Vita Sancti Simperti

Augsburg, 1492
Parchment, illuminated by Hans Holbein the Elder, initials and borders by Georg and Leonhard (?) Beck

The stunningly beautiful and important manuscript, adorned with two miniatures by Hans Holbein the Elder, was reportedly presented to the later Emperor Maximilian I on 23 April 1492 by the Augsburg monastery Saint Ulrich and Afra. A second, unadorned copy of the same text was laid into the grave of Saint Simpert in the abbey of this monastery.
Fols. 1v – 2r: The 11th Augsburg Bishop Simpert († 807), who lived in the time of Charlemagne, reclines under a canopy in his magnificent bishop's regalia. His family is represented at his feet: his parents Duke Ambertus of Lorraine and his wife Simphorina with their children (thus Simpertus's siblings, Rotholandus, Vigeta, Korina and Talatina), between Ambertus and Simphorina the coats of arms of Lorraine and France. The opposite page, illuminated by the Augsburg illuminator Georg Beck, possibly already together with his son Leonhard, shows the wolf miracle of the saint. A wolf, that had stolen a child, returns the child at the request of Saint Simpert. In front of the Bishop (with the coat of arms of Lorraine) and the wolf with the child in its muzzle the overjoyed mother is kneeling. In the vines the same topic is satirically presented, showing a hunting scene and a naked child.