A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Canon. Liturg. 114

Summary Catalogue no.: 19261

Portable Psalter, Hieronymite (?) Use; Spain, South (?), 15th century, third quarter

Contents

Psalter (Hieronymite (?))

Three parts written by different 15th-century scribes, and illuminated by different artists. Fol. i is a paper fly-leaf, blank apart from modern notes.

I. [item 1 occupies quire I]

1. (fols. 1r–6v)

Calendar laid out one month per page, not graded (all feasts are in black), approximately half full. Includes Jerome (30 September) and Carthusian saints: Hugh of Lincoln and the feast of his relics (17 and 8 November) and Hugh of Grenoble (1 April). Also includes Felix of Nola (14 January), Thomas Aquinas (7 March), Christina (24 July), Columban (21 November), Silas (28 November), Saturninus of Toulouse (29 November) and Eulalia of Merida (10 December).

[items 2–3 occupy quires II–XVIII]

2. (fols. 7r–140r)

Psalms 1–150 in the biblical order, laid out as prose, without numbers, with titles ‘psalmus dauid’. Punctuated throughout with punctus used to mark metrum, minor pauses and the ends of verses. Larger initials (see ‘Decoration’) mark psalms appointed for Matins during the week. The following rubrics occur at liturgical divisions: psalm 20 (‘Incipitur fferia dominicalis’), 26 (‘Feria ij secundum beatum Jeronimum’), 32 (‘fferia ij secundum ordinem cartusie’), 38 (‘Secundum nocturnum’), 45 (‘Incipit feria iij secundum ordinem Cartusie. in primo nocturno psalmus dauid’), 52 (‘In secundo nocturno’), 59 (‘Incipit feria iiij secundum ordinem cartusie. in primo nocturno psalmus dauid’), 68 (‘Incipit secundum nocturnum’), 69 (‘Incipit feria iiij secundum beatum ieronimum’), 73 (‘Incipit feria quinta secundum ordinem cartusie’), 79 (‘Incipit secundum nocturnum secundum ordinem cartusie’), 85 (‘Incipit fferia vi secundum ordinem cartusie’), 88 (‘Incipit fferia vi secundum ordinem Cartusie. in primo nocturno psalmus dauid’), 95 (‘Incipit secundum nocturnum’), 101 (‘Incipit feria vij secundum ordinem cartusie’), 105 (‘Incipit secundum nocturnum’), 106 (‘feria vj secundum beatum ieronimum’), 109 (‘psalmus dauid ad uesperas’), 119 (‘Incipit fferia vij secundum beatum ieronimum’). Subdivisions within psalms are marked by 3-line initials and rubrics ‘diuisio’ or ‘psalmus dauid’ at 9: 20 (fol. 11v), 17: 26 (fol. 17v), 36: 27 (fol. 37r), 67: 20 (fol. 63r), 68: 17 (fol. 65r), 77: 36 (fol. 74v), 88: 20 (fol. 85v), 103: 25 (fol. 98v), 104: 23 (fol. 100v), 105: 32 (fol. 102v), 106: 25 (fol. 105r), 138: 11 (‘Et dixi ...) (fol. 131v), 143: 9 (fol. 135r), 144: 10 (fol. 136r). Psalm 118 is subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units.

3.

(fol. 140v) Cues of the Penitential Psalms, consisting of the opening lines of psalms and their numbers. Written in the original hand on the last six lines of the leaf; the rest is ruled but blank.

II. [items 4–6 occupy quires XIX–XX]

Fol. 141r is blank; fol. 141v is occupied by a miniature (see ‘Decoration’).

4. (fols. 142r–147r)

Weekly canticles, the last with a title:

  • (1) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20);
  • (2) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3);
  • (3) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (‘Canticum’).

5.

(fol. 147r–v) Hymn to the Cross, beginning ‘Te deum laudamus Te christum benedicamus Te regem regum et dominum confitemur ...’ and ending ‘... Benedicat et glorificet te in eternum amen’ (similar to Chevalier, no 20088), with a rubric ‘Ad officium crucis’, followed by a versicle and a response.

6. (fols. 147v–149v)

Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...), starting without a rubric.

III. [items 7–8 occupy quires XXI–XXIV]

7. (fols. 150r–151r)

Weekly canticles without titles:

  • (1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12);
  • (2) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11).

8. (fols. 151r–181v)

Bridgettine Office of the Virgin with rubrics (see Breviarium, 1908). Erasure on fol. 181v. Fol. 182r is blank apart from modern notes; fol. 182v is occupied by a miniature (see ‘Decoration’); fol. 183 is blank; fol. 184 is a blank paper fly-leaf.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: sion montem (psalter, fol. 8r)
Form: codex
Support: parchment; paper fly-leaves
Extent: 185 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c. 111 × 75 mm.
Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, causing extensive loss of decoration.
Foliation: modern, in pencil, i + 1–184; medieval in red Roman numerals ii–cxxxiv on fols. 8–140, and in a different hand clxxix (?) – clxxxv on fols. 141–147 (both entered before the leaves were trimmed).

