Add MS 21926

Contents:

f. 1r: Fragment of a document in French from the 14th century.

ff. 3r–8v: A calendar with an added note of the appointment of Grandisson as bishop of Exeter (f. 6v) and his death (f. 6r).

ff. 26r–187v: Psalms 1–150; antiphons added in the bottom margin by a slightly later hand, sometimes with music (e.g. ff. 69r, 71v).

ff. 187v–200v: Canticles.

ff. 200v–203r: The Athanasian Creed.

ff. 203r–208r: A litany.

ff. 208v–214v: The office for the Dead; parts of the text have been erased and rewritten in a fourteenth-century hand.

Decoration:

Full-page prefatory miniatures in colours and gold, arranged in two registers per page, with images facing one another and the reverse of the leaf left blank (ff. 9v–25v): Sts Christopher and Margaret (f. 9v); martyrdoms of Sts Catherine and Stephen (f. 10r); martyrdoms of Sts Lawrence and Bartholomew (f. 11v, defaced); martyrdom of Sts Edmund and Edward the Confessor giving the ring to the pilgrim (f. 12r); St Thomas Becket and St Nicholas putting a bag of money into the house of the three poor daughters (f. 13v, effaced); martyrdom of St Peter of Verona and St Francis with birds (f. 14r, effaced); St Eustace wading in a ford, his sons with wild beasts (f. 14v); Annunciation to the shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi (f. 15r); the Presentation of Christ in the temple and the Flight to Egypt (f. 16v); the Baptism of Christ and the disciplines asleep in Gethsemane (f. 17r); the Last Supper and the Betrayal of Christ by Judas (f. 18v); the Flagellation of Christ and the Way of the Cross (f. 19r); the Crucifixion and Harrowing of Hell (f. 20v); the Entombment of Christ and the three Holy Women at the empty tomb (f. 21r); the Resurrection of Christ and the supper at Emmaus (f. 22v); St Thomas touching the side of Christ and Mary Magdalene washing his feet (f. 23r); the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and the Coronation of the Virgin Mary (f. 24v); the Last Judgement (f. 25r); the Tree of Jesse with prophets or evangelists in the corners (f. 25v).

1 full-page miniature in colours and gold preceding Psalm 109, showing creation of Adam, the Temptation of Adam and Eve with a serpent having a woman’s face, Expulsion from Paradise, Cain murdering Abel (f. 150v).

1 full-page historiated initial ‘B’, in colours and gold, showing David fighting Goliath, playing the harp with a woman dancing, being threatened by Saul, and the judgement of Solomon, with animals in the border, busts of prophets, and Synagoga and Ecclesia (f. 26r).

11 large historiated initials in colours and gold: Psalm 26, annointing of David (f. 50r); Psalm 38, pilgrim walking with staff and pointing at his mouth, i.e. referring to ‘Posui ori meo custodiam’ (f. 66v); Psalm 51, Doeg beheading Ahimelech (f. 81r); Psalm 52, fool standing before a man comitting suicide (f. 82r); Psalm 68, Christ blessing between two angels above Jonah coming out of the whale (f. 97v); Psalm 80, Christ blessing between two musicians above another musician set beside Jacob wrestling with the angel (f. 115v); Psalm 97, three clerics singing, a fouth seated, beside a lectern (f. 132v); Psalm 101, woman in a wimple kneeling at an altar and receiving a blessing (f. 135r); Psalm 109, God the Father and God the Son blessing (f. 151r); Canticles, Christ seated, blessing, with a man and woman kneeling (f. 187v); Office of the Dead, a priest with two attendants asperging a shrowded body, with birds holding a candle and bell (f. 208v).

Small roundels in colours and gold in the calendar with labours of the months and signs of the zodiac (ff. 3r–8v).

Initials three lines high opening each section, in colours with gold leaf. The verses of Psalms begin with an enlarged initial alternating between gold (with blue penwork decoration) and blue (with red penwork decoration). Decorated borders with penwork decoration in blue, red, and gold leaf.

Added decoration:

1 drawing with coloured wash of an angel holding the arms of Bishop John Grandisson, added in the 14th century with an ownership inscription (f. 2r).