that the manuscript was created upon Hungarian commission or as a present for the bishop of Zagreb. The study of these codices raised the question of the Austrian stylistic relations of certain missals in Pozsony (e.g.: Budapest, National Széchényi Library, Cod. lat. 222). Special literature usually links these manuscripts to Viennese or Pozsony-based illuminators and stresses the influence, sometimes personal involvement of Ulrich Schreier. The author wishes to withdraw from this circle – among other manuscripts – the Mss I 20 missal in the Esztergom Archiepiscopal Library which is thought to have been used in Pozsony. On the basis of some characteristic and rare border ornamental motifs its place is sought somewhere in the environment of the Zagreb Missal kept in Salzburg. It is well known that the illuminators employed by the Bämler worksop in Salzburg and/or Augsburg spread the motivic stock of the workshop wandering south and east of Salzburg. During the investigations an itinerant artist’s work was also found in the Hungarian heritage of the art discipline (Pannonhalma, Abbey Library, 120b A 12). The paper ends with a few minor observations. The author agrees with the dating of missale notatum marked MR 70 by literature to the 13th century, but specifies the date as between 1280 and 1290 on the basis of the Crucifixion drawing echoing the Zackenstil. Finally, the paper discusses the inscription on folio 222vb of the MR 26 Zagreb missal in the chapter library. The note names the scribe and the client who ordered the manuscript. The liturgical book was ordered by provost Vitus and copied in 1453. The inscription reveals he was the son of Tamás Büssüi. He was the direct descendant of a branch of the Gutkeled clan, the Bacskai family once living in Zemplén, on the line of Miklós son of András who had settled in Slavonia. The text is accompanied by the provost’s coat of arms: a small triangular shield with three red wedges turning from left to right in a white field. The father of the provost assumed the name Büssüi [of Büssü] after his estate in Somogy. His son, however, chose their Bosho (Buchko, Bacska, Bocska) name reaching back to the Gutkeleds and was the first in the family to use their coat of arms.

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