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

MS. Canon. Liturg. 378

Summary Catalogue no.: 19461

Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Carthusian Use; Italy, Milan (?), late 14th or early 15th century, before 1405 (?)

Contents

Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Carthusian Use,

[item 1 occupies quire I]

1. (fols. 1r–6v)

Carthusian calendar for the use of Garegnano Charterhouse, Milan, virtually identical with the calendar of another 15th-century psalter from the same house, MS. Canon. Liturg. 271. The calendar is laid out one month per page, written in red and black, approximately one-third full, graded to 12 lessons and ‘solemne’. The feast of relics is on 8 November and ‘dedicatio ecclesie nostre’ on 22 April, both in red. The feasts of Hugh of Lincoln (17 November) and Ambrose, bishop of Milan (addition (?), ‘Ordinatio beati ambrosii episcopi’, 7 December) are in red, graded ‘solemne’; the feast of Benedict (21 March) is in black, graded ‘solemne’. Also includes the feasts of Thomas Aquinas (addition (?), 7 March), Christina (24 July), Anne (addition (?), 26 July), Hugh, bishop of Grenoble (1 April), Dominic (5 August), Bernard of Clairvaux (20 August), Francis (4 October) and Thomas Becket (29 December). An erasure at 18 November is an incorrectly entered feast of Hugh of Lincoln. Includes trentals in the original hand: ‘Tricenarium cardinalis’ (18 January), ‘Tricenarium regine iohane’ (2 March); ‘Tricenarium episcopi mauri’ (26 April); ‘Tricenarium domini fundatoris’ (3 September, crossed through). The months are headed by notes on the length of the solar and lunar month, e.g. ‘Ianuarius habet dies xxxi luna xxx’, and on the length of the day and night, e.g. ‘dies habet horas viii nox habet horas xvi’. Fol. i is a paper fly-leaf, blank apart from modern notes.

[items 2–5 occupy quires II–XXV]

2. (fols. 7r–166r)

Psalms 1–150, laid out as prose, with titles ‘psalmus’ or ‘psalmus dauid’ and numbers in Arabic numerals added in a post-medieval hand. Punctuated throughout with punctus elevatus used to mark metrum and minor pauses, and punctus used to mark the ends of verses. The psalms are in the biblical order, accompanied by antiphons and cues for canticles with rubrics and music (square notation on staves of four black lines). The rubrics refer to monastic use. There are textual divisions at psalms 20, 26, 32, 38, 45, 52, 59, 68, 73, 79, 85, 97, 101, 105 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). Psalm 109 starts on the first page of a new quire, following a blank fol. 128. Subdivisions within psalms are marked with 2-line initials and rubrics ‘diuisio’ or ‘psalmus dauid’ at 9: 20 (fol. 12v), 17: 26 (fol. 19v), 36: 27 (fol. 41v), 67: 20 (fol. 73r), 68: 17 (fol. 75v), 77: 36 (fol. 88r), 88: 20 (fol. 100v), 103: 25 (fol. 116v), 104: 23 (fol. 118r), 105: 32 (fol. 121v), 106: 25 (fol. 123v), 138: 11 (‘Et dixi ... ) (fol. 155r), 143: 9 (fol. 160r), 144: 10 (fol. 161v). Antiphons sometimes follow the first part of the psalms. Psalm 118 is subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. Psalms, canticles and other texts contain many corrections in the original or contemporary hands. Versicles are added in the margins of some leaves in a post-medieval hand (e.g. fols. 96r, 97r, 106v, 111r, 119r). Fol. 83 is torn and repaired with a strip of parchment and a piece of a 15th-century Latin liturgical manuscript.

3. (fol. 166r–175r)

Weekly canticles, with titles:

  • (1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12) (‘Feria ij canticum ysaye prophete’);
  • (2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21) (‘Feria iij canticum ezechielis regis iuda’);
  • (3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11) (‘Feria iiij canticum anne prophete’);
  • (4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20) (‘Feria v canticum marie prophete’);
  • (5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3) (‘Feria vj canticum abachuch prophete’);
  • (6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (‘Sabbato canticum moysi’) with rubric ‘diuisio’ before verse 22, ‘Ignis succensus ...’.

