MS. Canon. Liturg. 237
Summary Catalogue no.: 19343
Contents
Physical Description
Binding
14th century ?, Italian (as MS.): a worked brass frame, fitting the shaped parchment leaves which were written to be read with the frame held upside down; with a movable metal loop to fit on a girdle. The covers, of limp red leather with parchment lining, are later replacements, added probably at different times: neither is original, since they hide but do not share severe wear to the textblock at both ends. Height from top of metal fitting (discounting the loop) c. 139 mm.; width of MS. 59–62 mm. (28 mm. at top); thickness at fore-edge c. 70–71 mm. Cf. MS. Canon. Liturg. 8 (also from Le Vergini).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The manuscript’s calendar (fol. 2v) includes ‘Consecratio ecclesie nostre ix l’’ in red at 20 June. An identical rubric occurs in another very similar girdle book at Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 10479, likely from the same community. Whilst formerly attributed to Verona by Leroquais, Les bréviaires, iii, 1934, 192–5, the Paris manuscript is now ascribed to the important Augustinian nunnery of Santa Maria delle Vergini, Venice, where the church was dedicated on 20 June 1327 (K. J. P. Lowe, Nuns’ Chronicles and Convent Culture in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italy, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 267–8). It seems likely that both these girdle-books were made and used there in the 14th century, probably quite soon after 1327. The former dating of the Paris manuscript still earlier, in the 13th century, derived from its inclusion of an Easter table which seems to start from 1284, though damaged.
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2020-08-20: Binding description added.