HUNGARIAN STUDIES 2. No. 1. Nemzetközi Magyar Filológiai Társaság. Akadémiai Kiadó Budapest [1986]

Julia Bader and George Starr: A Saint in the Family: A Leaf of the "Hungarian Anjou Legendary" at Berkeley

A SAINT IN THE FAMILY: A LEAF OF THE "HUNGARIAN ANJOU LEGENDARY" AT BERKELEY JULIA BADER and GEORGE STARR Department of English, University of California, Berkeley The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, has recently been given an illuminated leaf containing four scenes that depict the life and miracles of Louis of Anjou, Bishop of Toulouse, from an important medieval manuscript known as the Hungarian Anjou Legendary.1 Probably executed in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, substantial fragments of this work are located in the Vatican, the Hermitage, and the Pierpont Morgan libraries.2 The manuscript has been discussed by Dezső Dercsényi, who initially recognized its link with a contemporary illuminated Hungarian Bible in the Library of Congress3, by Meta Harrsen, who analysed it in connection with her valuable study of that Bible, and declared that originally it "must have been one of the most sumptuous, truly regal volumes in existence";4 by Ilona Berkovits, who regarded this specimen of miniature-painting as one of the most significant from the Anjou era in Hungary;5 and at greater length by Ferenc Levárdy, who published in 1973 a facsimile edition of the 135 leaves (including fragments of 9) then known to survive.6 Levárdy estimates that the manuscript consisted originally of 170 leaves, which would mean that roughly a quarter have been lost.7 Complete leaves, such as those in the Vatican, measure 283 by 215 mm, and contain four scenes each, separated and surrounded by elaborate borders; in the upper and lower margins, Latin rubrics briefly identify the subject of each scene. The margins of the Bancroft leaf have been trimmed away, removing these inscriptions;8 it measures 218 by 166 mm, thus corresponding closely in size with the other nine leaves cut to the edge of the painted surface (Morgan 360a-d and Hermitage 16930-34). The work is thought to have been executed in a court atelier, probably in Buda but possibly in Esztergom, by Hungarian artists trained by or working under the direction of Bolognese masters.9 Of the surviving leaves, 13 depict the life of Christ, another 48 the lives of apostles; most of the remainder illustrate saints' lives. Among saints with direct Hungarian connections, King Ladislaus is given most space (6 leaves), while King Stephen, Gellért, and Imre also appear. Harrsen refers to the work as a "Passional," presumably because of the numerous scenes of vividly-depicted martyrdoms, and Levárdy also acknowledges that "The Passion series stands very centrally in the painted Legendary"; but since some sequences end peacefully, it is Hungarian Studies 211 (1986J Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1*

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