4. (fols. 175r–181r)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, with titles:

  • (1) Benedicite omnia opera (‘Hymnum trium puerorum’) (fol. 175r);
  • (2) Benedictus dominus deus (‘Canticum zacharie prophete’) (fol. 176r);
  • (3) Magnificat (‘Canticum beate marie’) (fol. 176v);
  • (4) Nunc dimittis (‘Canticum iusti symeonis’) (fol. 177r);
  • (5) Pater noster (‘Oratio dominicalis’) (fol. 177v);
  • (6) Apostles’ Creed (Credo in deum ... ) (‘Symbolum apostolorum’) (fol. 177v);
  • (7) Te deum laudamus (‘Canticum sancti ambrosij et augustini’) (fol. 178r);
  • (8) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ... ) (‘Fides catholica’) (fol. 179r).

5. (fols. 181r–192v)

Canticles for the year, some with rubrics:

  • (1) Ecce dominus deus in fortitudine ueniet et brachium eius dominabitur (Isaiah 40: 10–17) (‘In aduentu domini canticum’);
  • (2) Cantate domino canticum nouum laus eius ab extremis terre (Isaiah 42: 10–16) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (3) Hec dicit dominus redemptor israel sanctus eius ...(Isaiah 49: 7–13) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (4) Populus qui ambulabat in tenebris uidit lucem magnam ... (Isaiah 9: 2–7) (‘In natiuitate domini canticum’);
  • (5) Letare yerusalem et diem festum agite ... (Isaiah 66: 10–16, non-Vulgate text) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (6) Urbs fortitudinis nostre syon saluator ponetur in ea ... (Isaiah 26: 1–12) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (7) Deducant oculi mei lacrimam per diem et noctem ... (Jeremiah 14: 17–21) (‘In quadragesima canticum’);
  • (8) Recordare domine quid acciderit nobis intuere et respice obprobrium nostrum ...(Lamentations 5: 1–21) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (9) Tollam quippe uos de gentibus et congregabo uos de uniuersis terris ...(Ezekiel 36: 24–28) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (10) Quis est iste qui uenit de edom tinctis uestibus de bosra .. (Isaiah 63: 1–5) (‘In resurrectione domini canticum’);.
  • (11) Uenite et reuertamur ad dominum quia ipse cepit et sanabit nos ... (Hosea 6: 1–6) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (12) Expecta me dicit dominus in die resurrectionis mee in futurum ... (Zephaniah 3: 8–13) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (13) Domine miserere nostri te enim expectauimus esto brachium ... (Isaiah 33: 2–10) (‘In diebus dominicis cotidie nisi proprium beatur canticum’);
  • (14) Audite qui longe estis que fecerim dicit ... (Isaiah 33: 13–16) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (15) Miserere domine plebi tue super quam inuocatum est nomen tuum ... (Sirach 36: 14–19) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (16) Uos autem sacerdotes domini uocabimini ministri dei nostri ... (Isaiah 61: 6–9) (‘In natiuitate apostolorum uel plurimorum martirum canticum’ (title added in a contemporary hand over a deletion));
  • (17) Reddidit deus iustis mercedem laborum sanctorum suorum ... (Wisdom 10: 17–20) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (18) Fulgebunt iusti et tanquam scintille in arunndineto discurrent ...(Wisdom 3: 7–9) (‘aliud canticum’);
  • (19) Beatus uir qui in sapientia morabitur ... (Sirach 14: 22 and 15: 3–6) (‘In natiuitate unius martiris uel confessoris Canticum’ (title added in a contemporary hand over a deletion));
  • (20) Benedictus uir qui confidit in domino ... (Jeremiah 17: 7–8) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (21) Beatus diues qui inuentus est sine macula ... (Sirach 31: 8–11) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (22) Audite me diuini fructus ... (Sirach 39: 17–21) (‘In natiuitate uirginum canticum’);
  • (23) Gaudens gaudebo in domino et exsultabit anima mea ... (Isaiah 61: 10–62: 3) (‘Aliud canticum’);
  • (24) Non uocaberis ultra derelicta ... (Isaiah 62: 4–7) (‘Aliud canticum’).
The canticles have many corrections in contemporary or later 15th-century hands, not only of scribal errors, but substituting original readings with new variants.

