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

MS. Canon. Liturg. 354

Summary Catalogue no.: 19440

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Missal (primitive, noted, monastic)

The volume, although uniform in script and decoration, is comprised of several sections. There are many later additions (on originally blank space unless otherwise noted). For a more detailed inventory of the contents see Flotzinger.

1. (fols. 1r-56v, quires 1–7)

Gradual and sequentiary

(fols. 1r-46v)

Gradual

(fols. 1r-44r)

Combined temporale and sanctorale, mass of the dedication before the Sunday masses after Pentecost.

(fols. 44r-v)

Mass for the dead

(fols. 44v-46v)

Alleluia series (common of the saints, Mary, Mary Magdalen, Martin, Paul, John the Baptist); itemized by Flotzinger, p. 11. Rest of fol. 46v blank.

(fols. 47r-56v)

Proser / sequentiary without music

Inventory (by Calvin Bower) at CANTUS

2. (fols. 57–64, quire 8)

Calendar with additions, and part of the ordinary of the mass

(fols. 57r-62v)

Calendar, entirely erased and rewritten (except for the month of January) with masses and proses (late fourteenth / early fifteenth century?): itemized in Flotzinger, pp. 12–13.

(fol. 63r)

Additions (14th century) with neums: Alleluia 'Letamini'; Office of St Oswald

(fols. 63v-64r)

Prefaces without music and Vere dignum

(fol. 64v)

Additions (late fourteenth / early fifteenth century?): Rupert, Cholomanus, Margaret, sequence 'Conceptio Marie' (Flotzinger, p. 13)

3. (fols. 65–7, quire 9)

Additions

(fol. 65r)

Mass for the Conception of the Virgin, not neumed; 13th century

(fol. 65v)

Mass for St Elizabeth, partly neumed, 13th century

(fol. 66r)

De sancta Chunigund, 13th century, and sequence 'Mittit ad virginem', late 14th/early 15th century.

(fol. 66v)

Benedictio vini, late 14th/early 15th century

(fol. 67r)

Full-page miniature of the Crucifixion, 13th century, first half

(fol. 67v)

Suscipe clementissime pater, 13th century (below top line)

4. (fols. 68–140, quires 10–17, quire 10 numbered 1)

Canon of the Mass, Sacramentary, and additions

(fols. 68r-69v)

Te igitur

(fol. 69v)

De sancta affra, addition, late 14th/early 15th century

(fols. 70r-125r)

Sacramentary

Combined temporale and sanctorale, common of the saints (fol. 111) and votive masses (fol. 113v)

(fol. 125r)

Collect for St Nicholas, added 13th century

(fol. 125v)

Additions, late 14th/early 15th century: St Katherine, St Barbara (Flotzinger p. 14).

(fol. 125r)

'Officium de viginti iiijor senioribus', added 14th century, presumably after erasing an earlier text

(fol. 125r-129r)

Main scribe: creed followed by sequences (Flotzinger p. 14), followed by a 14th-century addition.

(fols. 129v-140/130r)

Early addition: order of the blessing of salt and holy water

(fol. 140/130v)

Additions, late 13th/14th century: 'Deus qui es', 'Conscientias nostras'.

Throughout the sacramentary many marginal additions.

5. (fols. 141r-287v, quires 18–36, numbered i-xviii, the last not numbered)

Mass lectionary, with an accurate punctuation and musical clues and phrases, divided into temporale (fol. 141 = 131), sanctorale (fol. 249 = 240), common (fol. 267v = 255v) including votive and other masses (fol. 280 = 271).

Fols. 281–287 are a fourteenth-century replacement, with an an Office of St. Dorothea at fol. 286, ending imperfectly.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: i + 277 + i; leaves missing at the end.
Dimensions (leaf): 290 × 195 mm.
Foliation: Late-medieval foliation in roman numerals, which forms the basis of the modern pencil foliation: 1–129, '130–140' (one leaf), 141–201, (202 is lost), 203, 204[a], 204[b], 205, 206a, 206b, 207–232, '233–234' (one leaf; 234 is lost), 235–288. Traces of separate foliations elsewhere in the volume. The skip of foliation from 129 to 140 is probably an error rather than indicating missing leaves.

