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MS. Liturg. 100

Summary Catalogue no.: 30604

Former shelfmark: MS. Canon. Liturg. 100

Contents

Book of Hours, Use of Paris
1. (fols. 1r–12v)

Calendar in red and black, a saint for each day except 25-6 and 30 Nov. In addition to the usual feasts in Paris calendars of this period (as listed by Erik Drigsdahl) the following are rubricated: Agnes (21 Jan.), Agatha (5 Feb.), Germain (28 May), Marcel (26 July and 3 Nov.), Augustine (28 Aug.), Luke (13 Dec.).

Language(s): French
2. (fols. 13r–18v)

Pericopes from the gospels: John followed by versicle, response, and prayer 'Protector in te sperantium ...' (as pr. Horae Eboracenses, 32-4)

3. (fols. 18v–22v)

Obsecro te (masculine forms)

Rubric: Oratio deuota ad beatam uirginem Mariam
4. (fols. 23r–74v)

Hours of the Virgin, Use of Paris

Lauds, fol. 33v; Prime, fol. 44v (rubric, 44r); Terce, fol. 50r; Sext, fol. 54v; None, fol. 59r; Vespers, fol. 63r; Compline, fol. 70r.

5. (fol. 75v–84v)

Short Hours of the Cross

6. (fol. 85r–94r) (rubric, fol. 84v)

Short Hours of the Holy Spirit

Fol. 94v blank.

7. (fols. 95r–113v)

Penitential Psalms with (fol. 107v) litany; followed (fol. 113r) by prayers: 'Deus cui proprium est ...', 'Protege quesumus domine nos famulos tuos ...', 'Fidelium deus omnium conditor ...'.

Fol. 114r-v blank.

8. (fol. 115r–143v)

Short Office of the Dead, Use of Paris, with one nocturn, three lessons, responsories Ottosen's 72 (Qui Lazarum), 14 (Credo quod), 38 (Libera me, domine, de morte).

9. (fols. 144r–149r) (rubric, fol. 143v)

Fifteen Joys

Rubric: Cy commencent les .xv. ioies nostre dame
Incipit: Douce dame de misericorde
Language(s): French
10. (fol. 149v–152r) (rubric, fol. 149r)

Seven Requests

Rubric: Cy commencent les vij. requestes en lonneur des .v. plaies nostre seigneur
Incipit: Doulz dieux doulz peres
Language(s): French
11. (fol. 152r)

Rhyming prayer to the Holy Cross

Incipit: Sainte vraie croix auoree | Qui du corps dieu fus aornee
Explicit: Que ie puisse confes mourir. Amen.

Fol. 152v blank.

Language(s): French
10. (fol. 153r–v)

Confiteor (feminine forms)

Fol. 154r-v blank.

The manuscript is recorded in the Beyond Use database (with full details of the litany): OxfordBLlit100

Language(s): Latin and Middle French

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
2 + 153 + 1 fol.
Dimensions (leaf): 220 × 155 mm.
Foliation: i-ii, 1-154

Collation

Sometimes uncertain due to tightness of binding, but probably: 1(8) (fols. 1-8), 2(4) (fols. 9-12) | 3(8) (fols. 13-20), 4(2) (fols. 21-22) | 5(8)-15(8) (fols. 23-110), 16(4) (fols. 111-114) | 17(8)-20(8) (fols. 115-146), 21(8+1?: fol. 153 apparently added between leaves 6 and 7; leaf 8 pasted down). Catchwords, fols. 23-154.

Layout

15 long lines; ruled in red ink. Ruled space 105 × 60 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal textualis quadrata

Decoration

First attributed by Millard Meiss to the Master of the Harvard Hannibal (Harvard University MS. Richardson 32), an artist whose later work (including the present manuscript) has sometimes been attributed in more recent scholarship to a separate hand (dubbed The Master of the Royal Alexander (BL Royal MS. 20 B. XX)): see Gregory T. Clark, Art in a Time of War (2016), 286-291.

Six miniatures, with full borders.

  • Fol. 23r: Annunciation
  • Fol. 76r: Crucifixion
  • Fol. 85r: Pentecost
  • Fol. 95r: King David at prayer
  • Fol. 115r: funeral service
  • Fol. 144r: St John the Baptist presenting a woman to the Virgin and Child enthroned

Initials, typically 3- or 4-line at major divisions (with three-sided borders), 2-line at lesser divisions (with one-sided border), 1-line at verses.

Borders: see above.

Binding

Flemish (?), 16th century, first half (early?): wooden boards covered in brown leather, with a blind panel stamped four times on each cover; the panel, 77 × 50 mm, with two rows of five beasts in foliage, around the central motto ‘Ora pro nobis sancta dei genitrix’ . The panel was used by a number of Flemish binders: see Staffan Fogelmark, Flemish and related panel-stamped bindings: evidence and principles (New York, 1990), pp. 145 and n. 305, 151 n. 329, 216ff., 221; pl. XLII, R.106–107. Rebacked.

History

Origin: c. 1420–1430 ; French, Paris

Provenance and Acquisition

Written for a woman portrayed on fol. 144r, being presented by St John the Baptist to the Virgin and Child (cf. fol. 153).

Later provenance and date of acquisition by the Bodleian unknown. For the history of the MSS. Liturg. collection see Summary Catalogue V, pp. 843-4, noting that 'no doubt many ... are unidentifiable Rawlinson MSS.'

Record Sources

Description by Matthew Holford (Jan. 2025). Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 5, p. 847
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 5, p. 848

Availability

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Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (11 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, I (1966), no. 663, pl. LII
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 4: Books of Hours (typescript, 1957), p. 65

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2025-01: Matthew Holford: description revised for publication on Digital Bodleian.