MS. Canon. Liturg. 9

Summary Catalogue no.: 19224

Portable Psalter; Italy, Diocese of Florence, 1526

Fols. i and ii are paper fly-leaves.

[item 1 occupies quire I]

(fols. 1–12v) Calendar for a Benedictine house, laid out one month per leaf, written in black and red, graded to 12 lessons and ‘duplex maior’, approximately two-thirds full. Includes Benedict (‘Sanctissimi patris nostri ... duplex maius’, 14 March) with octave, Antoninus of Pamiers (2 May), Zenobius of Florence (25 May), Romuald (21 June), John Gualberto of Vallombrosa (‘Johannis gualbertj abbatis’, 12 July) and Reparata (‘Reparate virginis et martyris’, 8 October), co-titular saint of the cathedral in Florence, all in red. Months are headed by notes on the number of days and nights in each month and on the number of hours in day and night.

[items 2–8 occupy quires II–XX]

2. (fols. 13r–173v)

Psalms 1–150, in the biblical order, with rubric ‘Incipit liber hymnorum uel soliloquiorum’. Written as prose, punctuated throughout, with punctus used to mark the ends of verses, and punctus elevatus or punctus used to mark metrum. Psalms are preceded by short rubrics, usually ‘psalmus’ followed by a number, or simply by numbers. Most numbers are in Roman numerals, but Arabic numerals are also occasionally used. Rubrics are not filled in on fols. 143v–152r (separate quire). Liturgical divisions are not marked; subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units.

3. (fols. 173v–183v)

Weekly canticles, with rubrics:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12) (‘Canticum isaie’);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21) (‘Canticum ezechie regis’);
(3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11) (‘Canticum anne’);
(4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20) (‘canticum miriam sororis moysi’);
(5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3) (‘Canticum abachuc’);
(6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (‘Canticum moysi’), with subdivision marked at verse 22, ‘Ignis succensus’ (fol. 181v).

(fol. 183v) Collects, the second using feminine grammatical forms:

(1) Deus qui nullum respuis sed quantumuis per poenitentiam peccantibus pia miseratione placaris ...
(2) Deus qui iustificas impium et non uis mortem peccatorum ... ut famulam tuam ...

5. (fols. 184r–191v)

Office of the Virgin with rubric, partly crossed out (‘Incipit officium deuotissime virginis ...’), with 3 lessons (fol. 189r–v) and nomina of Our Lady (fol. 191r–v) (‘Piissima mater dei et domini nostri yesu christi ...’).

6. (fols. 192r–194v)

Litany of the Virgin.

7. (fols. 195r–197r)

Prayer ‘O gloriosa maria sanctissimi regis genitrix ...’.

8. (fols. 197r–202v)

Litany of the Holy Name (first page crossed out), followed by prayers (fols. 201v–202v) with rubrics, the first using feminine grammatical forms:

(1) O Benignissime domine yesu christe respicere digneris ... (‘Oratio’);
(2) Ave Angele sanctissime Custos corporis et anime mee ... (‘Ad proprium angelum’);
(3) Deus qui unigeniti filii tui pretioso sanguine uiuifice ... (‘In honore sancte crucis’);
(4) Omnipotens et mitissime deus qui sitienti populo fontem uiuentis ... (‘Pro petitione lachrymarum’);
(5) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui iustitiam tue legis ... (‘Ad postulandam spem fidem et charitatem’);
(6) Deus qui charitatis dona per gratiam sancti spiritus ... (‘Pro deuotis amicis’).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: hodie genuite (psalter, fol. 14r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; paper fly-leaves

Extent: 207 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 134 × 90 mm.

Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of decoration.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; i–ii + 1–205.

Collation

(fols. i–ii) paper fly-leaves | (fols. 1–12) I (12) | (fols. 13–202) II–XX (10) | (fols. 203–205) paper fly-leaves. Vertical catchwords survive throughout, except the first and last quires.

Layout

Ruled in pale ink with single vertical bounding lines extending the full height of page, written below the top line; 18 lines per page; written space: c. 88 × 49 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hand, black and brown ink.

Decoration

Blue KL monograms with red penwork in the calendar.

6-line pink Beatus-initial on fol. 13r, on gold background, decorated with acanthus leaves, infilled with nimbed, kneeling King David, holding psaltery and looking up at rays of light; landscape in the background.

Full border decorated with flowers and leaves; medallion in the lower margin in a gold frame, with gold YHS monogram on blue background.

2-line alternating red and blue initials, decorated with contrasting purple or red penwork, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litanies and prayers.

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

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

16th century, Italian (as MS., made for a Benedictine nun): wood boards; dark red leather, decorated with blind and gilt multiple lines, small gilt stamps, and gilt centrepieces (‘IHS’ with cross, 3 nails and crown of thorns, in a double oval); remnants of two clasps with surviving scallop-shell shaped brass catch-plates and lost brown-leather straps; gilt gauffered edges. Rebacked, later 19th century, for Bodleian (stamped ‘LEVERS’), with fragment of original spine preserved at inside front cover. 140–141 × 93 × c. 40 mm. (book closed).

History

Origin: 1526 ; Italian, diocese of Florence

Provenance and Acquisition

Written in 1526 for the use of the diocese of Florence, for a Benedictine nun. Colophon in the original hand on fol. 202v: ‘Expletus an. Sal. M. D. xxvj. Die. xv. Aprilis.’

D. Dionysius Placentinus, Lateran regular canon: ‘D. Dionysius Plac(entinu)s Can. Reg. Later(anensis)’, c. 1600., fol. 1r.

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

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti. Earlier shelfmark: ‘Miscel. Liturg. IX’ (fol. ii verso).

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 625–8. Binding: 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). Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 332

Bibliography

Printed descriptions:

A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 254

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 28

Frere, no. 460.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.

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