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Add MS 38604
- Record Id:
- 032-002057892
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002057892
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000039.0x000252
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100172077561.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 38604
- Title:
-
Breviary for Birgittine Use
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains an illuminated Breviary. A rubric at the beginning of the volume (f. 16r) states that it was made in 1470 for a Sister Margarita, daughter of Alessio Saluzzo, upon her entry into the Birgittine monastery of Scala Coeli in Genoa.
Contents:
ff. 1r-6v: Calendar, including the feast-days for the Translation (28 May), Deposition (23 July), and Canonisation (7 October) of St Birgitta of Sweden.
ff. 7r-15r: 'Ordo cantus et lecture sororum Ordinis sancti saluatoris', a set of songs and readings for the Order of St Birgitta of Sweden.
ff. 16r-131v: Psalter.
ff. 131v-143r: Canticles, including the 'Te Deum', arranged with musical notation.
ff. 143r-145r: The Athanasian Creed.
f. 145r: The Pater Noster.
f. 145r-v: The Apostles' Creed.
ff. 145v-146r: The Nicene Creed.
f. 146r-v: The Latin hymn, 'Gloria in excelsis deo'.
ff. 146v-151v: Office of the Holy Spirit.
ff. 152r-158v: Litany, with double invocation of St Birgitta.
ff. 160r-253v: Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, arranged with musical notation, and including prayers dedicated to St Birgitta.
ff. 253v-257r: Order for the blessing of the altar.
The manuscript contains a number of later additions:
f. ii verso: an added 17th-century engraving of the Virgin Mary, captioned ‘Regina Caeli’.
f. iii recto: an added prayer in Latin, written in a 17th-century hand, beginning, 'Deus qui nobis in sancta sindone'.
Inside lower cover: an added 17th-century printed fragment containing an 'Atto di Contritione' (Act of Contrition), written in Italian, beginning, 'Signor mio Giesu Christo; vero Dio, & huomo, Creatore, e Redentor mio...'
ff. 159r, 257v, and iii verso are blank.
Decoration:
2 full-page miniatures in colours and gold with full borders, depicting the Virgin and Child (f. 15v) and the Annunciation (f. 159v).
1 historiated initial 'B'(eatus) of a haloed figure in colours and gold with a full border, at the beginning of the Psalter (f. 16r).
18 decorated initials in colours and gold, with foliate extensions, at major textual divisions (ff. 29v, 33v, 44v, 55r, 65v, 79r, 91v, 104r, 122r, 146v, 162v, 176r, 186v, 196v, 206v, 218r, 231r, 245v).
Large puzzle initials in alternating blue and red, with pen-flourishing or penwork decoration in red or blue. Small initials in alternating blue and red.
12 large 'KL' initials in blue or red with red pen-flourishing, accompanying the calendar (ff. 1r-6v). Horizontal catchwords with decorative frames.
Paraph marks in blue ink. Rubrics.
Musical notation on a four-line stave (ff. 138v-142r, 160r-161r, 162v-165r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002057892", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 38604: Breviary for Birgittine Use" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002057892
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002057892
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100172077561.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1470
- End Date:
- 1470
- Date Range:
- 1470
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 135 x 100 mm (text space: 95 x 90 mm), written in two columns.
Foliation: ff. iv + 257 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. i is an engraved bookplate pasted on the inside upper cover; f. ii is an engraving pasted on f. [i] verso; f. iii is a paper note affixed to f. [iv] recto; f. iv is a printed fragment pasted on the inside lower cover.
Collation: Mostly gatherings of 8.
Horizontal catchwords.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Italian (17th or 18th century). Bound in brown morocco, blind-tooled, stamped with representations of the Crucifixion on the upper cover and the risen Christ on the lower cover, between gilt initials S(orores) S(ancte) B(rigide), with a single leather clasp and metal equipment remaining.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Genoa, Italy.
The manuscript was written for the use of Sister Margarita, daughter of Alessio of Saluzzo, on her entry into the Birgittine monastery of Scala Coeli in Genoa in 1470: the inscribed rubric, 'MCCCCLXX die dominico xviii Februarii, eodem dic pro septilagesima currente, ego soror Margarita filia Alexii Salucii ingressa sum monasterium sacre obseruantie sanetarum Marie uirginis et Brigide de Ianua nuncupatum. et ad honorem Dei et salutem anime mee hunc breuiarium secundum ordinem nostrum pro meo usu scribi uolui. qui liber inceptus est die XV Martii eiusdem anni' (f. 16r).
Provenance:
William Harcourt Hooper (b. 1834, d. 1912), craftsman and engraver: his bookplate, designed by Henry Stacy Marks (inside upper cover; see also Add MS 38603); his sale, Sotheby's, 15 July 1912, lot 202; purchased by the British Museum, together with Add MS 38603 for £15 4s 6d (see inscription f. [i] recto).
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1911-1915 (London, 1925), pp. 163-64.
N. R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969-2002), III: Lampeter-Oxford (1983), p. 6.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 389.
Giacomo Baroffio, 'Kalendaria Italica Inventario', Aevum, 77 (2003), 449-72.
Brian Richardson, Women and the Circulation of Texts in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), p. 177.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)