Item Info

Scripts/Text: Fraktur; Roman script
Language: German
Physical Description: 124 leaves
Material: wove paper; watercolor; ink; leather; thread
Transcription:

[Snow Hill Cloister pagination: Leaf 96 verso, and Leaf 97 recto]

O wie so oft und manches mal [sitz ich an Mesechs Pforten...]         381

O wie thut mein Hertz [sich sehnen nach der stillen Ewigkeit...]      383

O Wol dem ! der gefunden [sein bestes Theil durch Gottes Gnad]     383

N.B.  381 or 383 indicates the page number on which the hymn verses are to be found in the Ephrata Cloisters 1747 imprint of Das Gesäng Der einsamen und verlassenen Turtel=Taube Nemlich der Christlichen Kirche (Ephrata: Drucks der Bruderschaft im Jahr 1747).

Translation:

O whenever I sit at Mesechs’ gates... 381 [Mesech was Noah’s grandson]

O how my heart longs for eternity...  383

O how well it is with him who by the grace of God discovers his better self... 383

N.B.  381 or 383 indicates the page number on which the hymn verses are to be found in the Ephrata Cloisters 1747 imprint of Das Gesäng Der einsamen und verlassenen Turtel=Taube Nemlich der Christlichen Kirche (Ephrata: Drucks der Bruderschaft im Jahr 1747).
 

Category: Hymnal
Media Type: Manuscripts
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:

Binding:

Full reverse calf with blind tooling

Physical Description:

[1-10] [11 musical fragment on 4 staves & 2 groups of 4 blank staves] [12-13 blank staves] 14-151 [152-153 blank staves] 154-248

N. B. Ms is without Register; recto of front flyleaf at head in pencil and Roman script: “March 23rd 1886”

Biographical Note:

In the 1780s Peter Lehman, a hermit, and admirer of the Ephrata Cloisters’ way of life, was persuaded by Peter Miller—prior of the Ephrata Cloisters—to lead the church at Antietam, a German Seventh Day Adventists group. Barbara Karper Schneeberger was one of the faithful members of this church and, along with her husband Andreas Schneeberger frequently hosted meetings at their home. Peter Lehman preached regularly at Snow Hill, so that the Antietam congregation became the Snow Hill congregation. In the 1790s he urged his congregation to adopt the celibate lifestyle of the residents at Ephrata, and the establishment soon became known as Snow Hill Cloister.

The Snow Hill Cloister scriptorium was active from ca. 1820 to ca. 1840’s. Since Snow Hill was an offshoot of the Ephrata Cloisters, it is not surprising that the style of its hymnals was based on 18th century Ephrata examples. However, the illuminators at Snow Hill simplified and stylized their designs, using a plainer geometric bar illumination based on the 5 lines of a musical stave, and more rudimentary portrayals of other decorative elements. The Snow Hill manuscripts are readily identified by their wove paper, and a larger and more vivid palette of strong colors.

Scope and Content:
Hand-drawn; hand-colored; hand-lettered. The hymn titles, written in Fraktur, extend across the page opening, from verso to recto. The music to the hymns is placed below the titles; is written in four voices with clef, tempo marking, and key signature; and extends across the page opening from verso to recto. The initial letter of the titles is highly decorated, and other childlike decorative, and geometric elements appear between and on the musical staves.
 

Provenance: Borneman, Henry Stauffer, 1870-1955

Bibliography:

Cynda L. Benson, Early American Illuminated Manuscripts from the Ephrata Cloister. Lawrence, Ks: University of Kansas Graduate School, Dept. of History, 1994, 167.

__________, Early American Illuminated Manuscripts from the Ephrata Cloister. Northampton, Mass.: Smith College Museum of Art, 1995, 22.

"Ephrata and Snow Hill Cloister Artists" in Russell D. and Corinne P. Earnest, Papers for Birth Dayes: Guide to the Fraktur Artists and Scriveners. East Berlin, Pa.: Russell D. Earnest Associates, 1997, 2nd ed., vol. 1, pp. 244-248.

Das Gesäng Der einsamen und verlassenen Turtel=Taube Nemlich der Christlichen Kirche. Ephrata: Drucks der Bruderschaft im Jahr 1747.

Lamech (Jacob Gaas) and Agrippa (Peter Müller), Chronicon Ephratense; A History of the Community of Seventh Day Baptists at Ephrata, Lancaster County, Penn’a, translated by J. Max Hark, D.D. Lancaster, PA: S. H. Zahm & Co., 1889, v. 2, pp. 242-262.

Denise A. Seachrist, Snow Hill: In the Shadows of the Ephrata Cloister. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2010.

Charles W. Treher, Snow Hill Cloister. Allentown, Pa.: Pennsylvania German Society, 1968. 

Creation Place Town/Township: Creation Place Note:The decorative elements and colors are similar to other hymnals from Snow Hill; hymn titles of this manuscript match the titles of similar Mss with a printed register; and the paper is wove, indicating a later date of creation.
Region/County:Franklin
City/Town/Township:Snow Hill Cloister
State/Province:Pennsylvania

Creation Year (Single Year or Range Begin): ca. 1840
Image Dimensions Width: 22.5 cm
ShelfMark: FLP Borneman Ms. 4.5
Creator Name: Members of Snow Hill Cloister scriptorium (Active c. 1820-1840) - Decorator
Members of Snow Hill Cloister scriptorium(Active c. 1820-1840) - Scrivener