Egerton MS 2973

BREVIARY of Vallombrosa use, from the monastery of San Salvi, dioc. Florence, as appears from the Calendar. The contents are as follows :- (1) Calendar ; in blue are St. John Gualbert (12 July), St. Salvius (10 Sept.), " Dedicatio sancti ecclesie (sic) Saluii " (24 Sept.), " Consecratio altaris maioris sancti Saluii " (1 Oct.), the translation of S. John Gualbert (10 Oct.), and St. Bernard, Bishop [of Parma ; abbot of San Salvo] (4 Dec.), all except the last marked " duplex maius." In red, Zenobius, Bishop [of Florence] (25 May), Romuald [founder of the Camaldolese order] (20 June), and the Oct. of S. Salvius. In black, Oct. of S. John Gualbert. f. 3 ;-

(2) Psalter, with hymns, antiphons, etc. ; the canticles include the Te Deum twice, with a different rubric in each case (viz. " y[m]nus sancti Niceti d." f. 90, and " ynnus Ambrosii et Augustini," f. 91 b). f. 9 ;-

(3) Litany : the Confessors include " Sancte Pater Benedicte "

and " Sancte Pater Johannes." f. 93;-

(4) Office of the Dead. f. 94;-

-(5) Hymnary, including (f. 106 b) a hymn to S. John Gualbert (U. Chevalier, Repertorium Hymnologicum, no. 9752) with a reference to the ordeal by fire undergone by the monk Peter in 1067. (See F. Hélyot, Histoire Complète et Costumes des Ordres Monastiques, tom. iv (1840), p. 323. f. 98;-

(6) Canticles for the Temporale and Commune Sanctorum. f. 117 b ;-

(7) Office of the Virgin, with rubric

" Incipit officium sancte Marie uirginis: secundum ordinem Uallis Umbrose." f. 122 b;-

(8) Commune Sanctorum. f. 126. A later hand, apparently of the 16th cent., has added a travesty of the Te Deum in honour of the Virgin on f. 1 b. (See Julian, Dict. of Hymnology, p. 1135; J. Wickham Legg in Transactions of the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society, iii, 1895, p. 35, where this version is given from a printed Vallombrosa Breviary). Vellum; ff. 154. 5 7/8 in. x 4 1/4 in. XV. cent. Sec. fol. of text "Sacrificate." Illuminated in Florentine style with twelve small miniatures of the occupations in the lower borders of the Calendar, a large historiated B on f. 9 with full border containing five small miniatures, twenty-seven smaller historiated and four decorative initials ; there is also a small miniature in the lower border of f. 126. much of the original work (notably the miniatures in the Calendar, the Beatus page on f. 9, and the decoration of f. 126) has been repainted following damage done to the book by a Thames flood in the early nineteenth century. (See S. C. Cockerell, The Book of Hours of Yolande of Flanders, p. 4.) Other initials in red and blue. minute human and animal heads have been drawn in outline in the text on many of the leaves, apparently by the scribe himself (e.g. ff. 19-20, 21 b, 113 b, etc.). On f. 1 (a later title-page) is an escutcheon of the Vallombrosa arms, az. a monk's hand, sleeved, grasping a tau-headed staff ppr.; crest, a bishop's mitre. The whole has been repainted. Formerly bound in green velvet (19th cent.) with gilt clasps. Belonged to John Boykett Jarman (sale-cat., Sotheby's, 13 June 1864, lot 24), and Francis Fry, F.S.A., of Bristol (sale-cat., Sotheby's, 26 July 1917, lot 551).