Book of hours : use of Rome : in Latin

Item Information

Title:
Book of hours : use of Rome : in Latin
Creator:
Catholic Church
Former owner:
Enluminures (Firm)
Auctioneer:
Bloomsbury Auctions (Firm)
Contributor:
Monastero di San Gaggio (Florence, Italy)
Date:
1468
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Italy
Manuscripts, Medieval--Italy
Books of hours
devotional calendars
Gothic scripts
Inscriptions (Provenance)
Manuscript waste (Binding)
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Places:
Italy > Tuscany (region) > Firenze (province) > Florence
Extent:
136 leaves : parchment ; 130 x 97 (approximately 80 x 65) mm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/2r36xh78c
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[Florence]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1-6v: Calendar, triple-graded, increasing from light brown ink, to black ink, to red. Approximately three-quarters full. Includes the following feasts in red: St. Monica and her translation (4 May and 9 April), St. Augustine with its octave (28 August and 4 September), St. Reparata (8 Oct.), and St. Minias (25 Oct.). Also includes St. Zenobius (25 May) in light gray, and St. Caius (22 April) in light gray.
2. fol. 7r-11v: Matins (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
3. fol. 12r-17v: Lauds (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
4. fol. 18r-20r: Prime (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
5. fol. 20v-22r: Terce (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
6. fol. 22r-24v: Sext (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
7. fol. 24r-25v: Nones (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
8. fol. 25v-29r: Vespers (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
9. fol. 29r-31v: Compline (Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome)
10. fol. 31v-36r: variants for days of the week.
11. fol. 36v-43r: variants for liturgical seasons.
12. fol. 43r-55v: Hours of the Passion.
13. fol. 55v-56v: Hours of the Cross.
14. fol. 57r-64r: Seven Penitential Psalms.
15. fol. 64v-71r: Litany, petitions, and ten collects.
16. fol. 71r-78r: Gradual Psalms.
17. fol. 78v-108v: Office of the Dead (use of Rome)
18. fol. 109r-131r: Psalter of the Virgin, with prefatory (108v) and concluding prayers.
19. fol. 131r-136r: A hymn attributed to St Bernard: "Salve mundi salutare, salve, salve, Iesu care ..."
20. fol. 136r: colophon: "Finito libro isto. Referamus gra[tia] [Christo]. Qui[?] scripsit scribat et se[mper] cu[m] d[omin]o vivat. Vivat in ce[lis] i[n] suo nomine felix."
21. fol. 136v: continued from colophon: "Anno do[mini] M⁰.cccc.lxvij. die i⁰ in me[n]sis Ianuarii." In lower margin, an illegible inscription dated 1655.
Notes:
Ms codex.
Title devised by cataloger; catalog record based in part on dealer's description.
Origin: Copied for a nun at the Augustinian convent of Santa Caterina del Monte (San Gaggio) in Florence. According to a dated verse colophon (fol. 136v), the manuscript was completed on January 1, 1467 (1468 new style). Evidence of Augustinian use includes the appearance of St. Augustine as "Sancte pater" in the litanies; the feast (28 August) and octave (4 September) of St. Augustine are written in red in the calendar, as are the translation (9 April) and feast (4 May) of his mother, St. Monica. St. Monica also occupies the final position among the virgins in the litanies. The inclusion in red in the calendar of St. Reparata (8 October), patron saint of Florence, and St. Minias (25 October), the first Christian martyr of Florence, as well as St. Zenobius (25 May), the first bishop of Florence, in gray, indicate that the manuscript was made for use in Florence, or its diocese (Reparata and Zenobius both also included in the litanies). Liturgical evidence more specifically suggests the manuscript was made for an Augustinian nun at the at the convent of Santa Caterina del Monte (San Gaggio) in Florence. St. Catherine of Alexandria's name is written in capital letters and touched in yellow in the litany, and her octave (2 December) is also included in red in the calendar. St. Caius is included in the calendar (22 April) and at the end of the martyrs in the litanies. This Augustinian convent was initially founded in the first half of the fourteenth century as Santa Caterina del Monte, dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria. In 1353 it was united with the Augustinian convent dedicated to the pope, St. Caius.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: On fol. 136v, a note dated 1655, but otherwise faded to illegibility. Offered by Avoa, Ltd, in 2014 (Books of Hours/Livres d'Heures, no.1); sold at auction by Bloomsbury, December 9, 2015 (lot 121); sold again by Bloomsbury/Dreweatts on July 2, 2019 (lot 83) to Les Enluminures, Paris.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased from Les Enluminures, Paris, in June, 2020.
Notes (object):
Collation: Parchment, fol. i (parchment from a 15th-century Italian choirbook) + 136 + i (parchment from a 15th-century Italian choirbook) ; i⁶ ii-xiv¹⁰ ; leaf signatures in purple ink in the lower margin (now visible only on fol. 48: "f2"), catchwords throughout, except in the first and final gatherings; 19th- or early 20th-century numbering on the first recto of each gathering, modern pencil foliation in upper right margins, those numbers used here for reference.
Layout: Single column, 16 or 17 lines (33 in calendar), ruled in blind.
Script: Written in a southern textualis formata (rotunda) in two sizes in black ink, rubrics in red, capital swashes in yellow.
Decoration: One- to two-line initials alternating in red and blue throughout, with guide letters. New texts begin with three- to four-line initials in red with purple flourishes or in blue with red flourishes, both with floral penwork extending into the margins.
Binding: Bound in brown 19th-century goatskin with cuttings taken from leaves of a noted Italian choirbook added in and used as pastedowns and free endleaves.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (SDBM) 25751.
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_018285
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Med.279
Barcode:
39999092730256