Description
From a band of clouds at the lower-left corner of the picture a white, winged, and bridled horse gallops out above a tiled ground. In the text, Pegasus is called Equus Prima or "Das erst Pferd" (the first horse).
Additional Information
The so-called "Heidelberg Book of Fate," Cod. Pal. germ. 832, is one of the most well-known
and most valuable manuscripts preserved in the Heidelberg University Library.
The astrological-astronomical-mantic collective manuscript was written at the end of the 15th century in Regensburg. Several scribes were involved in the large-scale work. They wrote the texts in a careful, calligraphically designed bastarda on a total of 275 parchment leaves. The illustrations, all of them opaque color paintings - some on a gold background - were created by Berthold Furtmeyr, who worked in Regensburg between 1468 and 1501. While the master was responsible for the two full-page astronomical rotations, the nearly 550 miniatures were presumably by drawn his employee Thomas Schilt, who is known to have worked in Regensburg from 1486-1513.
In terms of content, the text of the manuscript is a compilation of various astrological-astronomical prints from the Augsburg workshop of Erhard Ratdolt in Augsburg. Among them is the latest edition of the so-called "German Hyginus", an astronomical-mythological manual, published in 1491. The miniatures are also directly dependent on the woodcut illustrations of Ratdolt's incunabula. From the fact, that the lunar plates of the calendar also begin in 1491, it can be concluded that the manuscript was created in this year or shortly thereafter.
The large format and the rest of the upscale furnishings make it likely that it was made for a wealthy client, probably from noble circles. Some indications suggest that it was made for Elector Philip, the Sincere of the Palatinate (1448-1508; reigned 1476-1508), and his wife, Margarethe of Bavaria-Landshut (1456-1501). In addition to the coats of arms of the Palatinate and of Bavaria in the gussets of the two revolving pictures, these are the time of origin of the manuscript at the end of the 15th century as well as the fact that the manuscript was handed down as part of the famous Bibliotheca Palatina.
The combination of the astrological-mantic texts with a calendar makes the codex a typical representative of the calendrical house book, which was primarily addressed to the interested layman. How popular this type of book was at the Heidelberg court even some years later, is shown by the fact that Elector Ottheinrich of the Palatinate (1502-1559; reigned 1556-1559) illustrated part of the manuscript between 1552 and 1557. The manuscript was written by the Nuremberg scribe Heinrich Rüdinger and painted by the Nuremberg painter Albrecht Glockendon the Younger, Cod. Pal. germ. 833 offers, above all in the painting copy, which differs only in stylistic and fashionable subtleties from the 60 years older original. Only the calendar dates as well as the tables of the solar and lunar eclipses were recalculated or supplemented by Ottheinrich's court astrologer, Cyprianus Leovitius (1524-1574), for his time period.
Like all manuscripts and prints of the former Bibliotheca Palatina, the "Heidelberg Book of Fate" was brought to the Vatican Library as spoils of war of the Catholic League during the Thirty Years' War to the Vatican Library. It was kept there from 1623 to 1816. The leather-covered wooden binding from this period bears the coats of arms of Pope Alexander VII in the corners. coats of arms of Pope Alexander VII. (Fabio Chigi; officiated 1655-1667). Only in connection with the peace negotiations after the Napoleonic wars, it was possible to return it together with the other German-language manuscripts of the former "Palatinate State Library" back to Heidelberg. (https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/infoterminal/schicksalsbuch.html)