[items 6–9 occupy quires XXVI–XXIX]

6. (fols. 193r–211r)

Hymnal with rubrics and music for the opening lines of hymns, comprising hymns for the year from Advent to Pentecost, including hymns for the feasts of the Virgin Mary, followed by hymns for Corpus Christi, John the Baptist and the Exaltation of the Cross. Conditor alme (Chevalier, no. 3733), Eterne rerum conditor (Chevalier, no. 647), Splendor paterne (Chevalier, no. 19349), Iam lucis orto orto sydere (Chevalier, no. 9272), Nunc sancte nobis spiritus (Chevalier, no. 12586), Rector potens uerax deus (Chevalier, no. 17061), the beginning repeated on fol. 196r–v with music for ferial days, Rerum deus tenax uigor (Chevalier, no. 17328), the beginning repeated on fol. 196v with music for ferial days, Christe qui lux es et dies (Chevalier, no. 2934), Uenit redemptor gentium (Chevalier, no. 21243), the beginning repeated on fol. 197v with music for ferial days, Deus creator omnium polique (Chevalier, no. 4426), Ave maris stella (Chevalier, no. 1889), the beginning repeated on fol. 200r with different music, Misterium ecclesie hymnum christo (Chevalier, no. 11828), Uere gratia plena es (Chevalier, no. 21408), Audi benigne conditor (Chevalier, no. 1449), Uexilla regis (Chevalier, no. 21481), Hic est dies uerus dei (Chevalier, no. 7793), the beginning repeated on fol. 202r with music for ferial days, Optatus uotis omnium sacratus (Chevalier, no. 14177), the beginning repeated on fols. 203r–v with music for ferial days, Ueni creator spiritus (Chevalier, no. 21204), Iam christus astra (Chevalier, no. 9215), Impleta gaudent uiscera (Chevalier, no. 8506), Pange lingua gloriosi corporis (Chevalier, no. 14467), Sacris solemnjs (Chevalier, no. 17713), Uerbum supernum prodiens nec patris (Chevalier, no. 21398), Ut queant laxis resonare (Chevalier, no. 21039), Antra deserti (Chevalier, no. 1214), O nimis felix meritique (Chevalier, no. 13311), Crux fidelis inter omnes (Chevalier, no. 4018), Christe redemptor omnium conserua tuos famulos (Chevalier, no. 2959), the beginning repeated on fol. 209v with different music, Iesu saluator seculi redemptis (Chevalier, no. 9677), the beginning repeated on fol. 210v with different music.

7. (fols. 211r–213v)

Six lessons for Matins in the summer (‘Lectiones que dicuntur in estate ad nocturnum’) for feria ii – Sabbato, each followed by versicles and responses with music.

8. (fols. 213v–221r)

Carthusian Office of the Dead with rubrics and 9 lessons at Matins. The responsories correspond to nos. 14, 36, 46, 67, 51, 33, 60, 95, 53 in Ottosen (1993).

9. (fol. 221r)

Alphabetical index of psalms in a 16th-century hand on an originally blank part of fol. 221r, ruled irregularly for four columns. The index is incomplete and covers letters A–C; folio numbers refer to foliation in red ink (see ‘Physical description’ (‘Foliation’)). The entries for each letter are separated by decorative strips with simple penwork designs. Fol. 221v is blank; fol. 222 is a blank paper fly-leaf.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: tuam : et possessionem tuam (psalter, fol. 8r)
Form: codex
Support: parchment; paper fly-leaves
Extent: 223 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c. 331 × 230 mm.
Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of decoration.
Foliation: modern, in pencil; i + 1–222; two types of earlier foliation in the centre of the upper margin. The first, in brown ink, runs from [i] to xx (fols. 7–25); the second, in red ink, runs [1]–139, 150–218, 220–225 (fols. 7–220).

Collation

(fol. i) paper fly-leaf, originally conjoint with the upper pastedown | (fols. 1–6) I (6) | (fols. 7–126) II–XVI (8) | (fols. 127–128) XVII (2) | (fols. 129–216) XVIII– XXVIII (8) | (fols. 217–221) XXIX (6−1) missing 6, no loss of text. Catchwords surrounded by four Tironian ‘et’-like signs survive

Layout

Ruled in ink with single vertical bounding lines extending the full height of page; 20 lines per page; written below the top line; written space: c. 225 × 143 mm.

Hand(s)

Large formal Gothic book hand, black ink.

Musical Notation:

Notation on staves (see van Dijk 1957).

