MS. Lat. liturg. e. 48
Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)
Contents
ending imperfect (at '... Psalmus a quo dicitur eo quod a psalterio no-||') due to the loss of a leaf after p. 6 (cf. Stegmüller, Bibl. 11606).
(cf. Lambert, vol. IIIB, no. 801).
ending imperfect (at '... peccatorum et defunctis et salutem animarum ||') due to the loss of a leaf after p. 8).
starting imperfect in Ps. 2:13 (at '|| ira eius: ...') due to the loss of a leaf before p. 9; Sarum antiphons added in the lower margins where appropriate (see also under Provenance).
Confitebor, Ego dixi, Te deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis.
with Ethelberte first among 20 martyrs (pr. W. H. Frere, L. E. G. Brown, eds., The Hereford Breviary ..., I (Henry Bradshaw Society, 26; London 1904), 24–9); followed by collects.
consisting of just the last three lines.
almost entirely erased; followed by a three-line rubric, also erased; p. 231 ruled, otherwise originally blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in red ink with 25 lines, the top pair and bottom pair extending the full width of the page, single vertical bounding lines extending the full height of the page
Hand(s)
Written in a rounded formal English gothic hand with Italian humanistic features.
Decoration
Headings in red, a few capitals touched in red.
Four surviving large historiated initials; the initials in gold, infilled and entwined with Italianate white vine-scrolls sprouting brown leaves on white-dotted coloured grounds; accompanied by two sided borders of Netherlandish type, consisting of multi-coloured sprays of acanthus and other leaves and flowers (including roses) on sweeping ink stems which sprout little gold and green leaves:
- (p. 59) Psalm 38. Initial D[ixi]: half-length figure of a tonsured cleric in a brown habit reading abook (9-line).
- (p. 78) Psalm 52. Initial D[ixit]: half-length figure of David(?) in prayer (10-line).
- (p. 97) Psalm 68. Initial S[aluum] bust of a bearded man (David?) in what may be a fur-lined hat with badge, or a fur-lined crown (11-line).
- (p. 120) Psalm 97. Initial C[antate]: King David playing a harp (6-line).
There is a similar five-line initial to Ps. 80 (p. 120), and the initials are missing for Pss. 1, 26, 109.
Offsets on p. 7 suggest that a large rectangular miniature with border once faced this page.
Three- or four-line illuminated initials in gold on cusped grounds of blue and pink with white tracery; marginal extensions of gold flowers with petals (occasionally pink) on ink stems from which grow small green leaves, to psalms, prayers, etc.; one-line initials alternately blue with red flourishing, or gold with brown flourishing, to verses and other minor divisions; line-endings in blue and gold.
The illumination is attributed to the 'Caesar Master', on whom see Kathleen L. Scott, The mirroure of the worlde: Ms. Bodley 283 (Roxburghe Club, 1980), 41–4.
Binding
16th-cent. London binding. Sewn on four bands, and bound in wood boards covered with polished dark brown calf, each cover blind-stamped with a rectangular panel; the upper cover with a large vertical panel consisting of four arched compartments containing St. George, St. Barbara, St. Michael, and St. Katherine flanked by the letters/initials 'G R'; the whole surrounded by a frame containing the legend 'quid quit agas | prudenter agas et | respice finem | o mater dei memento mei' (see J. Basil Oldham, Blind panels of English binders (Cambridge, 1958), p. 46, quad 3, and pl. LVIII: ten examples recorded, on books dated between 1523 and 1534); the lower cover with a large horizontal panel containing the English royal arms, with the sun and moon and shields of the arms of the City of London filling the top corners, surrounded by a frame containing the legend 'laudate dominum | de terra | dracones et omnes | abyssi [Ps. 48:7] GR' (see Oldham, op. cit., p. 25, HE 32, and pl. XXIII: always found with the panel on the upper cover; with stubs of two leather clasp-straps, each held by two nails, at the fore-edge of the upper cover, with two corresponding tapering engraved metal catches on the lower cover; rebacked, preserving most of the original spine.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The litany suggests that the book may have been made for someone connected with Hereford
Antiphons added, 15th cent., in lower margins in gothic script in contrasting shades of blue ink as far as Ps. 22 on p. 33; subsequent antiphons added in a more formal gothic script in brown ink. The bottom part of p. 226 appears to have had a cutting from a manuscript pasted-in at some point (now missing), perhaps bearing a devotional image.
Inscribed in the 15th/16th cents. with various notes and names: '... kateryn leyce [or Seyce?]', 'Thomas Sinuph h...' (?), '... delivered to Richard(es)', 'Thomas Power me possidet', 'your sonne Fraunces ...'; bound by 'GR' probably in London in the 1520s-30s.
Joseph Harford, with his bookplate; by descent to Rev. F. K. Harford, Minor Canon of Westminster, sold at Sotheby's 25 April 1899, lot 893, bought by Tregaskis & Son for £31 10s., in their Caxton Headcatalogues, as follows: 436 (June 1899), item 1; 444 (Aug. 1899), item 42; 454 (Dec. 1899), item 392; 472 (Sept. 1900), item 602; 479 (Dec. 1900), item 624; 484 (Mar. 1901), item 649; 492 (June 1901), item 642; 497 (Sept. 1901), item 705 (this number in pencil on the upper pastedown); always priced 50 guineas; with a cutting from the first of these (paginated as pp.i-ii) attached to the upper pastedown.
Unidentified owner, 20th cent., with a pencilled acquisition(?) note and price-code: 'Bates '43 | cost ou/-/' (lower pastedown).
H. W. Pratley, bookseller of Tunbridge Wells
Sold from his estate at Sotheby's, 1 Dec. 1987, lot 40; bought by the Bodleian.
Record Sources
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2017-07-01: First online publication.