Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt, Hs 720
Written in a careful Bastarda hand in two prose columns on paper, this manuscript has 200 pen and wash drawings, four for each chapter in the usual typological program, but is unusual in that the chapters begin always on a recto page and end on the verso. There are sixty-four leaves, 36.5 × 27.5 cm., made in southern Germany about 1440, but the provenance of the codex is not recorded.
Its opening miniature on folio 1 verso is unusual for a Speculum manuscript. The page is divided vertically: the left half depicts the Tree of Virtues rising from a mandorla of Christ enthroned; the right half shows the Tree of Vices coming out of a winged monster (Plate II-4).[24] Unlike the Darmstadt Hs 2505 of the Speculum , the entry into Egypt of Chapter XI does not show the falling of the idols at the passage of Christ (fig. II-15).
II-14.
The Pain of the Damned in Hell.
How David Punished His Enemies.
Speculum humanæ salvationis , Chapter XLI.
Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt,
Hs 720, fol. 47 recto.
II-15.
The Flight into Egypt.
The Egyptian Statue of the Virgin and Child.
Speculum humanæ salvationis , Chapter XI.
Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt,
Hs 720, fol. 17 recto.
II-16.
c. Adam Tills and Eve Spins.
d. Noah's Ark.
Speculum humanæ salvationis , Chapter II.
Harvard University, The Houghton Library, Ms. Lat. 121, fol. 5 verso.