oa Music Meant to Impress: Flemish Artists, European Politics, and Jena, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Ms. 4

The manuscripts created in the workshop of Petrus Alamire engaged the efforts of some of the best Flemish artists and workshops of the period. Recently, these illuminations have rightly begun to garner significant attention. This article studies the unusual case of Jena, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Ms. 4. This manuscript is the largest and most ambitious of the Alamire manuscripts, indicating that it served a special function or was created to commemorate a particular occasion. Its series of portraits focussing on the links between the families of the Holy Roman Emperor and the English monarch have puzzled scholars trying to date the manuscript. At least three artists contributed to its completion: one from the workshop of Simon Bening; another from the workshop of the Master of James IV of Scotland; and the Master of the David Scenes in the Grimani Breviary. A careful consideration of the manuscript’s codicology, iconography, secondary decoration, and division of hands help date the manuscript and reveal a distinct change in the manuscript’s plan during its production. This in turn sheds light on its original intended owner and the circumstances under which it was initially created.