MS. Canon. Liturg. 324
Summary Catalogue no.: 19413
Contents
Language(s): Latin
The major feast days (marked by decorated initials) are: Christmas Eve (fol. 1r, 1v), Christmas (fols. 3v, 4r), Epiphany (fols. 7v, 8r), Holy Saturday (fol. 88r), Easter (fol. 88v), Ascension (fol. 99r), Pentecost (fol. 103r), Trinity (fol. 109v, 110r), 1st Sunday after Trinity (fol. 110v), 25th Sunday (fol. 130r), and 1st Sunday of Advent (fol. 130v).
The Passion narratives with superscript letters in red: t = Christ, c = Narrator, a = the Jews (cf. Karl Young, ‘Observations on the origin of the mediæval Passion-play’, PMLA, 25.2 (1910), 309–54 at 316): Matthew (fols. 61v–66v), Mark (fols. 70r–74v), Luke (fols. 75r–79v), and John (fols. 81v–85r).
Saints’ feast days (whose readings are indicated by cues only) include Walpurga (relics at Eichstätt) (fol. 139r), Gangulf (relics at Bamberg and Eichstätt) (fol. 142r), Maximinus, of Trier (fol. 142r), Ulric, of Augsburg (fol. 147r), Kylian, of Würzburg, and Hermachorus of Aquileia (fol. 147v), Afra, of Augsburg (fol. 148v), Verena, of Zurzach (fol. 152r), Magnus, ‘apostle of the Allgäu’ (Bavaria) (fol. 152v), Aurelius (relics at Hirsau) (fol. 154r), Emmeram, of Regensburg, Wenceslas, of Bohemia (fol. 154v), Gereon, of Cologne, and Gallus, of St Gall (fol. 155v), Wolfgang, bishop of Regensburg (fol. 156v), Pirminus, of Alsace and Lake Konstanz, and Othmar, of St Gall (fol. 157v).
14th century
Short later additions by many different hands, including prayers to:
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in very faint plummet and written with 23 lines per page; 155–65 × 100–15 mm.
The supplementary readings on fol. 192r–v with 24 lines
The Exultet (fols. 193v–194r) with 12 and 18 lines of text and music
Decoration
Large pen-drawn foliate initials in brown and purple inks at major textual divisions, typically about 5 lines high, except the Gospel reading for Christmas Eve, 13 lines high (fol. 1r); occasionally in the form of, or including, a dragon (fols. 4r, 7v, 8r, 109v, 110r, 130v); two with a yellowish wash background (fol. 130r–v). Pächt & Alexander (Pächt and Alexander i. no. 63) describe the initials as ‘partly unfinished’, presumably because the purple ink is very pale and has the appearance of preparatory drawing.
2-, 3-, or 4-line initials in plain red for ordinary lections.
One marginal drawing of a bearded head (of Christ?) (fol. 95v).
Binding
17th century or 18th century, Italian: sewn on three wide slit straps, laced horizontally into thick wood boards, no bevel, square-cut with broad squares and a strap-groove at centre edge of front board beneath the leather; inside boards are bare wood; light brown leather over the groove, not allowing for clasp(s), blind-tooled with double lines and one bee(?)-tool to form a simple panel with crossing diagonals; spine lost; edges plain, top edge speckled with dark spots, perhaps deliberate. Same (archaizing?) style as at MSS. Canon. Liturg. 297 and 340. Rebacked in matching leather, 20th century, Bodleian. 233–235 × 163–164 × c. 73–77 mm. (book closed).
Traces of the lost original binding, before 1255, German: fols. iii and 195 (with date 1255) were the old parchment paste-downs(?), with traces of leather turn-ins and a central clasp.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The Sanctorale is very similar to that in MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 43, which shows strong monastic influence, and the inclusion of St Aurelius suggests a connection with the Hirsau congregation.
Benedictine abbey of St Gall, Moggio Udinese: Inscribed in 1255, below a two-line erasure, ‘Anno d(omi)ni mºcc lv. xvi kal(endas) Ap(ri)l(is). concessi s(un)t hic lib(ri). A mosacenen(se) c(on)uentu d(omi)no Walram(o) et d(omi)no Ottaviano .iiii. scilicet epistolar(ium) et eu(a)ng(e)lia(rium). in i uolum(ine) missale ⟨et⟩ duo matutinal⟨ia⟩’ (fol. 195r). Identified by Rudolf Flotzinger, Choralhandschriften österreichischer Provenienz in der Bodleian Library, Oxford (Vienna, 1991), 48–48.
In Italy by the 14th century, when marginalia (fols. 49r and 66r) and the Exultet (fols. 193v–194r) were added.
Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727–1806), Jesuit and bibliophile of Venice; from whom his mansucripts passed to his brother, Giuseppe (d. 1807), and on the latter’s death to Giovanni Perisinotti, from whom over 2,000 were bought by the Bodleian Library in 1817.
Former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘Miscell. Liturg. 334.’ (!) (inner face of front board), ‘E codd. Bodl. Miscell Liturgy CCCXXIV’ (fol. iii verso).
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2021-04-21: Andrew Dunning Updated description by Peter Kidd.