Calendar and Collectary

On the eve of St Martin’s day (11 November) 1428, this manuscript was completed in Sonnefeld near Coburg by a friar who probably came from the Cistercian monastery at Langheim in the vicinity of Bamberg. Its painted decoration resembles older models from Nuremberg and may have been created by a nun from the Cistercian convent at Sonnefeld or in a workshop in the area. When the convent was dissolved as a result of the Reformation in 1525, the manuscript was transferred to Langheim.

In the initials for the feast day of the Annunciation, echoes of the Nuremberg style can be detected in the red pen flourishes as well as the reserved white leafage and dragon in the bi-colour shaft of the letter. Mary is seated in a wicker chair placed in front of the horizontal bar of the initial E, reading a book placed open on a pulpit. The archangel Gabriel can be spotted in the top right-hand corner. (fol. 10r)