The Strasbourg Manuscript. A Medieval Tradition of Artists’ Recipe Collections (1400-1570)

This volume offers the first comprehensive study and English translation of the early 15th-century Strasbourg Manuscript-the oldest known German-language source on Northern European painting techniques. Often seen as the northern counterpart to Cennini’s Il Libro dell’arte, it includes some of the earliest recipes for drying oil media in panel painting. Based on the only surviving copy commissioned by Sir Charles Eastlake, this reconstructed text is accompanied by extensive commentary and comparative analysis of related manuscripts.

This book is the first to be dedicated to a comprehensive study with English translation (plus extensive commentary) of the early 15th century Strasbourg Manuscript – believed to have been the oldest German-language source for the study of Northern European painting techniques and considered to be the northern counterpart to Cennini’s Il Libro dell’arte. It is also one of the oldest technical manuals to include a recipe collection describing the preparation of drying oil media and their application in panel painting. Lost in a fire at the Strasbourg Library in 1870, this recipe collection was preserved in the only known copy commissioned by Sir Charles Eastlake, the first director of the National Gallery which was partially published in 1847. The author’s extensive research is based on this copy, two later books based on it and also on comparison with other manuscripts of the Strasbourg tradition, that allowed her to reconstruct the text of the lost manuscript.

Introduction

Artists’ recipes as sources for the history of art technology

Diversity, function and reliability of artists’ recipe collections

The Strasbourg Manuscript, a medieval collection of artists’ recipes

Organisation of this book

 Chapter 1 The Strasbourg Manuscript

1.1 Discovery and reception

The Strasbourg Library, Ms. A VI 19

The so-called ‘Strasbourg Manuscript’

Referring to the Strasbourg Manuscript: use and abuse

 1.2 Former and current form of the Strasbourg Manuscript

The Strasbourg Manuscript within the Ms. A VI 19

The Eastlake copy: structure previously proposed

Re-evaluation of the Eastlake copy

1.3 Restoring the text of the Strasbourg Manuscript

Traditions of artistic recipe collections

Previous identifications of witnesses of the Strasbourg Manuscript text

The recourse to an informatical tool – A database of artists’ recipe collections

List of the manuscripts of the Strasbourg Tradition

The distinct sequences of the Strasbourg Manuscript text

Reconstruction of the former structure

Chapter 2 The Strasbourg Tradition in context

2.1 Transmission of knowledge: the ‘Fachliteratur’

Practical medicine and utilitarian knowledge

Nature, corpus and elements

2.2 Medieval recipe collections: relationship and distinction

Community of practices and materials

The practice and the theory

The recipe: contamination and association

2.3 The genesis and peregrinations of the Strasbourg Tradition

Dates and provenance

Between written and oral transmission: the plurality of sources

Modalities of execution: the copying and compilation process

Authorship, authority and validity

The circulation of the text

Modalities of composition and dissemination: the consequences

Chapter 3 Edition and translation

3.1 Presentation and conventions

A comparative analysis

Terms and terminology used in the English translation

Notes on Eastlake’s translation

Measurements and units

3.2 Edition and translation

Chapter 4 Commentary

4.1 Binding media, varnishes and adhesives

Aqueous media

Oil media

Varnishes

4.2 Preparing, refining and tempering colouring materials

Reds

Blues

From red to blue: anthocyanin colourants

Greens

Yellows

Browns

Blacks

4.3 Inks

4.4 Mixtures and modelling

Mixtures: painting in violet and purple

Colours for flourishing

Incompatibilities

Depicting hair

Modelling drapery

Modelling landscape objects

4.5 Use and imitation of gold and silver

Preparation of the gilding ground

Amelioration and imitation : glaze on metal leaf

Gold and silver inks

4.6 Preparation of the supports

Parchment

Horn

Chapter 5 The Strasbourg Manuscript and its Tradition :

original function and current relevance

5.1 Scribes, owners and readers’ interventions

Attempts at facilitating the consultation of the text

Highlighting, completing and correcting the text

Unrelated annotations

5.2. Literary or practical purpose: textual clues

Unintentional variation (I): the lacuna

Unintentional variation (II): the deformation

Intentional variation: the reworked text

5.3 Technicological relevance and specificities

Background of the scribes or authors

The technical specificities of the Strasbourg Manuscript

Localization of the Strasbourg Tradition: some particular illuminating techniques and materials in Medieval South Germany

Appendices

I New edition of the Leiden Vossianus Chymicus octavo 6

II Reconstructions of anthocyanin recipes

Bibliography

Manuscripts used

Printed works

• By (author) Sylvie Neven

"Sylvie Neven's book is ... more than a critical edition, a fascinating journey into the world of medieval recipes." Letteratura artistica - May 2016 "The editor and publisher are to be warmly congratulated on this meticulous and accessible, not to mention affordable, edition that sets understanding of the Strasbourg Manuscript and its tradition on a new footing." Journal of the Institute of Conservation Oct 2017
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The editor and publisher are to be warmly congratulated on this meticulous and accessible, not to mention affordable, edition that sets understanding of the Strasbourg Manuscript and its tradition on a new footing.

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Sylvie Neven’s book is ... more than a critical edition, a fascinating journey into the world of medieval recipes.

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