MS. Canon. Liturg. 151

Summary Catalogue no.: 19285

Portable Secular Psalter with Antiphons; Italy, Naples (?), 14th century, third quarter

Fols. i–ii are paper fly-leaves, blank apart from modern notes.

[item 1 occupies quire I]

1. (fols. 1r–6v)

Calendar, written in red and black, laid out one month per page, approximately half full, not graded, apart from a few feasts in red graded ‘duplex’. KL monograms, Nones, Ides and Kalends are not filled in. Includes several Franciscan feasts: Francis (4 October), Antony of Padua (13 June), translatio beati francisci (24 May), all in red, and Clare of Assisi (12 August) in black. Also includes Agrippinus of Naples (9 November) and Agnellus, patron of Naples (14 December). The calendar starts with a note on the number of months, weeks and days in a year; the months are headed by notes on the length of the solar and lunar month, and by verses on the ‘Egyptian’ days (a mixture of Hennig’s (1955) sets I and VI). The months are either preceded or followed by verses on the unlucky hours. Fols. 6br–6cv are blank.

[items 2–4 occupy quires II–XXXIV]

2. (fols. 7r–253v)

Psalms 1–150, in the biblical order, written as prose, without numbers, with rubrics ‘psalmus dauid’ or ‘psalmus’. Punctuated throughout, with punctus used to mark the ends of verses and occasionally metrum and minor pauses. Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8- verse units. Psalms are accompanied by antiphons, versicles, responses, invitatoria, the opening lines of chapters and hymns, etc., with rubrics referring to secular use. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’).

3. (fols. 253v–267v)

Weekly canticles with titles ‘psalmus dauid’ or ‘psalmus’:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21);
(3) Exultabit 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).

4. (fols. 267v–278v)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, many with titles ‘psalmus dauid’ or ‘psalmus’:

(1) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 267v);
(2) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 269r);
(3) Te deum laudamus (fol. 270r);
(4) Gloria in excelsis (fol. 271v);
(5) Nicene Creed (‘Credo in unum deum ...’) (fol. 272r);
(6) Apostles’ Creed (‘Credo in deum ...’) (fol. 273v)
(7) Magnificat (fol. 274r);
(8) Nunc dimittis (fol. 274v);
(9) Pater noster (fol. 275r);
(10) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ... ) (fol. 275r).

[item 5 occupies quire XXXV]

5. (fols. 279r–287v)

Litany, including George among the martyrs; Benedict, followed by Anthony, Dominic and Francis among the confessors; and Clare (last) among the virgins. Followed by psalm 69 (Deus in adiutorium ... , fol. 283v) with versicles and responses, and collects with rubrics ‘oratio’ (fol. 285r–287v):

(1) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere ...
(2) Exaudi quesumus domine supplicum preces ...
(3) Ineffabile nobis domine misericordiam tuam ...
(4) Deus qui culpa offenderis ...
(5) Omnipotens sempiterne deus miserere famulo tuo .p. et dirige me secundum tuam misericordiam ...
(6) Deus a quo sancta desideria recta ...
(7) Ure igne sancti spiritus renes nostros ...
(8) Fidelium deus omnium conditor et redemptor animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum ...
(9) Actiones nostras quesumus domine aspirando preueni ...
(10) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui uiuorum dominaris simul et mortuorum ...

Fol. 288r–v is ruled but otherwise blank; fols. 289–290 are paper fly-leaves, blank apart from modern notes.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: in iudicio neque pecatores (psalter, fol. 8r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; paper fly-leaves

Extent: 294 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 170 × 130 mm.

Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of decoration.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; i–ii + 1–6 + 6b + 6c + 7–290.

Collation

(fols. i–ii) fol. i is a paper fly-leaf conjoint with the upper pastedown; fol. ii is a fly-leaf | (fols. 1–6c) I (8) | (fols. 7–278) II–XXXIV (8) | (fols. 279–288) XXXV (10) | (fols. 289–290) fol. 289 is a paper fly-leaf; fol. 290 is a paper fly-leaf conjoint with the lower pastedown. Catchwords survive, sometimes cropped

Layout

Ruled in ink with single vertical bounding lines extending the full height of page, and the first of the horizontals extending the full width of the page; 15 lines per page; prickings occasionally survive (e.g. fols. 191–195); written below the top line; written space: c. 93 × 65 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hand, black ink; smaller script used for antiphons, responses, etc.

