Book of hours : use of Sarum : in Latin

Item Information

Title:
Book of hours : use of Sarum : in Latin
Creator:
Catholic Church
Former owner:
Eleanor of Mohun
Former owner:
Le Neve, Peter, 1661-1729
Former owner:
Sowter, E. M.
Former owner:
Maggs Bros.
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Date:
[ca. 1330]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Illuminations
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--England
Manuscripts, English (Middle)--England
Manuscripts, Medieval--England
Books of hours
Bookplates
Inscriptions
Deerskin bindings
Wooden boards
Gothic scripts
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Subjects:
Christian women--Prayers and devotions
Places:
England
Extent:
122 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 183 x 132 (130 x 95) mm bound to 20 cm, in box 22 cm 336
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/m326r423s
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States icon No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[England]
Language:
Latin
French
Table of Contents:
1. fol. i r/v: blank.
2. fol. 1-30v: Hours of the Virgin, Sarum use.
3. fol. 30v-41: Penitential Psalms.
4. fol. 41-47v: fifteen Gradual Psalms.
5. fol. 47v-53: Litany, including Alphege, Alban, Edmund, Augustine of Canterbury, Paulinus of York, Dunstan, Cuthbert, Swithin, Richard of Chichester, Botulf, and Etheldreda.
6. fol. 53-57v: Five Joys of the Virgin, in French and Latin.
7. fol. 58: Prayer to God: "Deus cui omne cor patet ..."
8. fol. 58-63v: Penitential mendicant French verse prayer to Mary: "Un repentaunt fist homage / A nostre dame si fist ... /Je vos salue de par Deu virgine seynte Marie ..." (Dean & Boulton no. 789); followed by two French prayers: "E vus dame gloriuse Marie duce Deu espouse" and "Reyne dame succurable nus defendez del fel diable" (Dean & Boulton no. 790)
9. fol. 64-105v: Office of the Dead, Sarum use.
10. fol. 105v-106: Gaude virgo mater (this is the original final leaf of the manuscript)
11. fol. 106-118v: 15th-/16th-century additions by multiple hands in Latin, French and Middle English (see Stokes for an edition of the Middle English prayers; also see her unpublished notes at BPL): fol. 106: Ave Maria and salutation to St Anne, mother of Mary
fol. 106v-108: Prayer based on the Five Joys, "Precor te sancta Maria mater domini nostri Ihesu Christi via et perpetua vireo ..." ; interspersed with "Gaude dei genitrix virgo immaculate ..."
fol. 108v-109v: Prayer to Guardian Angel and Archangels: "Ave gaude dulcissime mi angele qui es custos corporis mei ..."
fol. 109v-110v: Elevation prayer, in French, "[B]eaus sire deus omnipotent / Merci vous cry mut umblement ..." (Dean & Boulton 731)
fol. 111-113v: Various prayers, Latin
fol. 113v: Charms in Middle English (see Stokes): "Christ that was born in bedleem ..." (to staunch blood: IMEV and Suppl. 624) and "Christ for clenesse of thin incarnacion ..." (IMEV Suppl. 605.5)
fol. 113v-114v: Hymn: "O rosa graciosa letifica cor meum ..."
fol. 114v-115: "O intemerata"
fol. 115v: Poem to Christ, in English: "Swete Jhesu that on the rode / Boughtest us with thyne blode ..." (IMEV Suppl. 3238.3)
fol. 115v: Prayer to St Giles, in French: "Seynt Gile comanda a charlemeyn ..." (Dean & Boulton no. 932) (expunged)
fol. 115v-118: Fifteen Os of St. Bridget: "O domine Ihesu Christe eterna dulcendo te amantium ..."
fol. 118v: Elevation prayer.
12. fol. 119-122r: 15th-/16th-century additions by multiple hands in Latin, French and Middle English (continued): 119-119: Indulgence: "O Maria piissima ..."
fol. 120-121: Prayers to St Anne, in French: "Douce dame seynte Anne aele a Jesu Cryst . . ." (Dean & Boulton no. 992)
fol. 121v: Hymn: "Patris sapiencia veritas divina/ Deus homo captus est hora matutina ..."
fol. 122r/v: Short Rhymed Office of the Compassion: "Matris cor virgineum trina totum trivit / Quando suum filium nocte captum scivit ... / ... Or[atio] Domine sancte ihesu filius. Trenosa co[mpassio]."
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in Western England for Eleanor of Mohun, a woman of Dunster, around the year 1330, probably before 1338 (Michaels, pp. 21-22); Eleanor stands in the lower margin of fol. 1 holding her parent's arms (of John de Mohun at the left, and of Ada (perhaps) of Tiptoft at the right). Her husband's arms (Ralph of Wilington) appear on fol. 26 and 34. Michaels (p. 21) argues that the Label across the top of the Wilington arms on fol. 26 suggests that the manuscript dates from after Eleanor's marriage (date uncertain, but sometime between 1324-1337) but before her husband Ralph had come into his inheritance, which occurred in 1338. The text of the manuscript reflects continued feminine use, with "famulam tuam" found both in the original section of the manuscript (fol. 52v) and in the later fifteenth-century additions (fol. 114v).