Collation

1(8)-7(8) (fols. 1–56) | 8(8), 9(4–1?, 4 canc. after fol. 67) (fols. 57–67) | 10(8)-16(8) (fols. 68–123), 17(8–1, 8 canc. after fol. 140/130) (fols. 124–140/130) | 18(8)-24(8) (fols. 141–196), 25(8–1, 6 lost, the former fol. 202, after fol. 201 with loss of text) (fols. 197–204[a]), 26(8–2?, 5 and 6 lost after fol. 206b? with loss of text) (fols. 204[b]-208 including 206a, 206b), 27(8)-29(8) (fols. 209–232), 30(8–1, 2 lost, the former fol. 234, after fol. '233/4', with loss of text) (fols. 233/4–240), 31(8)-35(8) (fols. 241–280) | 36(8–1: 8 lost with loss of text) (fols. 281–7). Quires numbered on the bottom of the final verso, many numbers cropped away.

Layout

Ruled in 'crayon'. Written above top line. Pricked in the outer margins only.

Gradual: 27 lines, written space 200 × 110 mm.

Sacramentary and lectionary: 28 lines, written space 198 × 110 mm.

Hand(s)

One main hand, protogothic.

Additions by several hands (see Flotzinger) in textualis and cursive.

Musical Notation:

Adiastematic non-rhythmical notation of S. Germany

Decoration

Fine initials.

Fine miniature (defaced) painted or repainted on fol. 67, 13th century, first half. (Pächt and Alexander i. 102, pl. VIII)

Initials in gold and red outlines on a blue and pale green ground. In the sacramentary the first line of the text in capitals alternately black and red.

Binding

A standard Canonici style of blind-tooled diced brown leather over pasteboards; 18th century, Italian.

History

Origin: 12th century, second half, or 13th century, early, with additions, 13th-15th centuries ; Austria

Provenance and Acquisition

Flotzinger established that the manuscript was written for the Benedictine abbey of St Paul in Lavanttal. At fol. 67v the wording is 'pro cuncta congregatione sancti Pauli ac familia eius', and at fol. 123v is an added (14th century?) prayer on for 'famuli tui Engelberti fundatoris huius ecclesie'; St Paul was founded by Engelbert I von Spanheim. Although both passages are additions, the general prayer on fol. 124v also refers to 'omni congregatione et familia sancti Pauli', and the feasts of St Paul are emphasized throughout. The monastic provenance is established by fols. 115v-116r with masses 'pro abbate et congregationem' and 'missa monachorum'.

Assessments of the manuscript's date have varied from c. 1160 (Flotzinger) to the first half of the 13th century (Haidinger). St Gothard in the lectionary (fol. 254r) establishes a date after 1131 (Watson), but the absence of St Thomas of Canterbury from the original sacramentary (his feast is added, late 14th century, fol. 71v) is not significant for dating as his feast was not immediately observed in Austria (Haidinger, 45).

The manuscript's origin is also disputed. As Flotzinger and Haidinger discuss, comparisons have been drawn with manuscripts associated with Salzburg and with the Benedictine abbey of Kremsmünster; our manuscript has particularly close affiliations with Stuttgart, LB, Cod. bibl. fol. 20, written at Kremsmünster c. 1136 but in use at St Paul's soon after (Haidinger, 31–4).

Presumably remained at St Paul's, where the later-medieval additions were made.

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805: uncertain when acquired, not from Trevisan / Soranzo.

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Record Sources

Description adapted by Matthew Holford (Dec. 2020) from S. J. P. Van Dijk, Handlist of the Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford Vol. 1: Mass Books, with additional codicological description and with reference to published literature as cited.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (11 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Online resources:

    Printed descriptions:

    Alois Haidinger, 'Beobachtungen zum Festkalender des Stiftes Kremsmünster', Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige 109 (1998) 27–67 (esp 44–5)
    Rudolf Flotzinger, Choralhandschriften Österreichischer Provenienz in Der Bodleian Library, Oxford, Sitzungsberichte / Österreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse; Bd. 580 (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1991), 9–30
    Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 435–1600 in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 278 (as 1131 × 1173, but see above)
    Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, I (1966), no. 102

Last Substantive Revision

2020-12-04: Description finalized for Polonsky German digitization project.