Gradual

Augsburg, 1494 – 1497
Parchment

In 1481 the Munich convent of Poor Clares at the Anger was reformed. Under Abbess Katharina Adelmann magnificent books were commissioned and illuminated by Augsburg artists from 1494 to 1497. Out of the original volumes – nine antiphonaries and graduals, two volumes with the sequences for Mass and a single-volume Commune Sanctorum – only five have been preserved in their entirety up to today. This monumental gradual was illuminated by the workshop of Georg Beck and Ulrich Taler.

Fol. 3v: The texts for the first Sunday in Advent open the liturgical year and the first volume of the gradual: "Ad te levavi animam meam" (Unto thee, O Lord, will I lift up my soul). The opening initial is adorned by a living cross allegory: In the background, Christ on the cross, above him God Father and angels. Two women are riding towards the cross: on the left Ecclesia (the personification of the church) on a tetramorph with the heads of the symbols of the Evangelists. In the left hand, she is holding a chalice to collect the blood of Christ. On the right rides the blind Synagogue (personification of Judaism) on a donkey. Her head is pierced by a sword held by a hand growing from the arm of the cross. In front of Ecclesia the Virgin of Mercy, and in front of Synagogue the fall of man (without Adam) is presented. In the foreground, Christ liberates the patriarchs from limbo. A hand growing from the foot of the cross batters the doors of hell with a hammer. The initial was painted by Ulrich Taler in 1497. The composition converts a woodcut created in 1460/ 70 into miniature painting. It indicates Salvation and the beginning of the New Covenant through the birth and crucifixion of Christ.