MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 42
Summary Catalogue no.: 18934
A Psalter; B Geographical Tables, etc., in French and Italian; C Quaestiones on the Theological Virtues in Latin. Italy, A 14th century, B, C 17th century
Physical Description
Collation
Binding
Soranzo’s binding, parchment over pasteboard; small stiff flaps on the fore-edges of covers. Brown leather label on spine (cut from an earlier binding?) with gilt lettering ‘PSALT. || DAVID. || COD. || MEMBR.’, surrounded by two strips with gold foliate designs. Fragments of two (Bodleian (?)) paper labels at the bottom of the spine. Pastedowns and fly-leaves of paper with burgundy, purple and yellow floral designs (carta bassanese).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Jacopo Soranzo (1686–1761): number 1347 in folio in the catalogue of his collection (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana MSS. Ital. X. 137–9). After Soranzo’s death by about 1780 at Cá Cornèr at San Maurizio, Venice (Mitchell, 1969). Fol. ii recto contains a description of contents in the hand of Soranzo’s librarian Francesco Melchiori, corrected and supplemented in another Italian hand (also found in MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 85, MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 88, MS. Add. D. 47, MS. Canon. Liturg. 105, MS. Canon. Liturg. 155, MS. Canon. Liturg. 377 and MS. Canon. Liturg. 393). Both descriptions list the contents of all three parts. The parts were probably bound under one cover by Soranzo, which is characteristic of a number of his manuscripts (Mitchell, 1969, p. 131).
Matteo Luigi Canonici of Venice (1727–c. 1806): bought soon after 1780.
Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti.
MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 42 – Part A
Contents
Fols. i–ii are paper fly-leaves containing early modern and modern notes (see ‘Provenance’).
[items 1–5 occupy a single parchment leaf, possibly originally part of a quire of four leaves]
Confiteor in the hand of the main scribe, with the name of St Lawrence occurring twice (the only saint mentioned by name): ‘Confiteor omnipotenti deo patri et filio et spiritui sancto. Gloriose marie semper uirgini. beati laurentii martiris et omnibus sanctis dei quia multum peccaui ...’.
Added short commemoration consisting of an antiphon ‘Sancti dei omnes intercedere dignemini’, versicle ‘Letamini in domino’ and a prayer to the Virgin Mary and saints ‘Deus qui nos concedis beate marie semper uirginis et omnium sanctorum tuorum comemorcione augere ...’ with rubrics ‘a(ntiphonum)’, ‘v(ersiculum)’ and ‘or(atio)’.
Added litany of the Virgin in an early 16th-century Italian hand (‘Letanie de la madona’).
Added prayer for the dead, preceded by ‘iesus maria’, copied twice in the same 16th-century hand with feminine grammatical forms: ‘Quesumus domine pro tua pietate miserere anime famule tue ...’ (Corpus orationum, no. 4843). The same hand added a short prayer to the Virgin Mary (?), partially lost when leaves were trimmed, preceded by ‘iesus maria’, in the upper margin on fol. 2r.
Added antiphon ‘Alma redemptoris mater que peruia celi ...’ in another 16thcentury hand, preceded by ‘iesus maria’.
[items 6–11 occupy quires I–V]
Psalms 1–150, in the biblical order, laid out in two columns as prose, without titles or numbers. Punctuated throughout with punctus or punctus elevatus used to mark metrum and minor pauses, and punctus used to mark the ends of verses. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109. Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from 9: 20 (fol. 4v), marked with a 2-line initial. Psalm 118 is subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. The text contains corrections in the original hand.
Weekly canticles, without titles:
- (1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12);
- (2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21);
- (3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11);
- (4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20);
- (5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3);
- (6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44).
Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:
- (1) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 57r);
- (2) Te deum laudamus (fol. 57r);
- (3) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 57v);
- (4) Magnificat (fol. 58r);
- (5) Nunc dimittis (fol. 58r);
- (6) Pater noster (fol. 58r);
- (7) Apostles’ Creed (Credo in deum ... ) (fol. 58r);
- (8) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ... ) (fol. 58r).
