Christ Church MS. 94
Hours of the Virgin, Use of Rome; France (north-east), s. xvex
Contents
Language(s): Latin and Middle French
A calendar in French.
Not exceptionally full, but does include in red two north-eastern French saints, ‘Saint eloy’ (Eligius, bishop of Noyons, 1 December) and ‘saint nicaise’ (Nicasius, bishop of Rheims, 14 December), as well as Becket (‘Saint thomas martir’, 29 December); in addition, there are further unrubricated entries which corroborated the localisation: ‘Walri’ (Walaric, associated with St-Valéry-sur-Somme, 1 April), Bertin (5 September), Omer (9 September), ‘Fremin’ (bishop of Amiens, 25 September), but note also ‘Ernoul’ (16 August, so Armel, with Breton connexions).
The Hours of the Virgin, succeeded (fols 59–67v) by the ‘second office’ for Advent. In addition to the offices, at fol. 67v, ‘Ces v. antemes qui sensuit doit on dire as laudes et as vespres . . . O admirabile commercium . . . [fol. 68v] Mirabile mysterium declaratur . . . [fol. 69] Salue regina misericordie uita’, etc.; respectively HE 43; Huntington Library, MS 1162(7), described C. W. Dutschke, Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library, 2 vols (San Marino CA, 1989), 2:498; and HE 62–63 (Chevalier 18147).
The Penitential Psalms and Litany. The latter includes, under martyrs, Adrian (a Palestinian martyr, c. 309, whose relics were at Ghent) and Quentin (buried at Saint Quentin); under confessors, Louis IX; under monks and hermits, Bernardino of Siena (for Bernard) and another Louis (presumably Louis of Anjou OFM, d. 1297).
The Gradual Psalms (mostly cues only).
The Office of the Dead, through to Compline. There are only two lines of text on fol. 131v.
The Hours of the Holy Spirit, preceded by a prayer. Fols 134v-35v were originally all blank (see Added Text (a)) but are ruled; fol. 135v is very worn.
Leroquais 2:346–47; Wilmart 488–90, respectively.
Gospel pericopes.
Leroquais 1:xxx, 32, etc; cf. our MS. 100, fol. 39.
Suffrages, to the Trinity, Michael, Antony abbot, Sebastian, Nicholas, Francis, Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, Mary Magdalen, and Margaret.
Added texts:
An ‘Oraison matutinalle’, a Latin prayer, a French prayer ‘pour le couche’, and two lines of Latin verse, ‘Ihesus nazarenus titulus triumfalis’ (added s. xvi ex. or s. xvii in.).
The Athanasian creed, added s. xv ex.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In long lines, 16 lines to the page (17 lines for items 7–9).
Occasional signs of prick-holes at very top of folios, in line with vertical borders; bounded and ruled in red and reddish brown ink, with bounding lines reaching to edges of the page.
Hand(s)
Written in gothic textura quadrata (perhaps not French but Flemish?).
Punctuation by occasional point..
Decoration
Headings in red. Champes at textual divisions: at the head (and head of each of the canonical hours) four-line blue and magenta with gold leaf infill and vine and bud pattern in green, blue, and red. At lesser divisions, two-line examples, typically alternate gold with blue, or gold with magenta, or gold with both colours. The texts are divided by alternate one-line lombards, gold leaf with navy flourishing and blue with red flourishing, as well as by a good many red-slashed capitals.
Originally, each of the hours was introduced by a full- page miniature, within a full flower and vine border, although many are now cut away and the leaves replaced with supplied modern leaves (fols 38, 42, 46, 55). The survivors are:
- Fol. 7 (Matins): the Annunication
- Fol. 24 (Lauds): the Visitation
- Fol. 34 (Prime): the Nativity
- Fol. 50 (Vespers): the flight into Egypt
- Fol. 71 (the Penitential Psalms): Christ in majesty with angels and saints above the dead rising from their graves
- Fol. 94 (the Office of the Dead): the raising of Lazarus
In addition, each of the suffrages is prefaced with a six-line illustration of the saint, one on each page, fols 144–48v.
See AT no. 815 (81), dating s. xv3/4. Otto Pächt, in 1943, left a more specific provenance in the Library’s copy of Kitchin’s catalogue: ‘NW French, prob. Tournai [sic]’.
Binding
Brown leather over millboards, goldstamped, s. xvi. Floral sprays in each corner and at the centre, stamped pictures within an oval: on the upper board, the Crucifixion with the Virgin and John; on the lower board, the Annunciation with ‘Ave gratia plena’. This design for the boards also to be found on British Library, c41e5, a printed Book of Hours (Paris, 1522), for images of which, and further examples and bibliography, see the British Library Database of Bookbindings [last accessed 14th December 2015]. Sewn on five thongs. Intact metal ‘straps’, clasps, and fittings. Pastedowns old parchment, the rear one a waste leaf in a format similar to, but not identical with, that of the manuscript itself; a ChCh bookplate on the front pastedown. Pages are gilt-edged.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
This manuscript clearly spent its early life in France, but no specific owner is presently identified for it. It reached ChCh from William Wake, as is noted by a pencil inscription (s. xix) at fol. 1: ‘From Abp. Wake’s Collection Roman Use’ (fol. i, s. xix). It appears in Wake’s autograph schedule (MS 352/8, fol. 1v) under quarto volumes as ‘an antient Ritual, illuminated’. Given Wake’s time in France, from June 1682 to September 1685, the possibility cannot be excluded that he bought the manuscript (and, equally, perhaps, MSS 93 and 100) there. On him and his bequest, see the Introduction (The Age of Catalogues).
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Christ Church Library.
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2017-07-01: First online publication.