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

MS. Canon. Liturg. 142

Summary Catalogue no.: 19279

Contents

Book of Hours, Use of Rome
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii + 196 + iv fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 102 × 77 mm.

Layout

1 col., 13 lines, 55 × 40 mm.

Decoration

Good historiated and other borders.

Good initials. Written at Bergamo in 1477, fol. 196v. (Pächt and Alexander ii. 889, pl. LXXVIII)

Binding

15th century?, Italian (as MS.?): wood boards, narrow inside bevel; original covering (now lost) of dark blue textile, probably with a single clasp and perhaps already with the four round bosses of domed brass which still survive on each cover; edges gilt, gauffered.

18th century?, Italian: replacement covering of shiny brown leather with strong grain, blind-tooled with triple lines and stamps, and central lozenge and floral centrepiece on each cover; spine blind-tooled with lines and a floral tool, re-laid over a modern reback of lighter leather (Bodleian, 1951); no clasps, but the bosses on each cover, integrated in the design, were perhaps carried over from the previous covering. 109–110 × 80 × c. 42–45 mm. (book closed).

History

Origin: 1477 ; Italian, Bergamo

Record Sources

Summary description abbreviated from the Summary Catalogue (1897). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1970). 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).

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 257
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 4: Books of Hours (typescript, 1957), p. 235

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05: Add extent, leaf dimensions and layout from Watson, Dated and Datable.