MS. Canon. Liturg. 297
Summary Catalogue no.: 19395
Noted breviary; Germany (Münsterschwarzach), 1154 × 1173
Contents
Four lines
Four lines
Six lines
Addition on originally blank space, 15th century, Italian (?) hand
Addition on originally blank space, 15th century, different Italian hand
With additions for the sanctorale. Printed (without the liturgical additions) by P. Berger, 'Zum Kalendarium eines Schwarzacher Breviers von 1154', Würzburger Diözesangeschichtsblätter 25 (1963), 113–124.
Addition, 13th century.
Added drawing, see Decoration.
Contemporary addition on originally blank folio: Pro fratribus in via dirigentibus … pro redeuntibus … pro servitoribus dum exeunt … dum intrant
Slightly later addition on originally blank folio: 'Iam missue ab arce ueniebat'
St Nicholas (6 December) to St Damasas
Fol. 281v part blank at the end of the common of a martyr, with later additions.
Originally blank; added, 13th century (same hand as fols. 9v-10r?) office In divisione apostolorum, and (15th century, Italian hand) macaronic Latin-Italian hymn, beginning 'Ave virgo madre gloriosa | De dio padre uoy siti la sua sposa
With another set of lessons and responsories for the same office at fol 322r and a third series of lessons at fol. 323v.
Two 15th-century additions, 'Inseparabilis fides passioque germana laudabiles', and 'Infer ventus olay' on fol. 327vb.
The early foliation indicates that two leaves are missing after fol. 327.
Perhaps originally from a different manuscript, but in its current position by the 14th or 15th century as indicated by the foliation.
Only a few and short rubrics.
Physical Description
Layout
1 col., 34 lines; written space 178 × 114 mm.
Fine adiastematic, non-rhythmical notation of German neums, tending towards point neums.
Decoration
Good initials (fols. 11r, 110v, 139v, 142v, etc.)
Full-page Byzantinizing drawing added, 13th century, first half, fol. 10v: identified by van Dijk as Gregory the Great
Binding
17th century or 18th century, Italian: thick wood boards, no bevel, square-cut with large squares and a strap-groove at centre edge of front board; inside boards are bare wood; light brown leather covering the strap-groove and not allowing for any clasp(s), blind-tooled with double lines and one bee(?)-tool to form a simple panel with crossing diagonals, and with a thin wavy roll near edges; spine lost; edges plain. Same style (archaizing?) as at MSS. Canon. Liturg. 324 and 340. Rebacked in similar leather, late 19th century, Bodleian. 224–225 × 155 × c. 98–104 mm. (book closed).
Traces of lost medieval binding, origin unclear: a former front paste-down at fol. 1 (and flyleaves at fols. 2 and ?353), with traces of pink tawed leather (perhaps from a chemise) and of two fore-edge clasps.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Easter table for 1154–1186; presumably written before 1173 as Thomas of Canterbury is a later addition in the calendar.
The manuscript is usually regarded as written at or for the Benedictine abbey of St Felicitas in Münsterschwarzach, Schwarzach-am-Main. Felicitas and her sons are emphasized in the calendar (10 July), in the litany, fol. 319r, and there are two hymns to Felicitas in the hymnal (fol. 327r). There are numerous entries in the calendar pointing to the diocese of Würzburg, such as the feasts of Burchard on 2 Feb. and 14 Oct. and of Kilian on 8 July: all are marked 'in Wirziburg'.
By the 15th century, and probably earlier, the manuscript was in Italy. Flotzinger suggested that soon after its production the manuscript was in use at the Benedictine abbey of St Gall, Moggio Udinense. His evidence for this was the obit in the calendar (15 Aug.) of 'Albertus presbyter et monachus sancti Galli' and the very early addition of Hermagoras and Fortunatus of Aquileia (12 July) in the calendar. Flotzinger also raised the possibility that the manuscript was written at Münsterschwarzach for Moggio: this was based on the version of 'Aeterne rerum conditor' on fol. 302r incorporating St Gall (although this is also found in a breviary probably from Würzburg, see Cantus 008254a-g).
This is the manuscript whose calendar was printed by Federigo Altan (Althanus), De Calendariis in genere, et speciatim de calendario ecclesiastico ... (Venice, 1753), 129–152 as 'Calendarium Mosacense I' (see also 90–1); apparently the manuscript was then still in the possession of the abbey.
Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805: uncertain when acquired, not from Trevisan / Soranzo.
Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2021-03-02: Added reference to Federigo Altan