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

MS. Canon. Liturg. 219

Summary Catalogue no.: 19331

Contents

Book of Hours, Use of Rome
(fol. 1)
Calendar
(fol. 13)
Office of the Virgin
Rubric: Offitium beate Marie Virginis secundum consuetudinem Curie Romane
(fol. 101)
Penitential Psalms
(fol. 131)
Office of the Dead
Rubric: Offitium in agenda Mortuorum
(fol. 191)
Office of the Cross
Rubric: Offitium sanctissime Crucis
(fol. 197v)
Litany of the Virgin
(fol. 202)
Additional prayers

In Latin and Italian

With Italian headings

Language(s): Latin and Italian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
1 + 218 + 1 fol.
Dimensions (leaf): 69 × 52 mm.
Dimensions (written): 35 × 27 mm.
Dimensions (binding): 77 × 55 × c. 45–47 mm.
(book closed)

Layout

12 lines

Hand(s)

In the additional prayer to St Christopher (fol. 207): parcha mihi famulo (a) the capital being by another hand (see fol. 203)

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander ii. 909

Illuminated capitals and borders at the beginning of each part

Good borders

Good historiated initials

On the title-page, fol. 13, is a coat of arms: party per pale gules and sable six leopards faces, three and three in pale, counterchanged (Cavazza of Vicenza?)

Binding

15th century, end, Italian (as MS.): wood boards with slight inside bevel; dark brown hard polished leather, cuir ciselé, incised with a full-standing ‘plague saint’ within a leafy border on each cover, all in relief on a stippled background – (front) St Sebastian, pierced with arrows, and (back) St Roch, holding a staff and displaying the sore on his thigh to a smaller figure; spine with similar leafy decoration; traces of a lost central clasp, once with small squarish fittings and a broad strap; gilt edges, not gauffered; endbands oversewn diagonally in red and green thread. Paste-downs (not flyleaves) of red ‘Dutch gilt paper’ embossed with hunting scenes, added in Italy, late 17th or 18th century (cf. MS. Canon. Liturg. 136). A miniature book

Perhaps partly intended as an amulet against the plague and other perils. It ends with prayers for protection against both plague and shipwreck, also invoking St Christopher for a male owner

History

Origin: 15th century, end ; Italy, North-east

Provenance and Acquisition

'St Bartolomeus eps.' , red, 24 August in the Calendar indicates Bergamo

Record Sources

Description adapted (August 2025) by Stewart J. Brookes from the Summary Catalogue (1897). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1970). Extent, leaf dimensions, layout and additional desciption of the contents from van Dijk (1957)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI, 3 vols., Florence 1960, II no. 1474E (under Venice).
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 4: Books of Hours (typescript, 1957), p. 236

Last Substantive Revision

2025-08-08: Description revised to incorporate all the information in the Summary Catalogue (1897)