In August 1372, a woman had an extraordinary experience that changed the way that people pictured Christmas. Birgitta Birgersdotter (or, as she is better known, St Bridget of Sweden) was a Swedish widow who had moved to Rome and made a name for herself as a holy woman. When she was around 69 years old, Birgitta made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There, at the Grotto of the Nativity, the subterranean cave in Bethlehem traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Christ, she experienced a spiritual vision in which she saw the events of the first Christmas. Of the many visions she experienced in her life, Birgitta’s vision of the Nativity is probably the most famous and influential, going on to profoundly shape the way the scene was depicted in medieval art.

St Birgitta writing with her vision of the Nativity appearing above her head, a woodcut print from The Myrroure of Oure Lady, 1530: British Library, C.11.b.8.

Before Birgitta

The descriptions of the Nativity in the Bible are light in detail. The gospels of Matthew and Luke recount that Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit by a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed or married to a man called Joseph. They state that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, with Luke explaining that Mary and Joseph had travelled there for a census and that Mary “wrapped him [Jesus] in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).

In order to create vivid and compelling images of the Nativity, medieval artists desired more information. They drew extra details from Old Testament prophecies, apocryphal gospel accounts and medieval childbirth practices. The standard image of the Nativity in Western Europe until the 14th century showed the Virgin Mary reclining in bed, as was normal for medieval mothers. Jesus is usually lying in the manger, being adored by an ox and ass. Joseph and sometimes midwives accompany the scene, as in the example below. In the 14th century, however, a new type of Nativity scene began to appear, due in a large part to Birgitta’s vision.

Nativity scene, showing the Virgin Mary in bed (above), with midwives bathing Child (lower left), and Christ lying in a manger (lower right), North-East France or Flanders, 12th century: Cotton MS Caligula A VII/1, f. 5r

Birgitta’s vision of the Nativity

Birgitta described her vision at the Grotto of the Nativity in her magisterial visionary work, the Liber celestis revelacionum (heavenly book of revelations), which was widely read throughout Europe. She described seeing the pregnant Virgin Mary enter the cave with Joseph, the ox and ass. Joseph lights a candle and fixes it to the wall, then leaves. Mary takes off her shoes, mantle and veil, spreading her long golden hair. After preparing cloths in which to wrap the baby, she kneels facing east and begins to pray. According to Birgitta,

“While she was thus praying, I saw the infant in her womb move, and at that very moment, in the flash of an eye, she gave birth to her son... The birth of the child was so instant and sudden that I was unable to see or discern how or even with what part of her body she gave birth. And yet I immediately saw that glorious infant lying on the ground, naked and shining”.

(Liber celestis, book VII, chapter 21, translation by Denis Searby, 2012, p. 251).

Birgitta (on the right) witnesses the Nativity, from a copy of her Liber celestis, Northern England, 1400-1425: Cotton MS Claudius B I, f. 270r

Birgitta’s vision is rich with details, two of which are particularly important for medieval art. First, the Virgin Mary gives birth instantly while kneeling, with Christ supernaturally transported out of her womb and onto the ground. As the mother of eight children, Birgitta was fully aware of the realities of childbirth. Birgitta’s description of this miraculous birth is her way of explaining how Mary could give birth without damaging the virginal intactness of her body. Additionally, since the Bible presents painful childbirth as a punishment inflicted on womankind for Eve’s disobedience (Genesis 3:16), Birgitta’s description of the painless birth implies that Mary was free from Original Sin inherited from Eve.

The other distinctive feature is that the newborn Christ shines. The idea that the birth of Christ was accompanied by a bright light originated in apocryphal gospel accounts, probably referring to the idea of Christ as “the light of the world”. Birgitta specifies that light radiates from the body of Christ and that his brightness outshines both the sun and the candle that Joseph had brought in:

“Such indescribable light and splendour went out from him that the sun could not be compared to it. The candle that the old man had placed there was giving no light at all, for that divine lustre completely outshone the material lustre of the candle”.

(Liber celestis, book VII, chapter 21, translation by Denis Searby, 2012, p. 251).

Within only a few years, these elements from Birgitta’s vision began to appear in medieval depictions of the Nativity.

The Nativity in a Book of Hours, France, around 1430-50: Add MS 28784 B, f. 2v

Nativity scenes in Books of Hours

One place where medieval Nativity scenes often appear is in Books of Hours. These prayer books, often described as the “best-sellers of the Middle Ages”, contain sets of prayers for reading at the eight canonical hours of the day. The most important of these, the Office of the Virgin, often begins each hour with a picture from the life of the Virgin Mary, where the Nativity usually accompanies the hour of prime (first daylight). An examination of Books of Hours in the British Library reveals many examples of Nativity scenes depicting elements from Birgitta’s vision.