Decoration

The illumination is by a Milanese artist known as the Master of the Modena Hours (Modena, Biblioteca Estense MS. α. R. 7. 3 (lat 842)), identified by Sutton (1991) as Tomasino da Vimercate; for a recent discussion see Aghemo et al. (2006).

Red and blue penwork KL monograms in the calendar.

Pink historiated initials on gold background, in rectangular frames, decorated with foliage and sprays of flowers and leaves extending into margins.

  • fol. 7r, Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)), 10-line initial, decorated with monochrome pink foliage, mask and figures of prophets (?), one seated, another standing under architectural canopy. In the lower part is King David, seated in a landscape, playing psaltery; in the upper part is halffigure of God, holding an orb and blessing.
  • (full border) Coiled tendrils with flowers, leaves and gold discs, two birds.
  • fol. 22r, Psalm 20 (initial D(omine)), 6-line initial, infilled with King David, finger raised in a gesture of teaching, trees in the background.
  • fol. 28r, Psalm 26 (initial D(omine)), 6-line initial, infilled with King David, pointing to his eyes, rays of light coming from above.
  • fol. 35r, Psalm 32 (initial E(xultate)), 6-line initial, infilled with lay musicians and singers; one sitting on the cross-bar of the initial, playing bells.
  • fol. 44r, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David, pointing to his mouth with an extended tongue (smudged).
  • fol. 52v, Psalm 45 (initial D(eus)), 8-line initial, decorated with foliage and a profile face, infilled with kneeling King David, pointing up to the bust of God in clouds above.
  • fol. 59v, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)), 8-line initial, decorated with foliage and profile faces, infilled with the Fool holding a club.
  • fol. 66v, Psalm 59 (initial D(eus)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David, finger raised in a gesture of teaching.
  • fol. 74v, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)), 8-line initial, infilled with nude King David praying in waters, looking up at God, holding an orb and blessing, surrounded by seraphim.
  • fol. 82r, Psalm 73 (initial U(t)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David with a raised outstretched hand, the other on his chest.
  • fol. 91v, Psalm 79 (initial Q(ui)), 9-line initial, infilled with seated God, with cruciform halo, holding an orb and blessing, surrounded by seraphim.
  • fol. 97r, Psalm 85 (initial I(ncluna)), 6-line initial, infilled with a tonsured cleric in a white Carthusian habit, kneeling in prayer, in a landscape.
  • fol. 107v, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)), 7-line initial, infilled with a group of tonsured clerics in white Carthusian (?) habits, singing from a book open on a lectern.
  • fol. 112r, Psalm 101 (initial D(omine)), 7-line initial, infilled with King David, kneeling in prayer, looking up at rays of light.
  • fol. 119v, Psalm 105 (initial C(onfitemini)), 8-line initial, infilled with a tonsured cleric in a white Carthusian habit, kneeling with head bowed and arms crossed in prayer (?), blessed by God in rays of light.
  • fol. 129r, Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)), 9-line initial, infilled with the Trinity: seated God-the-Father, holding a book and blessing, and Christ, displaying wounds, sharing a mantle; white dove between their heads.
  • fol. 181r, Canticles for the year (initial E(cce)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David, pointing above to half-figure of Christ in rays of light. Bird; sprays of leaves extending into margins.

Border: see above.

2- to 3-line alternating red and blue initials, decorated with contrasting blue or red penwork, and red or blue penwork borders with floral designs at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, hymns and sections of the Office of the Dead.

1-line alternating plain red or blue initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Guide-letters for initials often survive.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

16th century, late, or 17th century, Italian, not the first binding as illuminations and a 16th-century table (fol. 221r) are trimmed: wood boards, rounded outside bevel; brown leather, blind-tooled with multiple lines and with indistinct small centrepieces of a Virgin and Child on crescent moon, in an upright oval within floral tooling; spine lost; traces of two fore-edge clasps with broad straps (lost), perhaps of brown leather on a whiter core, and of 4+1 lost bosses with scalloped edges on each cover, the central bosses once obscuring the centrepieces; edges plain. Perhaps modified later, before reback dated 1958, Bodleian. 345–347 × 233–236 × c. 83–85 mm. (book closed).