Collation

(fol. i) paper fly-leaf | (fols. 1–6) I (6) | (fols. 7–134) II–XVII (8) | (fols. 135–140) XVIII (8−2) missing 7 and 8 (no loss of text), non-consecutive foliation after fol. 140 suggests that quires may be missing | (fols. 141–142) XIX (2) | (fols. 143–149) XX (8−1) missing 8, offset of illuminated border on fol. 149v | (fols. 150–181) XXI– XXIV (8) | (fols. 182–183) XXV (2) perhaps not conjoint | (fol. 184) paper fly-leaf. Catchwords, decorated with penwork on fols. 14–134 (quires II–XVII) and plain elsewhere, survive

Layout

Ruled in ink with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; 21 lines per page (fols. 7–149) and 22 lines per page (fols. 150–181); written below the top line; written space: c. 65 × 48 mm. (fols. 7–149)

Written space: c. 71 × 50 mm. (fols. 150–181)

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hands, the work of several scribes (change of hand in part II on fol. 147r), black and brown ink.

Decoration

Red and blue penwork KL monograms in the calendar.

Full-page miniatures by two different artists:

  • fol. 141v Saint, wearing a mitre and holding a crosier and a book, seated on a throne (defaced). Full border, decorated with green, pink and blue foliage, and gold vine leaves and discs.
  • fol. 182v King David, seated, playing psaltery (grisaille). Full border, decorated with pink, blue, yellow and gold foliage, flowers and peacocks, gold vine leaves and discs.

Illuminated initials at liturgical divisions in two different styles. The first is found in quires 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11 and 15; the second in quires 2, 5 and 7; both together in quires 8, 10, 12 and 13.

  • Half-page Beatus-initial and 10- to 11-line initials at the beginnings of psalms 26 (fol. 27r), 32 (fol. 32v), 45 (fol. 47r), 52 (fol. 52v), 68 (fol. 65r), 73 (fol. 71r), 79 (fol. 79r), 95 (fol. 93r), 105 (fol. 102v), 106 (fol. 105r) and 119 (fol. 123r), decorated with foliage, flowers and birds, and full or partial borders, decorated with gold filigree scrolls, flowers, peacocks, parrots and other birds.
  • 9- to 11-line initials, decorated with foliage, flowers, birds and masks, on gold background, with sprays of foliage and gold discs extending into the margins, at the beginnings of psalms 20 (fol. 22r), 38 (fol. 40r), 59 (fol. 58r), 69 (fol. 67r), 85 (fol. 83v), 88 (fol. 85v), 101 (fol. 96r) and 109 (fol. 109v).

Borders: see above.

3-line alternating red and blue initials, decorated with contrasting purple or red penwork, at the beginnings of psalms. Similar 1-line initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

2-line red and blue initials, some with penwork, at the beginnings of texts and sections of texts on fols. 142r–182v; 1-line plain red and blue initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Rubrics in red ink/

Binding

16th century or 17th century, Spanish or Italian?: thin wood boards, narrow inside bevel; polished dark red leather, tooled with blind and gilt lines, gilt tools and rolls, to form an overall gilt pattern enclosing the letters ‘S M | M’ at the centre of each cover (each final ‘M’ immediately corrected from ‘V’); spine similarly decorated with blind lines and gilt tools (re-laid after rebacking); fittings for two clasps with lost straps of similar leather; edges gilt, gauffered, after severe trimming of textblock. Rebacked, with added paste-downs of light-blue marbled paper, 18th century?, Italian?, and a box. 116 × 80 × c. 30–33 mm. (book closed).

18th century, Italian: telescopic box of thin card, covered with brown leather stippled in black; blind-tooled with double lines in a lozenge pattern on each side; rounded back and all edges outlined with blind double lines; box lined with carta bassanese, with a large floral pattern of white outlined on a stippled red ground. 134–135 × c. 90–91 × c. 37 mm. (box closed). Cf. box of MS. Canon. Liturg. 178.

History

Origin: 15th century, third quarter ; Spanish, south (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Calendar and psalter made in southern Spain (?) for a Hieronymite (?) patron: liturgical evidence. Part II has ruling identical to part I and is probably a contemporary addition.

Part III, including the Bridgettine Office of the Virgin, was added probably in the 15th or 16th century. A miniature of King David on fol. 182v suggests that this continuation was intended for a psalter.

Matteo Luigi Canonici of Venice (1727 – c. 1806), but not from the libraries of Soranzo or Trevisan.

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti. Earlier Bodleian shelf-mark: ‘E Codd: Bodl: Miscell: Liturg. 114’ (fol. 1r; cf. spine).

Record Sources

Adapted from Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 629–33. Binding: B. C. Barker-Benfield, Bookbindings of Canonici manuscripts : a survey of early and non-standard bindings, mostly Italian, in the Canonici collection of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Oxford, privately printed, 2020). Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (3 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    Summary catalogue, vol. 4, no. 19261.
    Breviarium sacrarum virginum Ordinis Sanctissimi Salvatoris vulgo Sanctae Birgittae (Tournai: Desclee and Cie, 1908).
    Frere, no. 187.
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 104
    Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 1, no. 888, pl. LXVI.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.