The Book of Hours shown below was made in Italy in 1412 for Neapolitan nobleman and diplomat Antonio Carafa. Nativity scenes inspired by Birgitta’s vision first appeared in Italy, where she spent the latter part of her life and had many supporters. Although the Western artistic tradition usually sets the Nativity in a stable, this image depicts the birth of Christ taking place in a cave, corresponding with Birgitta’s description of the Grotto of the Nativity. The Virgin Mary kneels and the infant Jesus lies on the floor emitting light, outshining the sun above and the candle that Joseph holds up. Behind them, the ox and the ass wait by the manger and in the background an angel announces the birth of Christ to the shepherds.

The Nativity from a Book of Hours, Italy, 1412: Add MS 17466, f. 34r

More often, artists transported the key elements from Birgitta’s vision to a stable or a classical ruin. The idea that the Nativity took place in a stable was a logical inference based on biblical references to a manger and animals, and the ruin was a symbol of paganism crumbling with the birth of Christ.

The Nativity from a Book of Hours, Paris, c. 1530: Add MS 35318

The image of the Nativity shown below includes a pilgrim’s bag and staff lying on the floor in the foreground, perhaps referring to Birgitta’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We can imagine that we are seeing the scene through Birgitta’s eyes, with her belongings laid down in front of her.

The Nativity in a Book of Hours, Southern Netherlands, late 15th century: Sloane MS 2916, f. 45v

It is questionable whether the artists who created these images and the book owners who admired them were always aware of Birgitta’s vision. Most medieval images were based on other images rather than texts, so once the vision became an image, it took on a life of its own. The kneeling Virgin, the shining Infant on the ground, the sun's rays and Joseph holding a candle all became part of the visual tradition of the Nativity, and they can still be found in many Nativity scenes to this day.

The Nativity in a Book of Hours, France, late 15th century: Add MS 14803, f. 37r

 

The Nativity in a Book of Hours, Southern Netherlands, 1460-75: Harley MS 2853

 

Manuscript illustration of the Nativity, written by a nun named Modesta, northwest Germany, late 15th century: Harley MS 2975

You can see manuscripts of Birgitta’s Liber celestis and learn more about her incredible legacy in the British Library’s exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. Tickets are available to purchase online now. 

From everyone in the Medieval Manuscripts team, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Eleanor Jackson
Follow us @BLMedieval

This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation. 

Translations

The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden: Volume III: Liber Caelestis, Books VI–VII, trans. by Denis Searby, ed. by Bridget Morris (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 250-51.

An old waterlogged vellum book, with sand and seashells still stuck to its cover, which bears the words ‘My Secrete Log Boke’. Inside, an English account by Christopher Columbus of his second voyage to the Americas in 1493, written in his own hand. A preface explains that Columbus had sealed the log in a box and threw it overboard during a storm that he feared would take his life and that of his crew. Almost 400 years later, a Cornish fisherman had found the box off the coast of Pembrokeshire and rescued it. In 1946, this volume was offered to the British Museum Library by a hopeful private seller as a unique source for the history of European contact with the New World. Unfortunately for her, the Keeper of Manuscripts replied that he’d already got one.

My Secrete Log Boke: L.R.408.g.7.

The Log Boke was in fact a well-known literary forgery (that it was written in English being something of a clue). It had been offered many times before. The Keeper, Eric Millar (1944–1947), told the seller that it was ‘constantly brought in here’, including earlier that year, when Millar had advised the owner to stop by the next time they were in London and look at the Museum Library’s own copy. The volume was a creation of the German artist Carl Maria Seyppel, who designed and printed it in Düsseldorf in 1892.

The opening page of the Log Boke

Several such forgeries were offered to the British Museum Library between 1904 and 1954. In 1935, a private seller offered a letter by George Washington but Keeper H. Idris Bell (1929–1944) found that the signature was a deliberate imitation and the body of the letter was a clumsy forgery. He also noted that Christie’s just so happened to have a genuine Washington letter on display at the same time, writing dryly that ‘it is certainly a coincidence that they should have it at this moment’.

Fakes were not limited to the correspondence of the famous. In 1953, a well-meaning county archivist sent the Museum Library a set of Egyptian papyri but these turned out to be ‘forgeries of the kind usually manufactured by Egyptians for sale to tourists. They are made of small scraps of genuine, but blank, papyrus, pasted together to give them the rough appearance of scrolls, and covered with meaningless scrawls which, it was hoped, would be mistaken for Greek cursive handwriting’.

