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MS. Lat. liturg. a. 3

Summary Catalogue no.: 30555

Ferial Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Dominican Use (Companion volume to MS. Lat. liturg. a. 2); Italy, Brescia or Padua (?), 15th century, third quarter

Contents

Ferial Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Dominican Use
(fols. 1r–157r)

Psalms for Matins and Lauds during the week in secular use, laid out with each verse starting on a new line, some with titles ‘psalmus’ or ‘psalmus dauid’, without numbers. Punctuated throughout with punctus flexus used to mark minor pauses, colon used to mark metrum, and punctus used to mark the ends of verses. Verses with punctus flexus are identified with a special sign in the margins, sometimes decorated with penwork human profiles (cf. MS. Lat. liturg. a. 2). The psalms are accompanied by antiphons, versicles and invitatoria with rubrics and music (square notation on staves of four red lines). Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated. The text contains corrections in contemporary and later hands. Psalms and weekly canticles are in the following order:

Monday Matins (fol. 1r)

  • 26–37

Monday Lauds (fol. 23v)

  • Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12) (fol. 26r)

Tuesday Matins (fol. 27r)

  • 38–41, 43–49, 51

Tuesday Lauds (fol. 46r)

  • Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21) (fol. 47r)

Wednesday Matins (fol. 49r)

  • 52, 54–61, 63, 65, 67

Wednesday Lauds (fol. 67r)

  • Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11) (fol. 69r)

Thursday Matins (fol. 71r)

  • 68–79

Thursday Lauds (fol. 97v)

  • Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20) (fol. 99v)

Friday Matins (fol. 102v)

  • 80–88, 93, 96, 96

Friday Lauds (fol. 120v)

  • Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3) (fol. 122v)
  • Saturday Matins (fol. 125v)
  • 97–108

Saturday Lauds (fol. 150r)

  • Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (fol. 152r)
Psalms at the beginning of sections for different Canonical Hours start with historiated initials (see ‘Decoration’). Fol. i is a blank paper fly-leaf; fol. ii is a parchment fly-leaf, blank apart from post-medieval notes, including a table of antiphons for days of the week in an Italian 17th-century hand on the verso. Fol. 157v is blank; fol. 158 is a blank paper fly-leaf.

MS. Lat. liturg. a 3 is a companion volume to MS. Lat. liturg. a 2, which contains the rest of the ferial psalter.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: bernaculi sui (psalter, fol. 2r)
Form: codex
Support: Parchment; paper fly-leaves. Some leaves are mutilated (usually margins are cut off, without the loss of text) and repaired with pieces of paper and parchment, presumably when the manuscript was rebound in the 17th century. Fol. 113v is repaired with a strip of parchment from a 14th-century Italian manuscript of Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, Book III, around sections XXVIII–XXIX (69–71) (cf. MS. Lat. liturg. a. 2). There is an erroneous reading ‘sophodem’ for ‘apud Sophoclem qui’ (71/XXIX)
Extent: 160 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c. 530 × 390 mm.
Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of decoration.
Foliation: 17th-century foliation in ink; modern foliation on fly-leaves in pencil and ink; i–ii + 1–158.

Collation

(fols. i–ii) fol. i is a paper fly-leaf, conjoint with the upper pastedown (?); modern paper bifolium (unnumbered) is pasted to fol. i recto; fol. ii is a parchment fly-leaf | (fols. 1–150) I–XV (10) | (fols. 151–157) XVI (10−3) missing 8, 9 and 10 | (fol. 158) paper fly-leaf, conjoint with the lower pastedown. Catchwords survive.

Layout

Ruled in ink with single vertical bounding lines extending the full height of page; 17 lines per page; written below the top line; written space: c. 380 × 245 mm.

Hand(s)

Large formal Gothic book hand; black ink (occasionally flaking); antiphons, versicles, invitatoria, etc. and some rubrics are in a smaller script

Musical Notation:

Square notation on staves of four red lines.

Decoration

The illumination is by four artists: the first (fol. 1r), apparently French or Franco- Flemish, related to Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Lyell 77 from S. Giustine, Padua; the second, known as the Maestro del Messale Barbo (Bollati, 2004) (fols. 23v, 45v, 67r, 97v, 103r, 120v, 126r and 150r), responsible for the illumination in MS. Lat. liturg. a. 2; the third (fols. 27v and 49v); and the fourth (fols. 71v), Lombard-looking, similar to London, British Library, Add. MS. 22318 (Pächt and Alexander, 1966–73). The first artist worked on quire I; the second worked on quires VII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XV; the second and the third collaborated on quires III and V; and the fourth worked on quire VIII.

5- to 8-line historiated initials on gold background at liturgical divisions and 2-line initials at the beginning of antiphons; borders decorated with putti, coiled tendrils, foliage, flowers and gold discs.

