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

MS. D'Orville 45

Summary Catalogue no.: 16923

Contents

(fol. 2v)

Additional preces

(fol. 3v)

Kalendar March, November-December missing, with coloured kalendarial tables, February, October-November missing, December left blank

(fol. 12v)

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

(fol. 28v)

Litany

(fol. 29v)

Orationes speciales consisting of a series of prayers, psalms, versicles and collects

(fol. 33)

A similar set of prayers Si te presens vita fastidiosa sit

(fol.34 )

Practical applications of the psalms

(fol. 36v)

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

(fol. 41v)

Other long prayers.

(fol. 51)

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

(fol. 154)

Oratio post expletionem psalmorum

(fol. 155)

Common of the saints

(fol. 167)

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

(fol. 188v)

Canticles for the greater feasts

(fol. 197)

Abbreviated psalter of St Prudentius.

(fol. 210)

Orationale with the opening words and often musical cues of the Benedictus and Magnificat antiphons

(fol. 231)

Orationes pro peccatis per oras diei, matutinales, in matutinis laudibus, vespertinales, pro peccatis

(fol. 233)

Capitulary

(fol. 237)

Ritual for the Last Sacraments with burial service and order of the office of the dead (fol. 242)

(fol. 242v)

Blessing of holy water and prayers for the sprinkling in various places of the monastery, ordo ad monachum benedicendum (fol. 244v);

(fol. 246)

Some prayers the beginning of which is wanting, identical with those of fol. 41-2. Rubrics in the ritual of the Last Sacraments.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 245 fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 307 × 205 mm.

Collation

A leaf missing after fols. 4, 11, 50, 245.

Layout

1 col., 25 lines; written space 210–20 × 130–5 mm.

Hand(s)

Five hands are to be distinguished.

Musical Notation:

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

Origin: c. 1067–1068 (?) ; French, Moissac, Cluniac abbey

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

Description adapted (2025) from the following sources:
A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 436
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, I (1966), no. 432
S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 236
Summary Catalogue (1897)

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 436
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 236

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.