DAS GEBETBUCH KARLS V. [THE PRAYER BOOK OF CHARLES V]

Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1976. 165 x 95 mm. (6 1/2 x 3 3/4"). 255 leaves (in the facsimile volume). Two volumes (including commentary volume in German).
Publisher's full dark green velvet, housed in original brown folding cloth box. With numerous decorative initials and line fillers in colors and gold, and with 76 attractive miniatures in gold gothic frames. In mint condition.

This is a very pleasing facsimile of the prayer book given to Charles V, the future king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, by his aunt and godmother, Margaret of Austria, in approximately 1516. The text is in a careful Burgundian bâtarde done by a scribe of considerable skill, and the degree of artistry in the miniatures, which are in the Flemish style, is high, the figures being rendered realistically and sympathetically. Several miniatures are especially noteworthy in their subject and/or composition. Two examples: the resurrected Christ appears to his mother in a scene that beautifully echoes the composition of the Annunciation, and in the Flight into Egypt, the Holy Family pauses to rest on their journey, the Virgin in the foreground nursing her child and looking radiant, while Joseph replenishes a water jug and the donkey grazes nearby. Margaret of Austria was the owner of an impressive library which included a number of fine illuminated manuscripts, and she would have commissioned the finest artists to execute her nephew's coming-of-age gift.