The Making of Girona Martyrology and the Cult of Saints in Late Medieval Bohemia

This dissertation examines the Girona Martyrology (M.D. 273), with an emphasis on the circumstances surrounding its production, its function as a martyrology, and its connection to the cult of saints in Bohemia from the beginning of Luxembourg rule until the reign of Wenceslas IV (1361-1419). Chapter 1 traces the known history and historiography of M.D. 273. I summarize and contextualize existing studies of the manuscript within their own historical moments. The second chapter presents a comprehensive examination and analysis of M.D. 273, including its codicology, paleography and materiality. I argue that the Martyrology survives in a completed state. The third chapter engages in a thorough examination of the methods of the Martyrology's illuminators. Based on the observation that the manuscript's illumination program is inconsistent in terms of style and quality, I suggest that M.D. 273 was completed in haste. I propose that a bookseller ( librorum venditor) was hired to produce the manuscript and that he engaged two separate groups of illuminators to complete it: a sophisticated group of illuminators and a less-sophisticated group of illuminators. This argument implies that Prague's illuminated manuscript market had a similar infrastructure to that of medieval Paris, whose history of booksellers (called libraires) is well documented. The fourth chapter presents the first complete historical study of the textual genre of the martyrology. I argue that the martyrology is a central textual descendent of the earliest forms of the Christian calendar and, accordingly, amongst the Church's most ideologically significant book types. I argue that its choice in late-medieval Bohemia was both ideologically intentional and significant. The fifth chapter builds on chapter four by situating the Martyrology within the broader context of late-medieval Bohemia and its historical engagement with the cult of saints. With newly considered archival evidence, I argue that the ideological significance of the Martyrology makes it a plausible gift for Wenceslas IV to have given the Cistercians at Sedlec Monastery. The observations made in this dissertation raise more questions than answers about the Martyrology. It would be incorrect to suppose that present-day evidence proves the Martyrology's patron and intended destination. Instead, I merely suggest that under present circumstances, my proposal makes the most of evidence we have available.