MS. Douce 253

Summary Catalogue no.: 21827

French calendar (fol. 1); Capitula from the Gospels (fol. 13); genealogy of Christ (with Jesse tree miniature: fol. 18); and prayers Obsecro te (fol. 20) and O intemerata (fol. 23v); Office of the Virgin (fol. 28) Hours of the Cross (fol. 75); Hours of the Holy Spirit (fol. 78); the Penitential psalms (fol. 82) with litany (fol. 94); Office for the Dead (fol. 100); the Fifteen Joyes in French (fol. 134); the Seven Requestes in French (fol. 140). Added devotions: for the Holy Souls (fol. 143), Salve[sic] Mater dolorosa (fol. 146v) and suffrages (fol. 148v), etc.

Language(s): Latin and Middle French

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: iii + 153 leaves

Dimensions (binding): 7.25 × 5.5 in.

Dimensions (leaf): 180 × 127 mm.

Dimensions (written): 90 × 65 mm.

Condition

Fol. 142 is mutilated

Layout

15 long lines

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander i. 753, Pl. LVIII. Related to the group of manuscripts attributed by Paul Durrieu to Jacques de Besançon made for Jacques d'Armagnac, such as Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 2629 (Pächt and Alexander i. 753, Pl. LVIII). Attributed to the Master of the Echevinage de Rouen, also known as the Master of the Geneva Latini, in François Avril and Nicole Reynaud Les manuscrits à peintures en France: 1440–1520 (Paris: Flammarion; Bibliothèque nationale, 1995). See also MS. Douce 77.

Fine miniatures (glazed over).

Binding

Red leather with gold ornament (18th century work)

History

Origin: c. 1480 ; France, Rouen

Provenance and Acquisition

Written for a lady who is kneeling before the Virgin and holding a scroll which reads 'O mater. dei. memento. mei.', fol. 134r

Francis Douce, 1757–1834

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834

Record Sources

Description adapted (September 2024) by Stewart J. Brookes from the following sources:

Pächt and Alexander (1966)

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 4: Books of Hours (typescript, 1957), p. 99

Summary Catalogue (1897)

Catalogue of the Printed Books and Manuscripts Bequeathed by Francis Douce, esq. to the Bodleian Library (1840), p. 40

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 568

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 569

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (13 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Printed descriptions: