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

MS. Canon. Liturg. 168

Summary Catalogue no.: 19298

Contents

Breviary (Benedictine)
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

Decoration

Fine historiated borders.

Fine initials. By Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni di Miniato (del Fora). (Pächt and Alexander ii. 306, pl. XXVIII)

Binding

16th century?, Italian: wood boards, inside bevel; light brown leather, blind-tooled with sextuple lines alternating with rows of one repeated stamp; spine with same blind tools and (later?) gilt title ‘BREVIARIVM’; remains of two strap-and-pin fastenings with darker leather straps, once running from front fore-edge to pins towards centre back, one strap still present in 1897 (since lost) and one pin with small square base still surviving; edges gilt, gauffered. 170–172 × 111–112 × c. 80–85 mm. (book closed). The manuscript had been written by a nun, with professional illuminators.

History

Origin: 1476 ; Italian, Florence

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).

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 261
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 272

Last Substantive Revision

2020-07-24: Binding description added.