MS. Rawl. D. 403
Summary Catalogue no.: 13172
Contents
Language(s): Latin
The only known copy. Corrections and additions suggest the manuscript may be an autograph. That the text was composed for the use of Birgittines is suggested by the fact that St Birgitta is placed first in the list of saints after Mary (fol. 66r).
All pages with 'Ihesu mercy' at the head; many with 'corrigitur' or 'legitur et corrigitur' at the foot.
Physical Description
Decoration
Rubrication incomplete.
No other decoration.
Binding
Late nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century inboard hollow-back binding made for the Bodleian Library. 235 × 168 × 23 mm. Half-bound in maroon morocco, sided with black cloth, over millboard. The edges of the textblock are untrimmed and retain their deckles to the tail and fore-edges.
The manuscript was originally bound in a limp parchment wrapper inscribed on the upper cover ‘Mariale’ and ‘Liber mortis et vite’. The wrapper is now folded and sewn into the binding after fol. 123. The wrapper has four sets of irregular holes across the spine indicating a long-stitch structure. The upper cover extended some 45 mm beyond the fore-edge to provide a fore-edge flap.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Syon, Middlesex, Bridgettine abbey of St Saviour, St Mary the Virgin, and St Bridget: 'Finit feliciter liber mortis et vite per Iohannem cuius habitacio est in Syon' (fol. 103v). (fol. 1r) Collectio begins: 'Deus qui ecclesiam tuam per beatam brigittam sacris illuminare dignatus es consiliis et exemplis.' Woodcut with the 'Arma Beate Brigitte de Syon' at foot (fol. 3v). (MLGB3: evidence from locally specific contents, including obits, scribbles, etc.).
Thomas Rawlinson, MS. 900 in his catalogue.
Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1755
MS. Rawl. D. 403 - fols. 1r-3v
Contents
Three independently produced woodcuts added at the beginning of the manuscript (three leaves with stubs at the end of the first quire, between fols. 16 and 17). The rectos of the printed leaves are inscribed in the same hand as the rest of the manuscript with Latin prayers, relating thematically to the facing woodcuts, as well as to the content of the work that follows, suggesting that they are not later additions, but rather part of the volume as originally conceived. The woodcuts are described in more detail in Bod-Inc.
On the recto is a devotion to St Brigitta
The concluding prayer can be found in the The Bridgettine Breviary of Syon Abbey. From the MS. with English Rubrics F.4.11 at Magdalene College, Cambridge, ed. A. J. Collins, Henry Bradshaw Society, 96 (London, 1969), 32 and 139. These texts are likely to have been related to a preceding page now lost and possibly containing a further woodcut
Hymn to the Virgin
Closely related to Chevalier, Rep. hymn. 1974; AH 32,38 no. 24.
Unique copy.
Seven Prayers of St Gregory
Faces the opening page of the Liber mortis et vitae.
The picture is surrounded by a double-lined frame. A majuscule ‘S’ (= ‘Syon’?), to the right of the devil, was printed as part of the woodcut. At the top, outside the frame, there is a typographic inscription: ‘Surgite Mortui. + Uenite ad Judicium.’, and below: ‘Arma Beate Birgitte: De Syon. +’, accompanied by a coat of arms bearing the rampant lion of Sweden (of which the lower part has been cut away). Unique copy. The typographic text, which need not be a later addition (as has sometimes been suggested), indicates that the woodcut may have been produced at, or at least printed for, the convent of Syon Abbey.
History
MS. Rawl. D. 403, fol. 1v (XYL-30)
Physical Description
Decoration
The Pieta with the Instruments of the Passion
MS. Rawl. D. 403, fol. 2v (XYL-13)
Physical Description
Decoration
Christ as the Man of Sorrows
MS. Rawl. D. 403, fol. 3v (XYL-19)
Physical Description
Decoration
Death and the Last Judgement
Additional Information
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (6 images from 35mm slides)
Digital Bodleian (4 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2022-05: Description revised to incorporate further information from Bod-Inc and the Quarto catalogue.