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{{Short description|Flemish illuminated manuscript (ca. 1510–20)}}File:Rothschild Prayerbook 19.jpg|thumb|Opening from the Rothschild Prayerbook; Requiem MassRequiem MassThe Rothschild Prayerbook or Rothschild Hours (both titles are used for other books),The "Rothschild Prayer Book" is also a Florentine Hebrew manuscript of 1492, and the British Library has a 14th century French "Rothschild Book of Hours", often the "London Rothschild Hours". There is another "Rothschild Hours", made in Rouen c. 1465, see Auction catalogue is an important Flemish illuminated manuscript book of hours, compiled c. 1500–1520 by a number of artists.Dates vary - 1500-1510 here, 1510-1520 according to Walther and Norbert, and Finns. It has 254 folios, with a page size of 228 × 160 mm. It was once in the Austrian National Library in Vienna as Codex Vindobonensis S.N. 2844. Since its sale in 1999 it has held the world record price at auction for an illuminated manuscript. In 2014 it was purchased by Australian businessman Kerry Stokes from Christie's New YorkWEB,weblink RELEASE: CHRISTIE'S ANNOUNCES CENTERPIECE OF THE RENAISSANCE SALE DURING OLD MASTERS WEEK IN NEW YORK: 'THE ROTHSCHILD PRAYERBOOK' Magnificent Masterpiece of Renaissance Art And, and is on display in the National Library of Australia.WEB, Revealing the Rothschild Prayer Book,weblink National Library of Australia, 2015-05-21,

Illuminations

(File:Rothschild Hours -- Flemish illuminated manuscript book of hours (c. 1505).jpg|thumb|Rothschild Prayerbook, two-page opening)It contains the work of several leading miniaturists of the final flowering of the Ghent-Bruges school of Flemish illumination, who also co-operated on the Grimani Breviary, the Spinola Hours (Malibu) and other major manuscripts of these years. Most of the sixty-seven large miniatures are by the "Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximilian", an older artist, and Gerard Horenbout or the Master of James IV of Scotland (these being two names probably for the same artist).Kren & McKendrick prefer to use Master of James IV of Scotland, accepting he was very likely Horenbout Other miniatures are by Gerard David, better known as a panel painter, or a pupil working in his style, with two miniatures by Simon Bening, and other work by further masters.File:Rothschild Prayerbook 2.jpg|thumb|Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon, f.197v. Accepted as by Gerard David, one of only a few miniatures attributed to him.WEB, Release Announcement,weblink Christie'sChristie's There are wide borders, many with flowers and other objects and drolleries, and another group with trompe-l'Å“il imitations of bronzes. Other borders frame the miniature with illusionistically painted wooden tracery.These are discussed in Sacred Image and Illusion in Late Flemish Manuscripts, Robert G. Calkins, Cornell University. Some pages follow the fashion of showing one scene as a framed inset within another larger one,WEB,weblink Art.com - Bridgeman Collection, In total 140 pages, over half of the whole book, have significant decoration outside the text. The calendar has scenes of the Labours of the Months at the bottom of the pages.Walther and Norbert, 416-417 As with other very lavishly illuminated manuscripts, it was probably worked on over a long period.

History

The early history of the book is obscure, and the original owner is unknown, though he or she would clearly have been a very wealthy person. This is a feature shared by several important manuscripts of the late Ghent-Bruges school, where typically the heraldry and portraits of the owners of most luxury manuscripts are not found.Kren & McKendrick The contents of the book, which has extra mass texts and prayers beyond those usually found in a book of hours, contain distinctive elements that relate it to the Chartreuse des Dunes, near Bruges. By 1500 the printed book of hours had largely replaced manuscript ones, except for luxury books like this, which were restricted to the higher nobility and royalty. The manuscript belonged to the princely Wittelsbach family in the 16th century, and then to the library of the counts palatine in Heidelberg, leaving that collection before 1623. Its history is then unknown until it reappeared in the collection of the Viennese branch of the Rothschild family in the late 19th century.It was confiscated from Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild immediately after the March 1938 German annexation of Austria. After the end of World War II, the new Austrian government used legislation forbidding the export of culturally significant works of art in part to pressure the Rothschilds into "donating" a large number of works to Austrian museums, including the prayerbook, which went to the National Library. In exchange the family was allowed to export other works.The Rothschild Affair: A Test of Austria's Conscience {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512172605weblink |date=2008-05-12 }} The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 1999, p. A13 Under international pressure over this and similar disputes, the government of Austria returned the book and other works of art to the Rothschild family in 1999. The book was sold for them by Christie's auction house in London on 8 July 1999 for £8,580,000 (then $13,400,000), still the world record auction price for an illuminated manuscript before they sold it themselves.WEB,weblink FindArticles.com - CBSi, The prayerbook was offered for sale again at Christie's, New York, on 29 January 2014, when it fetched £8,195,783.WEB, Sale 2819, Lot 157,weblink Christie's,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140222142653weblink">weblink 22 February 2014, live, The bidder remained anonymous until September 2014, when it was revealed on the Australian TV program Sunday Night that Kerry Stokes, an Australian businessman, billionaire and owner of the Seven Network that Sunday Night airs on, had purchased it. The Prayerbook is part of Stokes' collection in Perth, Australia and was loaned to the National Library of Australia in Canberra for display.A full facsimile has been published: E. Trenkier, Rothschild Gebetbuch: facsimile und comentarium, Codices Selecti, 67 (Graz, 1979).

Gallery

File:Rothschild Prayerbook 1.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 3.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 4.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 5.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 6.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 7.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 8.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 9.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 10.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 11.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 12.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 13.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 14.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 15.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 16.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 17.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 18.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 19.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 20.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 21.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 22.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 23.jpgFile:Rothschild Prayerbook 24.jpg

See also

• List of most expensive books and manuscripts

Notes

{{reflist}}

References

• T Kren & S McKendrick (eds), Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, Getty Museum/Royal Academy of Arts, 2003, {{ISBN|1-903973-28-7}}
• Walther, Ingo F. and Wolf, Norbert, Masterpieces of Illumination (Codices Illustres); pp 350–3; 2005, Taschen, Köln; {{ISBN|3-8228-4750-X}}

External links

• WEB

, Descriptive video.

• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20081223041717weblink">Analysis of shared models in a number of manuscripts by Simon Bening and other artists