History

Origin: Late 14th or early 15th century (before 1405?) ; Italian, Milan (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made for the Charterhouse of Garegnano (?) near Milan. Compare MS. Canon. Liturg. 271, which has an almost identical calendar with the same dedication date; see also MS. Add. D. 47, probably from the same house. Erased inscriptions in the lower margins of fols. 6r and 8r, the latter perhaps beginning ‘Conuentus Gerg[ ... ] p(ro)pe Mediol[ ... ]’; compare MS. Canon. Liturg. 271, fol. 8r.

Unknown 16th-century owner added foliation and the index of psalms (see ‘Text’).

Matteo Luigi Canonici of Venice (1727–c. 1806), but not from the libraries of Soranzo or Trevisan (see Mitchell, 1969).

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti. Earlier shelfmarks: ‘MS. Liturg. Miscel. 378’ (upper pastedown), ‘E codd. Bodl. Miscell. Liturg 378’ (fols. i verso, 1r).

Record Sources

Adapted (July 2024) from:
Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 489–93.
B. C. Barker-Benfield, Bookbindings of Canonici manuscripts : a survey of early and non-standard bindings, mostly Italian, in the Canonici collection of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Oxford, privately printed, 2020) [binding]
Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (30 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Select bibliography to 2006:

    Summary catalogue, vol. 4, no. 19461.
    Frere, no. 185.
    Italian illuminated manuscripts from 1400 to 1550: catalogue of an exhibition held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1948 (Oxford: OUP, 1948), no. 64.
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 124
    Radaeli, A., ‘Di uno sconosciuto codice Lombardo della Palatina di Parma e del suo miniatore’, Aurea Parma 48, no. 3 (1964), pp. 245–59, at p. 259 n. 2.
    Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 2, no. 688, pl. LXVII.
    Treuherz, J., ‘The border decoration of Milanese manuscripts 1350–1420’, Arte lombarda 36 (1972), pp. 71–82, at p. 75 and pl. 17.
    Gifford, D. J., ‘Iconographic notes towards a definition of the medieval fool’, JWCI 37 (1974), pp. 336–42, at pp. 337 n. 9, 342 n. 66.
    Jenni, U., ‘Eine illustrierte Legenda maior der Katharina von Siena kurz vor 1400. Ergänzungen zum Oeuvre des Meisters des Modena-Gebetbuchs’, Codices manuscripti 3 (1977), pp. 72–94, at p. 81 nn. 12, 13.
    Stefani, L., ‘Per una storia della miniature Lombarda da Giovannino de Grassi alla scuola Cremonese della II metà del quattrocento: appunti bibliografici’ in E. Sesti (ed.), La miniatura italiana tra gotico e Rinascimento: atti del II Congresso di storia della miniatura italiana, Cortona 24–26 settembre 1982 (Firenze: L. S. Olschki, 1985), pp. 823–81, at pp. 830 n. 31, 861 nn. 167, 168.
    Arte in Lombardia: tra gotico e rinascimento, Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Palazzo reale, Milan (Milan: Fabbri, 1988), p. 88.
    Canova, G. M., Meldini, P. and Nicolini, S., I Codici miniati della Gambalunghiana di Rimini (Rimini: Cassa di Risparmio di Rimini, 1988), p. 167.
    Bollati, M., ‘Nuove proposte per il Maestro del libro d’ore di Modena’, Arte Cristiana 67 (1989), pp. 27–42, at pp. 28, 30, 35 n. 1, fig. 6.
    Melograni, A., ‘Appunti di miniatura lombarda. Ricerche sul “Maestro delle Vitae Imperatorum”’, Storia dell’Arte 70 (1990), pp. 237–314, at p. 278.
    Sutton, K., ‘Tomasino da Vimercate, the Master of the Modena Hours, and the Ambrosianae of Milan Cathedral’, Burlington Magazine 133 (1991), pp. 87–91.
    Kolve, V. A., ‘God-denying fools and the medieval “religion of love”’, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 19 (1997), pp. 3–59, fig. 7.
    Ker (1969–2002), vol. 2, p. 591.
    Bollati (2004), p. 595.
    Avril, F. and Gousset, M.-T., Manuscrits enluminés d’origine italienne 3, XVIe siècle, Lombardie-Ligurie (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2005), p. 124.
    Aghemo, A. et al., Libro d’ore di Modena: manoscritto Lat. 842 = .R.7.3, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria; commentario all’edizione in facsimile, Ars illuminandi (Modena: Il Bulino, 2006), p. 65.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-07: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.