MS. Canon. Liturg. 158

Summary Catalogue no.: 19289

Portable Secular Psalter with Antiphons; Italy, North-East, 15th century, third quarter

Fols. i–iii are paper fly-leaves, blank apart from modern and early modern notes (see ‘Provenance’).

[items 1–4 occupy quires I–XVI]

1. (fols. 1r–141v)

Psalms 1–150, in the biblical order, written as prose, without numbers, with rubrics ‘psalmus dauid’ or ‘psalmus’. Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. Punctuated throughout, with punctus used to mark metrum, and occasionally minor pauses and the ends of verses. Psalms are accompanied by antiphons, versicles, responses, invitatoria, opening words of chapters and hymns, etc., with rubrics referring to secular use. Full or nearly full texts of hymns appear as follows:

– Nocte surgentes uigilemus (Chevalier, no. 12035) (fol. 1 r) preceding psalm 1;
– Ecce iam noctis tenuatur umbra (Chevalier, no. 5129) (fol. 17r) after psalm 20;
– Lvcis creator optime (Chevalier, no. 17328) (fol. 110r) after psalm 113;
– Iam lucis orto sydere (Chevalier, no. 9272) (fol. 111v) after psalm 116;
– Nunc sancte nobis spiritus (Chevalier, no. 12586) (fol. 115r) after psalm 118: 25;
– Rector potens (Chevalier, no. 17061) (fol. 117v) after psalm 118: 73;
– Rerum tenax uigor (Chevalier, no. 17328) (fol. 120r) after psalm 118: 121;
– O lux beata trinitas (Chevalier, no. 13150) (fol. 140r) after psalm 147.

There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’).

2. (fols. 141v–149v)

Weekly canticles, with titles:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12) (‘canticum’);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21) (‘psalmus dauit’);
(3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11) (‘psalmus dauid’);
(4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20) (‘psalmus’);
(5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3) (‘Canticum psalmorum’);
(6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (‘psalmus dauid’).

3. (fols. 149v–155v)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, with titles:

(1) Benedicite omnia opera (‘psalmus dauit’) (fol. 149v);
(2) Benedictus dominus deus (‘psalmus’) (fol. 150v);
(3) Magnificat (‘psalmus dauid’) (fol. 151r);
(4) Nunc dimittis (‘psalmus’) (fol. 151v);
(5) Te deum laudamus (‘ymnum’) (fol. 151v);
(6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ... ) (‘psalmus’) (fol. 152v);
(7) Pater noster (‘oratio dominica’) (fol. 154v);
(8) Apostles’ Creed (Credo in deum ... ) (fol. 155r) with the names of apostles inserted between lines, with a rubric ‘Articuli fidei sunt duodecim’.

4. (fols. 155v–159v)

Litany, including Vitalis (of Ravenna (?)) and Apollinaris (of Ravenna (?)) among the martyrs; Leonard (of Brescia (?)), Dominic and Francis among the confessors; Antonia (of Aquila, or of Brescia (?)) and Anthia among the virgins. Followed by collects with rubrics ‘oratio’ (fol. 159r–v):

(1) Clamantes ad te deus dignanter exaudi ...
(2) Liberator animarum mundi redemptor ...
(3) Suscipere digneris domine deus hos psalmos ...

The last two prayers use feminine grammatical forms, e.g. ‘supplico ego misera’, ‘famula tua’ (fol. 159r), ‘indigna famula tua’ (fol. 159v). Fol. 160 is ruled but blank, apart from modern notes; fols. 161–163 are paper fly-leaves, blank apart from modern notes.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: super syon montem (psalter, fol. 2r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; paper fly-leaves

Extent: 166 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 153 × 110 mm.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; i–iii + 1–163.

Collation

(fols. i–iii) paper fly-leaves; fols. i–ii are a bifolium | (fols. 1–160) I–XVI (10) | (fols. 161–163) paper fly-leaves; fols. 162–163 are a bifolium. Catchwords, some partly cropped off, and leaf signatures often survive

Layout

Ruled in pale ink with single vertical bounding lines extending the full height of page; 21 lines per page; written below the top line; written space: c. 90 × 62 mm.

Hand(s)

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

Decoration

fol. 1r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) 9-line initial, decorated with foliage, on gold background, infilled with half-figure of King David playing psaltery.

(full border) Rectangular border, outlined in gold, decorated with filigree scrolls, flowers, foliage and gold discs; medallion with a dove in rays of light in the right margin. In the lower margin two winged putti support a laurel wreath with an overpainted coat of arms.

One 9-line (psalm 109, fol. 107r) and six 8-line initials, decorated with foliage, on gold background, with sprays of filigree scrolls, foliage, flowers and gold discs extending into margins, at liturgical divisions at psalms 26 (fol. 21v), 38 (fol. 34v), 52 (fol. 47r), 68 (fol. 60r), 80 (fol. 76r) and 97 (fol. 91r).

Borders: see above.

2-line alternating red and blue initials, decorated with contrasting purple or red penwork, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, prayers, litany and hymns.

1-line alternating plain red and blue initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

rubrics in red ink

Guide-letters are often visible.

Binding

18th century, middle (by 1751), Italian: pasteboards; polished, hard, near-black leather, heavily grained (like shagreen?), plain except for blind triple lines around edges of covers; two fine fore-edge clasps, comprising straps of the same leather with scallop-shaped tips and loops of dark metal which fit onto pins at edges of lower cover; paste-downs of marbled paper; flyleaves of thick white laid paper, with an ex dono inscription dated 1762 (fol. iiir) and the date ‘1751’ at end (fol. 161v, cf. 160v). 160–161 × 116–117 × c. 35–36 mm. (book closed). Identical clasps are at MS. Canon. Liturg. 291, but with different binding style.

History

Origin: 15th century, third quarter ; Italian, North-east

Provenance and Acquisition

Made in the north-east of Italy, perhaps in Ravenna or Brescia: evidence of the litany. Written for a woman: feminine grammatical forms in prayers on fol. 159r–v. Shield of arms, painted over, on fol. 1r.

‘Ex dono f: [or J?] M: A: D: Danielis Adelardi anno 1764’, fol. iii recto, possibly by Canonici.

‘1751’ written in ink on fols. 160v and 161v.

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 shelfmarks: ‘73’ (fol. i recto); ‘E codd. Bodl. Miscell. Liturg. 158.’ (fol. iii verso).

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 545–8. 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.

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 349

Bibliography

Select bibliography to 2006:

Frere, no. 163.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 118

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 2, no. 870, pl. LXXVII.

Baroffio, G., ‘Liturgia e musica nella tradizione demenicana’ in C. Parmeggiani, Canto e colore: i corali di San Domenico di Perugia nella Biblioteca comunale Augusta, XIII–XIV sec., 11 marzo–17 aprile 2006, Perugia, Sala Lippi, Unicredit banca, Corso Vannucci, 39 [exhibition catalogue] (Perugia: Volumnia, 2006), pp. 33–68, at p. 62.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-08: Convert full description from Solopova catalogue.

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