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Add MS 38645
- Record Id:
- 032-002057941
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002057941
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000039.0x000267
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100064370116.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 38645
- Title:
-
Benedictional and Pontifical
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript contains two collections of blessings: a Benedictional, containing texts for blessing sacerdotal objects, clothes, and monastic buildings; and a Pontifical, containing texts for rites exclusively performed by bishops. The manuscript was owned and perhaps also produced by the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Sauveur at Anchin in the 12th century. Subsequently, it belonged to the Benedictine priory of Aymeries in Cambrai, a dependency of Saint-Saveur, in the 16th century.
f. 1r: two prayers for the consecration of a pyx, possibly added in the 12th century.
ff. 1v-21r: Formulas for the purification of the baptismal water, and parts and belongings of the abbey, including the church, infirmary, dormitory, refectory, kitchen, cellar, church entrance, stations of the Cross, sacerdotal vestments and objects (paten, chrismatory, chalice, corporal, holy water, staff and mitre), food (bread and fruit), and a new house, beginning ‘Exorcismus salis et aque in dominicis diebus’.
ff. 21r-47r: Episcopal blessings for Mass for the liturgical year (including feast from the Temporal and Sanctoral), daily blessings (ff. 40v-44v), blessing for the king (ff. 44v-45r), the dedication of a church (ff. 45r-47r), beginning ‘Incipiunt benedictiones episcopales ad missam’.
ff. 47r-61v: The order of Baptism, with interlinear case endings that make the formulas applicable to children of a different sex, and for the baptism of multiple children, a litany of saints (ff. 53r-54v), instructions for blessings and exorcisms, ending with a prayer against lightning and a blessing for a new house, beginning ‘Incipit ordo super electos ad caticuminum faciendum’.
ff. 62r-77r: Collects for the Temporal (on ff. 67-72v), from Christmas Eve to Trinity Sunday; and Sanctoral (ff. 72v-77r) from St Stephen to St Nicholas; including St Dionysius, Rusticus and Eleutherio (ff. 76v-77r), beginning ‘In purificationis Sancte Marie’.
ff. 78v-91r: Blessings for monks, including tonsure and consecration, extreme unction; with a litany for deceased monks (ff. 87r-89r), beginning ‘Benedictio ad monachum faciendum ad sucurendum, et ad clericum benedicendum’ [erased].
ff. 91v-97r: Blessings for burials, beginning ‘Hic incipit sepelitio defuncti’.
ff. 97v-101r: Blessings for the monastic offices of abbot, prior, cellarer, cook, beginning ‘In electione domni abbatis’.
ff. 101v-102r: Collects, beginning ‘in Transfiguratione Domini’, properly belonging to the section on ff. 62r-76r.
f. 102r: A form of excommunication.
ff. 103r-103v: Commendation of the Souls, imperfect, beginning ‘Incipit commendatio fidelium animarum’.
The manuscript contains a later addition:
ff. 104r-104v: A leaf from a 13th-century manuscript, containing 80 lines of Li Romans d' Alexandre (The Romance of Alexander) by Lambert li Tors (fl. 12th century) and Alexandre de Bernay (fl. 12th century); numbered ‘lxvi’ by a 16th- or 17th-century scribe.
[ff. i recto, i verso, ii verso, iii recto, 102v are empty].
Decoration:
1 large gold initial with pen-work decoration in green and red inside the letter, in a blue frame (f. 1v); 1 large initial outlined by brown ink, with foliate interlace with red accents and green and blue fillers inside the letter (f. 21v); 2 large initials drawn in red ink with gold filler (f. 76v); 2 initials with human faces in brown ink, possibly added later (f. 77v and f. 78r). Large initials in green, red, purple, or blue some with minor pen-work decoration in a contrasting colour, some with more significant pen-work decoration, featuring foliate elements and hybrid figures (e.g. a dragon or griffon on f. 70v and f. 72v); small initials in red throughout the manuscript; 2 marginal drawings of a seven-pointed star on f. 17v (possibly illustrating a form of blessing).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002057941", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 38645: Benedictional and Pontifical" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002057941
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002057941
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100064370116.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1100
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: Dimensions: 195 x 130 mm (text space: 155 x 80 mm).