When a letter of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was discovered to be a forgery shortly after it was acquired in 1917, Keeper Julius P. Gilson (1911–1929) recommended that it be given to a professor at the University of Virginia who was interested in it as a literary curiosity. He wrote that this was possible ‘as it has not actually been incorporated in the collections’, referencing a peculiarity of the British Museum’s statutes.

Choosing the right acquisitions, and avoiding forgeries, was even more consequential at the Museum Library than at many rival institutions, as the Trustees could not normally remove items from the collection except by Act of Parliament. Under the British Museum Act (1769), they were authorised to dispose of duplicates of ‘Printed Books, Medals, Coins, or other Curiosities’; the Act of 1807 also allowed for the sale or exchange of items deemed ‘unfit to be preserved’ in the collection. Several such sales did occur but, after this policy caused Richard Fitzwilliam, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam, to leave his library and art collection to the University of Cambridge in 1816, establishing his eponymous museum there instead of at the British Museum, the Trustees decided that no gifted or bequeathed item could be removed from the collection. If a Keeper chose poorly by accepting a manuscript that was later found out to be a fake, it would sit on the Department's shelves forever, occupying precious space. Keepers therefore had good reason to be cautious about which manuscripts they chose to accept.

Richard Fitzwilliam (1745–1816), 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam, whose collections founded the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge

These forgeries were just some of the manuscripts turned down by the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum Library, one of the British Library’s precursors, in the first half of the 20th century, as recorded in the archives of the Department of Manuscripts. Since October, this archival material has been used in a research project investigating rejected acquisitions and offers of manuscripts to the British Museum Library between 1904 and 1954, to see what these can tell us about collecting policy in the period. As the  project progresses, future blogposts will highlight new discoveries and stories.

This research has been made possible by the award of a British Library Coleridge Fellowship.

Rory MacLellan

Follow us @BLMedieval

The involvement of nuns in creating beautiful medieval manuscripts is often underappreciated. It is very exciting, then, to discover a new example of their work. While searching for items to include in our Medieval Women exhibition, we came across a mysterious illuminated leaf that has a fascinating story to tell.

Opening leaf from a Gradual: Add MS 35069, f. 11r

The mystery leaf

The leaf was once the first page of a gradual, a manuscript containing the chants sung during the Mass throughout the Church year. It features the opening chants for the First Sunday in Advent, which begin ‘Ad te levavi animam meam’ (To you I lift up my soul). The text starts with an impressive historiated initial showing King David lifting up his soul to God, flanked by Sts Catherine of Alexandria and Clare of Assisi.

But the reason it caught our attention was because of a small figure in the lower margin. Not the huntress who is apparently unable to persuade her hawk and hound to chase a rather smug looking hare, but a diminutive nun. She kneels and hold her hands up in the same posture as King David. Immediately above her is an inscription in red ink:

'Sister Isabella of Guelders, who gave 20 marks to complete this book; pray for her and for all those who gave their alms for the writing of this book’

(Soror ysabela de gelria, quae dedit .xx. marcas ad librum istum complendum orate pro ea, et pro omnibus quae elemosinas suas ad hunc librum scribendum dederunt).

Detail of the lower margin, showing a nun, a huntress with hare, hawk and hound, and a butterfly: Add MS 35069, f. 11r

We did not have to look far to find out where this leaf came from. Inside the volume that houses the leaf is a reading room slip on which a reading room superintendent has written:

“Folio 11 comes from a gradual written and illuminated for the Convent of St Clare at Cologne. Further leaves are in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum at Cologne, see the exhibition catalogue Rhein und Maas: Kunst und Kultur 800–1400, Köln 1972, pp. 88 and 91, no. VI 6.”

Although the identification is correct, whoever supplied this information apparently did not publish it. This leaf is not mentioned in the existing scholarship on the Poor Clares of Cologne, a convent known for being a major manuscript-producing centre in the 14th century.

The church of St Clare, the Poor Clares convent, Cologne, in 1670, after Justus Vinckenboon: Wikimedia Commons / CC-PD-Mark

The Poor Clares of Cologne

The Order of Poor Clares, initially led by St Clare of Assisi (d. 1253), is the women’s branch of the Franciscan Order, founded by St Francis of Assisi (d. 1226). The Rule of St Clare, authored by St Clare and approved by Pope Innocent IV in 1253, set out instructions for the nuns to live according to the Franciscan ideal of absolute poverty (owning no property). In 1263, however, Pope Urban IV sanctioned a milder version of the Rule that made allowances for communal property and incomes. Convents that followed the 1263 Rule are known as ‘Urbanist’ Poor Clares, or sometimes ‘Rich Clares’.