  • fol. 1r, Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)), King David, kneeling on a terrace before a table with an open book, pointing to his eyes; crown and psaltery next to him on the floor; landscape with sea and boats in the background; medallion in the sky with half-figure of Christ on gold background, holding an orb and blessing, surrounded by angels playing musical instruments.
  • (border, left and lower margins) St Catherine with a book, sword and wheel; putto climbing a vine; half-figure of a prophet with a finger raised in a gesture of teaching.
  • fol. 23v, Psalm 50 (initial M(iserere)), Bearded saint, kneeling in prayer, looking up at rays of light, in a landscape.
  • fol. 27v, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixit)), King David, seated on a throne, holding an open book, pointing to his mouth; landscape with a city in the background.
  • fol. 45v, Antiphon for Tuesday Lauds (initial D(ele)), Kneeling angel, holding a scroll with lettering ‘Alleluia dele domine iniquitatem’, in a landscape.
  • fol. 49v, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)), The Fool portrayed as a beggar in torn clothing, standing on a road, leaning on his staff; landscape with hills, a town with towers and church in the background; three gold crowns in the border.
  • fol. 67r, Antiphon for Wednesday Lauds (initial A(mplius)), Seated angel, playing harp, looking up at rays of light, in a landscape.
  • fol. 71v, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)), Nude King David praying in the sea with boats and cliffs with castles on top; halffigure of God above, in rays of light, holding an orb and blessing, surrounded by angels.
  • fol. 97v, Antiphon for Thursday Lauds (initial T(ibi)), Bearded saint, kneeling in prayer, looking up at rays of light, in a landscape.
  • fol. 103r, Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)), Three angels, two playing musical instruments, one pulling bell-ropes, in a landscape with rocks and trees.
  • fol. 120v, Antiphon for Friday Lauds (initial S(piritu)), Bearded saint, kneeling in prayer, looking up at rays of light, in a landscape.
  • fol. 126r, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)), Dominican friars, singing from a book open on a lectern, inscribed with the opening words of the , Psalm; landscape with rocks and trees in the background.
  • fol. 150r, Antiphon for Saturday Lauds (initial B(enigne)), St Dominic (?), kneeling in prayer, looking up at rays of light, in a landscape.

Borders: see above.

2- to 3-line pink, green and blue initials on gold background, decorated with foliage, flowers, scrolls, arabesque and geometric designs at the beginnings of psalms and canticles; similar initials with yellow instead of gold background at the beginnings of antiphons, versicles and invitatoria.

1-line alternating red and blue initials with contrasting purple or red penwork at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Brown leather over pasteboard, 19th century (perhaps made for the Bodleian). Borders on both covers made of crossing single and triple blind fillet lines. Rebacked in the Bodleian (with the binders’ initial and date ‘H. 15. 2. 51’ on the lower pastedown). Blind fillet lines on spine, imitating the bands of five cords. Gilt lettering on spine ‘PSALTERUM’ and ‘MS. || LAT. LITURG. || a. 3’. Paper pastedowns and fly-leaves. Floral blind roll decorations on turn-ins and edges of covers. Similar to MS. Lat. liturg. a. 2 and MS. Lat. liturg. b. 1.

History

Origin: 15th century, third quarter ; Italian, Brescia or Padua (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made in Brescia or Padua (?) for a Dominican house, perhaps in Gubbio, Umbria (cf. MS. Lat. liturg. a. 2). Historiated border with St Catherine. Decorated by a team of artists, including two hands found in manuscripts from Brescia or Padua, dating from the third quarter of the 15th century.

The psalter was still in use in Italy in the 17th century when a table of antiphons for days of the week was added on fol. ii verso. At the same time the manuscript was foliated, rebound and repaired with strips of parchment and paper.

'Found at the end of MSS. Liturg. in 1885' (Summary catalogue, vol. 5).

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 572–7. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.
Summary Catalogue, vol. 5, p. 833

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    Frere, no. 154.
    Italian illuminated manuscripts from 1400 to 1550: catalogue of an exhibition held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1948 (Oxford: OUP, 1948), no. 62.
    van Dijk (1958), fols. 130–1.
    Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 2, no. 683, pl. LXVI.
    Canova, G. M., ‘Il recupero di un complesso librario dimenticato: i corali quattrocenteschi di S. Giorgio Maggiore a Venezia’, Arte Veneta 27 (1973), pp. 38–64, at p. 58 and fig. 72 (fol. 1r).
    ——, ‘I manoscritti liturgici miniati del Quattrocento nella Biblioteca Antoniana’, Il Santo, s. II, 14 (1974), pp. 5–61, at p. 58 n. 23.
    Bollati (2004), p. 622.
    Baroffio, G., 'Liturgia e musica nella tradizione domenicana' in C. Parmeggiani, Canto e colore: i corali di San Domenico di Perugia nella Biblioteca comunale Augusta, XIII–XIV sec., 11 marzo–17 aprile 2006, Perugia, Sala Lippi, Unicredit banca, Corso Vannucci, 39 [exhibition catalogue] (Perugia: Volumnia, 2006), pp. 33–68, at p. 62.
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 6: Fragments - Office Books, Rituals, Directories (typescript, 1957), p. 137

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-08: Convert full description from Solopova catalogue.