Foliation: ff. iii + 104 (2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); f. 104 originally served as a flyleaf; f. i and f. iii are modern paper flyleaves; f. ii is a modern paper pasted onto a paper stub; 1 parchment stub between f. 81 and f. 82; f. 88 and f. 89; four paper stubs between f. 8 and f. 9; f. 32 and f. 33; f. 40 and f. 41; f. 64 and f. 65; f. 88 and f. 89; a torn fragment of paper with a printed text in German is glued to the pastedown of the lower cover.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Black gold-tooled half leather binding, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘BENEDICTIONAL OF ANCHIN’; marbled endpapers; pastedowns with floral patterns in gold covered with red, green and purple paint, probably from a previous binding; red book-edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Anchin, Northern France.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Sauveur (St Saviour) at Anchin (Pecquencourt), owned in the 12th century: its name inscribed on f. 80v: ‘obedientiam secundum regulam sancti Benedicti [...] in hoc monasterio quod est constructum in honore Sancti Salvatoris’; the litany for deceased monks (ff. 87r-89r) includes St Piatus of Tournai; St Quentin of Amiens; St Gaugeric, Bishop of Cambrai; St Aldegonde, Abbess of Maubeuge; St Maxellendis of Caudry (near Cambrai); St Hunegundis of Lemblais; St Ragenfreda, Abbess of Denain; St Rictrude, Abbess of Marchiennes Abbey; and many others characteristic of the extreme North-East of France; the order of baptism (ff. 47r-61v) also includes the name of St Rictrude.
The Benedictine priory of Aymeries in Cambrai (a dependency of St Saviour), owned in the 16th century: ownership note in a 16th-century script on f. 1r: ‘Au Prioré d' Aymerie[s]’.
An unidentified French owner: French notes, possible the name of an owner ‘J. Du Boi[...] [?]’, written four times, in 16th- or 17th-century script.
An unidentified 18th- or 19th-century French owner: inscribed a description of the manuscript (in French) on f. iii verso.
An unidentified 18th- or 19th-century German owner: inscribed a description of the manuscript (in German) on f. ii recto.
An unidentified 18th- or 19th-century English owner: his name inscribed on f. iii recto: ‘Harding’; perhaps his shelf-marks on f. i verso and f. iii verso: ‘No 50’.
Sir Thomas Phillipps (b. 1792, d. 1872), baronet, collector of books and manuscript: his shelf-mark inscribed in ink on f. 1r (‘Phillipps MS 6661’); and in pencil on f. i verso (‘MSS Ph 6661’); his catalogue of manuscripts (Catalogus (1837), p. 99 (no. 6661 of ‘MSS. de ignoto’)); his sale Sotheby’s, London, 27 April, 1903, 1903, lot. 120 [but unsold?]; his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 20 November 1912, lot 202 (note on f. iii recto: ‘Purchased at Sotheby’s 20 November 1912, lot 202’); purchased by the British Museum as part of 5 lots that were acquired for the sum of £177.9.0.
- Information About Copies:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca D. Thomæ Phillipps, Bart., A. D. 1837 (Middle Hill: Phillipps, 1837), p. 99 (no. 6661).
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1911-1915, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1925 ; repr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), I: Descriptions, pp. 173-74.
Edward B. Garrison, Studies in the History of Mediaeval Italian Painting, 4 vols (Florence: L’impronta, 1953-62), I, fig. 12.
J. Brückmann, 'Latin Manuscript Pontificals and Benedictionals in England and Wales', Traditio, 29 (1973), 391-458 (pp. 427-28).
Mary C. Mansfield, The Humiliation of Sinners: Public Penance in Thirteenth-century France (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), pp. pp. 165, n. 16, 207, n. 37, 306.
Christian Jaser, Ecclesia maledicens: Rituelle und zeremonielle Exkommunikationsformen im Mittelalter, Spätmittelalter, Humanismus, Reformation, 75 (Tübingen: Siebeck, 2013), pp. 95, 115, 207, n. 756, 212, n. 784, 225, 231, n. 879, 236, n. 906, 537.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.