Egerton MS 3759

THE CROWLAND GRADUAL Gradual of Crowland Abbey, co. Linc.; 13th cent., with additions, 14th cent. Latin. Imperfect. See D. H. Turner, 'The Crowland Gradual: an English Benedictine manuscript', Ephemerides Liturgicae, lxxiv, Rome, 1960, pp. 168-74. Probably written for the Precentor's use when ruling the choir on the days which it covers. Contains, except for the feast of St Anne, the masses for the days graded in albis or above in the 15th cent. Crowland calendar, Lambeth Palace MS. 873, with their vigils and octaves where appropriate. See F. Wormald, English Benedictine Calendars after 1100, i, Henry Bradshaw Society, lxxvii, 1938, pp. 113-28. The only significant discrepancy is over the octave day of the Nativity of the B. V. Mary, which occurs here but is only of 12 lesson rank in Lambeth 873. Presumably at Crowland in 1538 when the leaves after f. 15 were torn out and the title of the feast of Becket's translation (f. 101) and the indications of Papal rank after the name of St Gregory the Great erased (f. 77). The names of William (f. 16), Matthew (f. 63) and (dated 1655) Thomas (f. 140) Manning occur in the book. The names of Edw[ard] and Roger Howman on ff. i and vb suggest that it belonged to the Norfolk family of Howman, from whom it passed to a descendant, G. J. Little of Newbold Pacey Hall, co. Warw. See Sotheby's sale-cat., 3 Apr. 1957, lot 91b.

Vellum; ff. vii+157. 215 x 145mm. First half of XIII cent., but after 1220, as the Translation of Becket is included (f. 101). Gatherings irregular. Nine lines of text and music to a page. Initials in red and blue, decorated with red, blue and green scroll work, as in Add. MS. 35168. Directions to the rubricator survive in margins. Music in square notation on a red four-line stave, with C, D, G, B flat and B natural clefs. Includes marginal indications for the melody of the Kyrie and of the Gloria in excelsis and number of performers for certain pieces. Brown calf binding, 17th cent.

Contents:–

1. ff. 1-57b. Temporale from Christmas to the Octave of Pentecost. Imperfect, by the loss of the text up to the words luciferum genuite in the Gradual for Christmas night, as well as three folios after f. 15, presumably containing the Mass of St Thomas Becket (29 Dec.), half of f. 16, and five folios, containing Tuesday to Friday in Whit week, after f. 49.

2. ff. 57b-147. Sanctorale from the Vigil of St Andrew to St Katherine of Alexandria. Includes masses for local saints, i.e. Pega (8 Jan.), Guthlac (11 Apr., 23 Aug.; directions for an Octave added at ff. 81b-83b, 14th cent.), Botulf (17 June), Neot (31 July), Bartholomew (24 Aug., with an Octave) and Wulfram (15 Oct.).

3. ff. 147b-153b. Sequences and part of the Mass of the Dedication. At the end (ff. 154, 154b), is added part of the Mass of Corpus Christi, 14th cent.