MS. Lat. liturg. d. 3

Fragment of an early 14th century Latin litany of the Virgin Mary, formerly used to cover Crynes 86

Items 15 and 16 preserve portions of the lessons for Cecilia, Clement, and Catherine from what is identified by S. J. P. van Dijk as an English thirteenth-century manuscript (van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 6: Fragments - Office Books, Rituals, Directories (typescript, 1957), p. 137). Sherry L. Reames argues that these are fragments of an office lectionary because some of the lesson numbers survive and there is no sign of the antiphons and responsories that are found in a breviary. Reames identifies three portions from the final scenes of the Legend of Cecilia: 'et sacrifica diis' [...] 'dicente beata Cecilia'; 'ibidem in ipsis balneis' [...] 'istas animas'; and 'sub die decimo' [...] 'amen'. Speculating that the manuscript originally contained the Franciscan abridgement in its entirety, Reames sees these fragments as 'the best evidence we currently have that this Chaucerian source was actually used in England, before or during Chaucer's lifetime, by the Franciscans or some other religious community' (Reames, 'A Recent Discovery Concerning the Sources of Chaucer's "Second Nun's Tale"' Modern Philology 87 [1990], p. 351)