Fragment of a pontifical, the Canterbury Benedictional
Scope & Content:
This manuscript contains two originally separate items: ff. 1-16: a fragment of a pontifical, including an Ordo for the blessing of oils; ff. 17-214: the Canterbury Benedictional.
This manuscript contains the so-called 'La Charité Psalter', named after the Cluniac priory of La Charité-sur-Loire where the manuscript was produced at the end of the 12th century. A prayer for a community's abbess on f. 90v suggests that the Psalter was written for a nunnery affiliated with th...
Breviary (the 'Breviary of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria')
Scope & Content:
Breviary of the Use of Rome, known as the 'Breviary of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria'. The manuscript is composed of two parts: Part 1 (ff. 154r-452v) is the summer portion of the breviary made for John the Fearles and his wife, Margaret of Bavaria, which formed originally a single v...
Contents: This manuscript includes a calendar with Augustinian elements, followed by the Psalms, Canticles and Hymns. ff. 1r-6v: A calendar with the zodiac signs. ff. 7r-190v: Psalms, imperfect at the beginning, Psalm 1 and the first verses of Psalm 2 are lacking; beginning: '[ip]sorum. Qui ...
The illumination of this Book of Hours is attributed to the 'Fastolf Master', a French artist working in England who is named after a copy of Christine de Pisan’s Epitre d’Othea with the Livre des quatre vertus that he illuminated for Sir John Fastolf in 1450 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Laud ...
Collection of texts relating to the order of service, made for an Italian house of Poor Clares
Scope & Content:
A collection of texts relating to the order of service, probably made for an Italian house of Poor Clares, as suggested by repeated references to the Order's founders St Francis and St Clare of Assisi (e.g. ff. 10v, 16r, 27r). The manuscript was written in two parts: the first part (ff. 1-24) wa...
Psalter; Expositio Hymnorum; an Old Occitan translation of the Gospel of St John (Chapters 13 to 17); a Benediction in verse; Alcuin, De Laude Psalmorum; the canon Si Quis Suadente from the II Lateran Council (1139)
Scope & Content:
Contents: This 12th-century manuscript from the South of France (Aquitaine) consists of a Psalter with litanies, hymns and an Old Occitan version of the Gospel of St John (chapters 13 to 17). It ends with Alcuin's treatise about the use of the book of Psalms, followed by a canon from the II Lat...
Obituary calendar of the Augustinian convent of St Margaret in Gouda; Rule of St Augustine; Sermon of Bernard of Clairvaux; Usuard, Martyrology; Hugh of Saint-Victor, Expositio in Regulam S. Augustini
Scope & Content:
This manuscript served as a 'chapter book' for the Augustinian convent of the canonesses regular of St Margaret in Gouda, South Holland, in the Netherlands. The manuscript opens with a necrology, or obituary calendar, from the convent from which was read at the convent's daily chapter meetings t...
The Leofric Collectar, comprising a collectar, a hymnal and a series of sequences for a community of secular canons. The manuscript is imperfect: it ends mid-sequence and appears to be missing its final quire. Judging by its script, it was made at Exeter during the episcopate of Bishop Leofric ...
A decorated prayerbook with extracts from the Gospels. The text and decoration link it to a group of Southumbrian prayerbooks known as the 'Tiberius Group'. In particular, its script and contents are related to those in Royal MS 2 A XX (the Royal Prayerbook), Harley MS 7653 (the Harley Prayerbo...