Antiphons for Christmas (‘Natalis domini’), added in a contemporary hand: ‘Illuxit nobis dies’, ‘Exultemus in domino’, ‘Propter nimiam caritatem suam’, ‘Quem uidistis pastores’, ‘Pastores dicite quid nam uidistis’, ‘Ecce aduenit dominator’. Antiphons for Epiphany (‘Epiphania domini’), starting in the second column on fol. 59r and continuing in the second column on the verso: ‘Ab oriente uenerunt magi in bethleem’, ‘Interrogabat magos herodes quod signum’, ‘Uidentes stellam magi gauisi sunt’, ‘Descendit spiritus sanctus corporali specie’, ‘Uox de celo sonuit’, ‘Omnes nationes ueniunt’.
Antiphons for Advent added in a different contemporary hand (‘lectio de aduenta’): ‘Erit innouissimis diebus preparatus mons domus domini’, ‘Pacientes estote’, ‘Lauda et letare filia syon quia ecce ego uenio’.
Collects with rubrics ‘oratio’ in the same hand:
- (1) Excita domine potentiam tuam et ueni et quod ecclesie tue promisisti ...
- (2) Respice domine de celo et ueni et multiplica fidem populi tui ...
- (3) Adiuua quesumus domine plebem tuam et ad natiuitatem unigeniti filii tui ...
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled in plummet for two columns of 34 lines, with single vertical bounding lines for each column extending the full height of page; written below the top line; written space: variable, c. 195 × 115–120 mm.
Hand(s)
Formal Gothic book hand; brown ink.
Decoration
9-line red and blue penwork Beatus ‘puzzle’ initial (fol. 2r); the opening words of the psalm are written in red or blue capitals decorated with penwork.
5- (the first four) or 6-line (the last three) red and blue penwork initials at psalms 26 (fol. 10v), 38 (fol. 15v), 52 (fol. 20v), 68 (fol. 25r), 80 (fol. 31v), 97 (fol. 37r) and 109 (fol. 42v); the opening words of psalms are written in capitals with red penwork decoration.
2-line alternating red and blue initials with contrasting blue or red penwork at the beginnings of psalms, canticles and prayers.
1-line alternating red and blue initials with simple red or blue penwork at the beginnings of verses and periods.
Rubrics in red ink.
History
Provenance
Psalter written in Italy; St Lawrence is the only saint mentioned in the Confiteor in the hand of the main scribe.
MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 42 – Part B
Contents
[item 12 occupies quires VI–VIII]
Geographical tables in French, ruled in pencil or ink, with prickings clearly visible, the first entitled ‘Table de la quantité des plus grands iours artificiels de puis l’Equator de Degré en Degré, iusque au 66 Degré, e 30 Minut’. Some tables are ruled, but left blank; fols. 63v, 66v, ‘67–9’r–v are blank.
[item 13 occupies quire IX]
Two essays in French in a different 17th-century hand: ‘Pour conoistre en quels climats sont situées les Villes, les Prouinces, etc.’, beginning ‘Il faut premierement scauoir combien d’heures a le plus grand jour artificiel de la Ville ...’ and ‘Diuision des zones en paralelles et climats’, beginning ‘La terre ainsi diuisée en zones, les Geographes sont encore Subdiuisée ...’. Followed by more geographical tables in French and Italian (on a paper slip pasted to fol. 79v and on fol. 80ar–v). Fol. 74 is blank.
Physical Description
History
Provenance
Part II, written in French in the 17th century, has Italian additions.
MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 42 – Part C
Contents
Quaestiones on theological virtues in a single 17th-century hand (‘De Virtutibus Theologicis, Fide, Spe et Charitate Disputationes Scholastic˛’), beginning ‘Dispo: I De Fide Questio I Quidnam sit obiectum formale diuine˛ Fidei Art: I Aliqua pre˛mittuntur ad statum Que˛stionis Spectantia. Cum plurime˛ sint significationes huius nominis Fides, quas omnes referre . . .’. Comprises three ‘disputationes’: ‘De Fide’ (fols. 80cr–139r), ‘De Spe Theologica’ (fols. 139v–144v) and ‘De Caritate Theologica’ (fols. 145r–155r), subdivided into quaestiones and articuli with paragraphs continuously numbered 1–260. Fols. 80b and 155v–157v are blank; fols. 158–159 are fly-leaves.
Physical Description
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Bibliography
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2024-06: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.