Decoration

Illuminated by an artist known as Maestro del Liber celestium revelationum, named after New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS. M. 498 (The Revelations of Saint Bridget of Sweden), whose work is found in manuscripts produced in Naples in the second half of the 14th century (Bollati, 2004).

10- to 13-line historiated initials on gold background (painted with floral and geometric designs on fol. 94r), and full borders, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage, gold discs, putti, grotesques and animals, at liturgical divisions. Medallions with coats of arms in several borders (see ‘Provenance’).

fol. 7r, Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)), King David, seated, with psaltery at his chest, worn around his neck; pointing up to half-figure of God, holding a scroll; two bearded prophets with scrolls sitting on the steps of his throne; landscape with a tree and river in the foreground.
fol. 45v, Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)), Psalmist, kneeling, pointing to his closed eyes, facing up towards God, in blue sky above, blessing.
fol. 70r, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)), Psalmist, kneeling in front of three kneeling female (?) figures, pointing up at God, in blue sky above, blessing.
fol. 94r, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)), The Fool (?), with shaved head, dressed in a tunic with a ragged hem, holding a snake, walking amidst rocky landscape.
fol. 118r, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)), Psalmist praying in waters next to a half-submerged building (?), looking up at God, in clouds, blessing.
fol. 146v, Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)), Psalmist, kneeling amidst rocky landscape, playing vielle, looking up at God in clouds, blessing; a group of small nude hairless figures (souls (?)), with outstretched arms kneeling in front of the psalmist.
fol. 173r, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)), Tonsured clerics, including a boy, singing from a music book open on a draped lectern; the face of God above, in rays of light.
fol. 200r, Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)), A group of kneeling white-, brown-, or blue-clad clerics and laymen, looking up at the Virgin enthroned with Christ.
fol. 279r, Litany (initial K(yrie)), Bishop and a group of mourners with hoods over their heads (defaced), kneeling before an altar; a placard (?) on a pole in the background; God above, blessing; winged lion of St Mark (?) in the border.

Borders: see above.

2-line gold (flaking) initials, decorated with penwork, and borders (blue penwork with yellow wash) at the beginnings of psalms, canticles and prayers. Space left for an initial (fol. 106r).

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

Spaces left for KL monograms in the calendar.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

18th century, Italian: pasteboards; brown leather, plain except for two vertical blind lines near the spine on each cover; marbled paste-downs, with a pattern of light blue and white blobs; flyleaves watermarked with a crowned fleur-de-lis over letters ‘F F’; red speckled edges; loose bookmark of green silk; spine lost. Rebacked in similar leather, late 19th or 20th century, for Bodleian. 177–178 × 129–130 × c. 66 mm. (book closed).

History

Origin: 14th century, third quarter ; Italian, Naples (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made in or near Naples: evidence of the calendar and decoration. Shield of arms occurring six times in illuminated borders: vair argent and azure on a chief or three torteaux (or scallop shells (?)) gules (fols. 7r (erased), 45v, 118r, 146v, 173r (erased) and 200r). Prayer ‘Omnipotens sempiterne deus miserere famulo tuo .p... .’ (possibly altered from ‘f’) (fol. 286r).

Matteo Luigi Canonici of Venice (1727–c. 1806), but not from the libraries of Soranzo or Trevisan (Mitchell, 1969).

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti. Earlier shelfmark: ‘Miscell. Liturg. 151’ (fol. 1r).

Record Sources

Adapted (July 2024) from:

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 475–9.

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) [binding]

Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 348

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (10 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Printed descriptions:

Summary catalogue, vol. 4, no. 19285.

Frere, no. 158.

Latin liturgical manuscripts (1952), no. 49.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 116

van Dijk, S. J. P., Sources of the modern Roman liturgy: the ordinals by Haymo of Faversham and related documents (1243–1307), 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963), vol. 1, p. 224; vol. 2, p. 364.

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 2, no. 169, pl. XVI.

Dennys, R., The heraldic imagination (London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1975), p. 110.

de Floriani, A., ‘Un’aggiunta al “Maestro del Liber Celestium revelationum”’, Studi di Storia dell’Arte 3 (1992), pp. 219–35, at pp. 219, 221, 222 n. 3, 223 n. 10.

Aili, H. and Svanberg, J., Imagines sanctae Brigittae, 2 vols. (Stockholm: Royal Academy of Letters, 2003), vol. 1, pp. 50–1, 81–2; vol. 2, pp. 59–63.

Bollati (2004), p. 590.

Bräm, A., ‘Neapolitanische Trecento-Psalterien’ in Büttner (2004), pp. 193–209, at pp. 208–9.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-07: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.

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