Notes (ownership):
Provenance 1: Signature Peter le Neve (1661-1729), verso of front flyleaf, dated 1699. Votive prayers to St. Thomas of Canterbury on fol. 15 crossed out and his name in the litany (fol. 48v) scraped away, replaced by le Neve with "St. Olave." The Le Neve collection was sold by John Wilcox in 1731. Exhibited after 1879 at the Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition. Exhibit label identifying the manuscript as "#716" inside front cover. 18th-/19th-century notes in English laid-in, tracing the use of the English language as permitted by official royal decrees. Later owned by Miss E. M. Sowter (her sale, Sotheby's London, 20 May 1947, lot 371) to Maggs. BPL plate inside front cover.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Bought from Maggs in 1954 (cat. 1954, no. 124)
Notes (citation):
Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 213
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: ... in requiem meam.
Collation: 1-2¹² 3¹²⁺³ (fol. 31-33 are late 15th-century additions: fol. 31 a tipped-in singleton, fol. 32-33 a bifolium), 4-7¹² 8⁶⁺¹⁺¹² (fol. 106 is a singleton that ended the original manuscript; fol. 91-102 are a late 15th-century quire of 12 intercalated between fol. 90 and 103, which are conjugate and were the center of the original quire of 6+1; fol. 90v is offset onto fol. 103), 9¹⁰⁻¹ (one leaf cancelled after fol. 115), 10⁴⁺²⁺¹ (fol. 116-117 and fol. 122 are singletons). Quires 9 and 10 are 15th-/16th-century additions ; catchwords in the lower center of the final versoes of the first eight quires, in brown ink. Modern pencil arabic foliation, upper outer recto of each leaf.
Layout: Single column, 20 lines. Bounding and writing lines in light plummet, fol. 91-102 ruled in red ink.
Script: Written in a gothic textualis formata in brown ink with red rubrics. Fol. 91-102 and fol. 106 in slightly later hands.
Decoration (primary): Eleven five- to six-line historiated initials with full bar borders in gold and colors, each with the Mohun, Tiptoft, and/or Wilington arms in the lower margins: The Annunciation. Eleanor of Mohun holding the Mohun arms in her right hand, Tiptoft arms in her left (fol. 1, Matins, Hours of the Virgin) -- The Nativity. Mohun arms (fol. 7, Lauds, Hours of the Virgin) -- The Adoration of the Magi. Tiptoft arms (fol. 17v, Prime, Hours of the Virgin) -- The Presentation. Wilington arms (fol. 20v, Terce, Hours of the Virgin) -- Virgin and Christ in Majesty. Mohun arms (fol. 22v, Sext, Hours of the Virgin) -- The Crucifixion. Tiptoft arms (fol. 24v, Nones, Hours of the Virgin) -- The Descent from the Cross. Wilington arms with Label 5 Points (see provenance section below) (fol. 26, Vespers, Hours of the Virgin) -- The Entombment. Mohun arms (fol. 28, Compline, Hours of the Virgin) -- The Resurrection. Wilington arms (fol. 34, Penitential Psalms) -- The Ascension. Tiptoft arms (fol. 41v, Gradual Psalms) -- Christ in Majesty. No arms (fol. 64, Office of the Dead, Sarum use)
Decoration (secondary): Four-line foliate initial with partial border, added during the 15th-century on fol. 91. Two-line initials in similar style throughout fol. 91-102v. Two-line initials in gold and colors throughout original manuscript in palette of pale blues, greens, and pinks, with partial border inner and upper/lower margins, eleven of them historiated (mostly suffrages): Trinitarian series: The Father (fol. 13v), the Holy Ghost (as a dove, fol. 14, upper), the Son (fol. 14, lower) -- Archangel Michael (fol. 14v) -- St. John the Evangelist (fol. 15, upper) -- St. Thomas of Canterbury (fol. 15, lower) -- St. Nicholas (fol. 15v, upper) -- St. Francis (fol. 15v, lower) -- St. Katherine (fol. 16, upper) -- St. Mary Magdalene (fol. 16, lower) -- St. Margaret (fol. 16v) -- Christ (portrait) (fol. 27v) -- Christ in majesty (three-line) (fol. 64)
Binding: 15th-century pink leather over boards, heavily rubbed, parchment flyleaves and pastedowns (now pulled up), sewn on split tawed bands; housed in a four-flap wrapper within a tan cloth clamshell box.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: R. J. Dean and M. B. M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts (London, 1999); M. Dockray-Miller, "The Middle English Verse of Boston Public Library MS 124," Women and Language 31 (2008): 23-26; M. A. Michael, "The Hours of Eleanor de Mohum: A note on the coats of arms found in Boston Public Library Ms. 1546," The Coat of Arms n.s. 5 (1982): 20-23; Charity Scott-Stokes, Women's Books of Hours in Medieval England (2006); Zoltan Haraszti, "Notable Purchases," BPL Quarterly 7.2 (1955): 72-74 (plate); Zoltan Haraszti, "Twenty-Five Years of the treasure Room," BPL Quarterly 7.3 (1955): 121; Michael A. Michael, "The Privilege of 'Proximity': Towards a Redefinition of Function in Armorials," Journal of Medieval History 23.1 (1997): 55-74; Loveday Lewes Gee, Women, Art and Patronage from Henry III to Edward III, 1216-1377 (2002); C. S. Stokes, undated and unpublished typescript notes, in BPL bibliography file.
Notes (language):
In Latin with some French; later additions in Middle English.
Identifier:
06_01_018687
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Med.124
MS 1546 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999091846558