Gradual (Winter Part)

Fol. 14r: The initials and elaborate vine frame at the start of the text are characteristic for the book illumination in the Lower Rhine area, probably in Cologne. The text of the prayer book written in Dutch, starts with the initial H: Here du salt up doen myne lippen (Lord, open my lips). In the initial the coat of arms of Cleve can be identified. The surrounding vines contain further coats of arms referring to Mechthild: Top right Mechthild’s coat of arms (Cleve, Hesse, Mark and Ziegenhain), followed clockwise by the coats of arms of the duchy of Saxony, the earldoms of Nidda, Dietz and Katzenelnbogen.Augsburg, 1533
Parchment
The gradual contains all pieces of the Gregorian choral sung by the schola and the cantor during the celebration of Mass. The large-format book was written and richly illuminated in the Renaissance style in Augsburg in the year 1533. After Luther's Reformation it served for the Catholic liturgy of the Premonstratensian monastery of Steingaden.

Fol. 23v: Epiphany, adoration of the kings: "Ecce advenit dominator dominus" (Behold the Lord the Ruler is come). The adorned edge of the page shows a flower border inspired by the Flemish style of illumination. Motifs were adopted also from Italian book painting and Roman Antiquity: Here the tritons holding the coat of arms with a tower (forming part of the coat of arms of the Steingaden monastery).