This prayer book in the form of a hybrid manuscript includes the complete set of sixteen engravings from Albrecht Dürer's Engraved Passion, with an additional engraving serving as a frontispiece (Dürer's Virgin and Child Seated by a Tree, 1513) -- all hand colored and heightened in with gold and silver. The codex belongs to a small group of manuscript prayer books incorporating hand-colored prints, made in Nuremberg and Augsburg in the late sixteenth century. It can be attributed to Hieronymus Oertel based on comparisons with his signed and dated works.
The book ends with a motto: "Gottes Wort lass dir Lieb sein, Was Gott gibt das schleiisz darei(n), Sag Im Lob Preisz unnd Eher, So gibt er alle Tag mher."
Scribe: Hieronymus Oertel (alias Ortelius, Örtl)
Relates to the printed picture books of Dürer, two of which are in the Morgan's collections: the Small Passion (PML 4084) and the Life of the Virgin (PML 2867).
List of illustrations: The Virgin and Child Seated by a Tree; Christ on the Mount of Olives; Betrayal; Christ before Caiaphas; Christ before Pilate; Flagellation; Christ Crowned; Ecce homo; Pilate Washing his Hands; Christ Carrying the Cross; Crucifixion; Lamentation; Entombment; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection; Man of Sorrows; Peter and John Healing the Lame Man.
Decoration: All fifty-two pages are framed with gilt red micro-borders; the 17 prints are delicately colored with wash and highlighted with gold and silver.
Dürer's Engraved Passion