The convent of Poor Clares in Cologne, founded in 1304, was an Urbanist house. The nuns came from wealthy families of the urban elite and aristocracy, bringing with them generous dowries and powerful connections. It grew rapidly, and by 1340 housed almost sixty nuns.

With expansion came an increasing need for books. The nuns formed their own scriptorium, active between the 1320s and 1360s, producing beautifully illuminated liturgical manuscripts (containing texts and music for church services). Fifteen manuscripts and around forty decorated leaves survive from the convent, suggesting an impressive scale of output. We know the names of several of the nun-scribes and artists, the most celebrated of whom was Loppa vom Spiegel who was active around 1350.

Loppa vom Spiegel and a Franciscan friar, with the note that she wrote and notated the text © Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne, Graphische Sammlung, Inv. M 23, photo Stanislaw Rusch

One of the characteristic features of manuscripts produced by the Poor Clares of Cologne are the depictions of small nuns kneeling in the margins, often inscribed with their names and prayer requests. In some cases at least, they represent the women who contributed to the manuscript’s production. As well as commemorating the sisters and encouraging prayers for their souls, these portraits were probably intended to foster a sense of community and shared identity among the nuns.

The convent was dissolved in 1802 and demolished in 1840. Around this time, its manuscripts were dispersed. Many were cut up and their decorated leaves were sold off separately. Today, they are housed in collections around the world.

The gradual reconstructed

Other illuminated leaves extracted from the same manuscript as the British Library leaf are now housed in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne. Each leaf introduces one of the major feast days in the Church year, and features a diminutive picture of a named nun.

Leaf from the opening of the Feast of St Andrew in the gradual, with the figure of Sister Bela de Nusia © Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 5, Photo: Dieter Bongartz

Sabine Benecke grouped together the other leaves from this gradual and suggested the order in which they were originally arranged. She was not aware of the British Library leaf, however, which was the first in the manuscript. All together, the surviving leaves probably appeared as follows:

Item reference	Feast Day	Nun’s inscription
British Library, Add MS 35069, f. 11r	First Sunday in Advent	‘Soror Ysabela de Gelria...’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 1	Christmas	‘Soror Margareta de Yota orate pro me’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 22	Feast of St John the Evangelist	‘Soror Heylwigis orate pro me’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 2	Epiphany	‘Soror Jutta orate pro me’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 8	Ascension	‘Soror Christina de Porta orate pro me’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 5	Feast of St Andrew	‘Soror Bela de Nusia orate pro me’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 15	Feast of St Mary Magdalene	‘Soror Agnes Eese’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 17	Feast of St Clare	‘Soror Clara de Valkensteyn orate pro me’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 12	Death of the Virgin	‘Soror Agnes de Aldenhoven orate pro me’
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. Nr. M 10	Nativity of the Virgin	‘Soror Margareta de Valkenburg orate pro me’

The British Library leaf adds considerably to our knowledge of this manuscript because it gives valuable evidence about its patronage. While the other leaves are inscribed only with the names of the nuns and requests for prayers, the British Library leaf tells us that Isabella of Guelders, a major figure in the history of the convent, paid for it.

Isabella of Guelders

Beginning in the 1330s, the Poor Clares of Cologne received special patronage from two sisters, Isabella and Philippa of Guelders, daughters of Reginald I and Margaret of Flanders, count and countess of Guelders. In time, both sisters joined the convent and Isabella served as abbess from 1340 to 1343. They are associated with various projects, including rebuilding the convent church in 1336 and possibly commissioning the Altar of the Poor Clares now in Cologne Cathedral.

Altar of the Poor Clares in Cologne Cathedral: Ludwig Schneider / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Additionally, a two-volume bible, now housed in the Archbishop’s Diocesan and Cathedral Library, Cologne, contains an inscription stating that Isabella of Guelders bought the manuscript for the convent of Poor Clares using the proceeds from selling jewellery that she had worn before entering the convent.

The Bible of Isabella of Guelders: Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek Köln, Cod. 1235 © Diözesanbibliothek Köln, 13.12.2024

Isabella died in 1354 and was buried with her sister Philippa in a grand tomb in the choir of the Poor Clares’ church. The newly discovered leaf adds to her legacy as a major supporter of cultural projects within the convent.

The British Library’s leaf from the Poor Clares of Cologne is on display in the exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. You can purchase your tickets online now. 

Eleanor Jackson
Follow us @BLMedieval

This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation. 

Further Reading

Sabine Benecke, Randgestaltung und Religiosität: Die Handschriften aus dem Kölner Kloster St. Klara (Ammersbek bei Hamburg, 1995).

Harald Horst and Karen Straub (eds), Von Frauenhand: Mittelalterliche Handschriften Aus Kölner Sammlungen (Cologne, 2021).