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

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38

Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)

Fifteen fragments, mostly from Missals, Use of Sarum, and recovered from bindings. Arranged in order of the Adams numbers (see below); unnumbered leaves placed adjacent to those with which they seem to belong.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: 15 leaves
Foliation: Modern pencil, 1–15

Binding

Bodleian fascicle

History

Provenance and Acquisition

"From the collection assembled in the late nineteenth century by J. T. Adams", most leaves with a number near the middle of the top edge, and with a tick- or 's'-shaped mark in the top right corner.

Sotheby's, 2 Dec. 1997, lot 10, bought by Quaritch on behalf of the Bodleian.

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 1

Contents

(fol. 1)
Missal (list of rubrics for the Sundays after Pentecost)

(Adams no. 23; Sotheby's item 12).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 325 × 210 mm.

Layout

39 lines in 2 columns

Decoration

22 one-line blue initials

History

Origin: English ; 15th century

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 2

Contents

(fol. 2)
Missal (10th Sunday after Trinity to feria IV after the 11th Sunday, pr. Missale Sarum, cols. 489–94; (Adams no. 50; Sotheby's item 15).
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 290 × 190 mm.

Collation

the last leaf of a quire catchword

Layout

written in two columns of 33 lines (the top lines trimmed away; there would originally have been approx 43 lines per col.)

Decoration

Two-line blue initials with red penwork; blue paraphs

History

Origin: English ; 15th century

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 3

Contents

(fols. 3–4)
Missal (two consecutive leaves, covering the 13th to 15th Sundays after Trinity, pr. Missale Sarum, cols. 497–505); fol. 3: no Adams no.; fol. 4: Adams no. 146; Sotheby's items 13–14).
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 285–90 × 155–70 mm.
Dimensions (ruled): × mm.

Layout

two columns of 39 lines

Decoration

Two-line blue initials with red penwork; blue paraphs

History

Origin: English ; 15th century

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 4

Contents

(fol. 5)
Book of Hours or Psalter

Ps. 118:7–24 (the recto has offsets of a border and initial [or miniature?] and thus probably comes from the Commendation of Souls]; (Adams no. 170; Sotheby's item 7).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 220 × 140 mm.

Decoration

Two two-line initials in gold, on red and blue grounds with white tracery.

One-line initials and a paraph in gold with dark purple penwork

History

Origin: English ; 14th century, late

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 5

Contents

(fol. 6)
Missal (part of the Mass for one Confessor, from the Common of Saints (pr. Missale Sarum, cols. 703*-706*) (Adams no. 200; Sotheby's item 4/5/6).

Fols. 6–8 may come from a single manuscript, but the script and thickness of the pen vary from one to the next.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 185 × 145 mm.
Dimensions (ruled): 179–83 × 49–53 mm.
(with 9 mm. inter-columnar space)

Layout

two columns of 33 lines

Decoration

Rubrics supplied but spaces for initials left blank

History

Origin: English ; 13th century, late - 14th century, early

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 6

Contents

(fol. 7)
Missal
Rubric: c

From the mass for a non-virgin martyr, to the mass for a many virgins, in the Common of Saints; and the start of a votive mass for the Trinity (pr. Missale Sarum, cols. 727*-9* and 735* (no Adams no.; Sotheby's item 4/5/6)

Fols. 6–8 may come from a single manuscript, but the script and thickness of the pen vary from one to the next.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 190 × 140 mm.
Dimensions (ruled): 179–83 × 49–53 mm.
(with 9 mm. inter-columnar space)

Layout

two columns of 33 lines

Decoration

Rubrics supplied but spaces for initials left blank

History

Origin: English ; 13th century, late - 14th century, early

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 7

Contents

(fol. 8)
Missal

From the end of the Mass for St. Kenelm to that for St. Wandrille in the Sanctorale (pr. Missale Sarum, 814–8, ending with the reading on 731* for a non-Virgin) (no Adams no.; Sotheby's item 4/5/6).

Fols. 6–8 may come from a single manuscript, but the script and thickness of the pen vary from one to the next.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 185 × 120 mm.
Dimensions (ruled): 179–83 × 49–53 mm.
(with 9 mm. inter-columnar space)

Layout

two columns of 33 lines

Decoration

Rubrics supplied but spaces for initials left blank

History

Origin: English ; 13th century, late - 14th century, early

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 8

Contents

(fol. 9)
Missal
Rubric: c

Perhaps part of the Mass for the Dead or for the Nearly Dead (cf. Missale Sarum, col. 814*). (Adams no. 222; Sotheby's item 2).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 210 × 80 mm.

Layout

two columns of approx. 29 lines (trimmed at the top; only 23 lines extant)

Decoration

Ywo-line and one-line initials alternately red or green

History

Origin: English ; late 12th cent., with 13th-cent. formal bookhand and 14th-cent. cursive additions

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 9

Contents

(fol. 10)
Breviary

Part of an office from Matins to Vespers (Adams no. 231; Sotheby's item 3).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 205 × 90 mm.

Layout

two columns of 26 lines

Decoration

Rubricated but with unfilled spaces for initials

History

Origin: English ; 13th century, late

Provenance

Inscribed in a fine 16th-cent. italic hand 'Humfry Bouton. | Rumpatur quisque Rumpitur inuidia' [Martial, Epigrammata ix.97], and, in Italian in a very similar hand, 'Donna seguita prega quel qui' (?), and 'Que douj altij amor da speme nasce, | Dal non sperar in me(?) s'auuie et pasce.| [signed] J. [or I.] G.'

The verso inscribed in French(?), 18th(?)-cent., 'au(?) cat p 308'

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 10

Contents

(fol. 11)
Book of Hours or Psalter

Ps.77:38–66 (Adams no. 372; Sotheby's item 10).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 135 × 75 mm.

History

Origin: English ; 15th century, early

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 11

Contents

(fol. 12)
Missal

Part of Tuesday in the fourth week of Lent (pr. Missale Sarum, cols. 217–219) (Adams no. 461; Sotheby's item 8)

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 140 × 85 mm.

Layout

two columns of 28 lines

Decoration

One gold two-line initial with blue penwork, others in blue with red penwork

History

Origin: English ; 13th century, late - 14th century, early

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 12

Contents

(fol. 13)
Missal

Masses for the Assumption of the Virgin, St. Bartolomew, and John the Evangelist, with marginal near-contemporary addition of directions for the feast of St. Bernard (canonized 1174) (no Adams no.; Sotheby's item 1).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 150 × 210 mm.

Layout

13 lines of text extant

Hand(s)

very fine early gothic bookhand

History

Origin: English ; c. 1250–75

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 13

Contents

(fol. 14)
Missal (no Adams no.; Sotheby's item 11).
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 240 × 80 mm.

Layout

two(?) columns of 26 lines (only one col. extant)

Decoration

Two-line initials in blue with red penwork

History

Origin: English ; 14th century, late - 15th century, early

MS. Lat. liturg. c. 38 – Part 14

Contents

(fol. 15)
Breviary (no Adams no.; Sotheby's item 9)
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: fragment
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 155 × 90 mm.

Decoration

Two-line initials in blue with red penwork

History

Origin: English ; 15th century, early

Additional Information

Record Sources

Draft description by Peter Kidd, late 1990s.

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.