MS. D'Orville 45
Summary Catalogue no.: 16923
Contents
Additional preces
Kalendar March, November-December missing, with coloured kalendarial tables, February, October-November missing, December left blank
Litany of the saints in which many of the original names have been erased and rewritten
Loca embolismorum, computus Grecorum et Latinorum, etc. with an Easter table for the period 1026-1557 (fols. 14-7), written on a large folding sheet, Greek letters being used for the dates, Letters and prefaces concerning the psalter (fol. 18), titles of the psalms (fol. 20v), etc. Private prayers (fol. 26v), Penitential Psalms (fol. 27v) with versicles and a collect after each psalm
Litany
Orationes speciales consisting of a series of prayers, psalms, versicles and collects
A similar set of prayers Si te presens vita fastidiosa sit
Practical applications of the psalms
Prayers to the persons of the holy Trinity the Virgin (fol. 37v), St Michael (fol. 39), St John the baptist, Sts Peter and Paul, Martyrs, St Benedict, Virgins
Other long prayers.
Psalter with psalter collects (Spanish series), followed by the apocryphal psalm Pusillus eram, weekly and daily canticles, Gloria, Te deum (fol. 150v: canticum s. Hilarii), Pater with a short explanation, Credo, Quicumque, each with a collect
Oratio post expletionem psalmorum
Common of the saints
Hymnal beginning with the ferial hymns of the week, each hymn preceded or followed by the order of the office (Psalmista) and, partly, with interlinear glosses
Canticles for the greater feasts
Abbreviated psalter of St Prudentius.
Orationale with the opening words and often musical cues of the Benedictus and Magnificat antiphons
Orationes pro peccatis per oras diei, matutinales, in matutinis laudibus, vespertinales, pro peccatis
Capitulary
Ritual for the Last Sacraments with burial service and order of the office of the dead (fol. 242)
Blessing of holy water and prayers for the sprinkling in various places of the monastery, ordo ad monachum benedicendum (fol. 244v);
Some prayers the beginning of which is wanting, identical with those of fol. 41-2. Rubrics in the ritual of the Last Sacraments.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
1 col., 25 lines; written space 210–20 × 130–5 mm.
Hand(s)
Five hands are to be distinguished.
Occasional diastematic Aquitanian point neum notation (fols. 157, 187, 215v ff.).
Decoration
Fine coloured initials (fols. 18, 63, 71v, 80, 89, 99, 109v, 119, 123v, 167, 188v) and tables. (Pächt and Alexander i. 432, pl. XXXV)
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Fols. 14-17 (the bifolia sewn together to open out into a large square) contain a paschal cycle from 1026 to 1557. A red dot before the year 1068 suggests that the table was transcribed between Easter 1067 and Easter 1068; on this means of dating see Bannister, Mélanges Chatelain. The Benedictine abbey of Moissac, from which the MS evidently comes, became Cluniac in 1053 and the kalendar is decidedly Cluniac in character. An original connection with Moissac is shown by comparison with other books from there and by liturgical evidence.
On fol. 246 is a note 'que yeu Raimon de beluese ay reliat [bound] aquest libre . . .' (s.xiv?). This binding does not survive.
At Moissac until the 16th or 17th century: fol. 246v: 'Aquest libre es del couuen de moysac. . .' (s.xiv/xv). Fly leaves from 14th and 15th-cent. monastic records. Fol. 2: 'ex Abbatia Moissiacensi' (s.xvi or xvii).
N. J. Foucault: his armorial bookplate.
Jacques Phillippe D'Orville of Amsterdam (1690–1751)
Jean D'Orville, b. 1734, his son, by descent
Jean D'Orville, son of Jean, by descent
Sold to the Rev. John Cleaver Banks (1765/1766–1845): purchased from him by the Bodleian
Acquired by the Bodleian in 1804
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2017-07-01: First online publication.