Images: DigiVatLib
Other identifiers: Anjou Legendarium, Hungarian Angevin Legendary
Physical Description: parchment, 28 x 21.4 cm, 106 fols.
Language: Latin
Date: between 1320 and 1342
Provenance: Bologna or Hungary
Additional witnesses:
New York, Morgan Library and Museum, M.360.1–26 (26 fols.) ~ IMAGES
St. Petersburg, Hermitage, MSS E 16930–16934 (5 fols.)
Berkeley, University of California, Bancroft Library, Special Collections, MS UCB 241 (olim 2MS A2M2 1300:37) (1 cropped fol.) ~ INFORMATION
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MS 199.516 (1 cropped fol.)
Paris, Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, R.F. 29940 (1 cropped fol.) ~ IMAGES
Contents: contains 550 scenes, comprising about two-thirds of the original collection. Each page is arranged as four numbered scenes with Latin inscriptions. 59 stories are represented, 2 based on biblical texts, 50 from the Golden Legend (drawn from the Apostolic Histories), and 5 Hungarian saints. Begins with stories of Christ and the Virgin Mary, followed by John the Baptist, the apostles, martyrs, and other saints. The manuscript was dismembered in 1630 by Giovanni Battista Saluzzo (1579–1642). Pages related to apocryphal tales:
Vat. lat. 8541, fols. 1–3: Dormition of Mary
3–6: John the Baptist
6–11: Peter
12–15: Paul
16–20: Andrew (Miracles of Andrew)
21–24: John, son of Zebedee
25–38: James, son of Zebedee
39–41: Matthew
41: Philip
42: Simon and Jude
43–44: Luke
MML M.360, fol. 14: John
15–16: James, son of Zebedee
17–18: James, brother of Jesus
19: Simon and Jude
20–21: Bartholomew
Hermitage, MSS E 16933: Paul
Studies and resources:
“Anjou Legendarium.” Wikipedia.
Cartlidge, David R., and J. Keith Elliott. Art and the Christian Apocrypha. London: Routledge, 2001 (pp. 211–13).
Harssen, Meta P. The Nekcsei-Lipócz Bible: A Fourteenth-Century Manuscript from Hungary in the Library of Congress, Ms. Pre-accession 1: A Study. Washington: Library of Congress, 1949.
Lévardy, Ferenc. Magyar Anjou legendárium: hasonmás kiadás. Budapest: Magyar Helikon, 1975.
Morello, Giovanni. Heiligenleben “Ungarisches Legendarium”: Codex Vat. lat. 8541. 2 vols. Zurich: Belser, 1990 (vol. 1 is a facsimile, vol. 2 commentary).
Poncelet, Albert. Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum Latinorum Bibliothecae Vaticanae. Subsidia hagiographica 11. Brussels: Société des Bollandists, 1910 (pp. 226–27).
Szakáacs, Béla Zsolt. The Visual World of the Hungarian Angevin Legendary. Central European University Press, 2016.
Other online databases: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (bibliography)
Entry created by Tony Burke, York University ([email protected]), 29 April 2022.