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Add MS 23935
- Record Id:
- 032-002097578
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002097578
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000041.0x00037c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100181691937.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 23935
- Title:
-
Exemplar of the revised Dominican liturgy, made for the use of Humbert of Romans
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript is one of three surviving exemplars containing the collected revised liturgy for the Dominican Order, produced at the convent of Saint-Jacques in Paris, following a period of reform and unification that took place during the mid-13th century. The volume was made in the early part of the 1260s for the personal use of Humbert of Romans (b. c. 1190-1200, d. 1277), the fifth Master General of the Order, and was probably taken with him on his travels to resolve any queries concerning the revised liturgy. It contains 12 of the 14 major liturgical books, lacking only the breviary and private missal, most likely on the grounds that Humbert would have had his own separate copies of these texts. A further two sections were subsequently added at the beginning and end of the volume (ff. 3r-22v, 572r-579v) during the 14th century.
The two other surviving exemplars are now held in the general archives of the Dominican Order in Rome (Santa Sabina, MS XIV L 1) and the convent of San Esteban in Salamanca (MS SAL.-CL.01).
On the dating of the manuscript, and for a further description and discussion, see Giraud, 'The Production and Notation of Dominican Manuscripts in Thirteenth-Century Paris' (2013), pp. 122-39.
Contents:
f. 2v: A list of the manuscript's contents.
ff. 23r-46v: Ordinal.
ff. 47r-80v: Martyrology.
ff. 81r-98v: Collectar.
ff. 98v-106v: Processional.
ff. 107r-140v: Psalter.
ff. 141r-248v: Lectionary.
ff. 249r-377v: Antiphoner.
ff. 378r-443v: Gradual.
ff. 444r-479v: Pulpitarium.
ff. 480r-525v: Missal.
ff. 526r-571v: Epistle and Gospel Lectionaries.
The manuscript contains a number of later additions:
ff. 3r-22r: Liturgical material, including proper Office items, Mass items and lections for feasts incorporated into the Dominican calendar between 1262 and 1357, added in a 14th-century hand.
ff. 572r-579v: Constitutiones of the Dominican Order (as they were between 1358 and 1363), added in a 14th-century hand.
Decoration:
The decoration of the manuscript has been attributed to an artist of the Johannes Grusch Atelier, working with another from the Sainte-Chapelle Group, both based in Paris (see Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris (1977), pp. 223, 237). The decoration accompanying the manuscript's 14th-century additions (ff. 3r-22v, 572r-579v) has been identified as the work of the Parisian artist Jaquet Maci (see Gousset, 'La décoration du ‘Prototype’' (2004), p. 53).
Large and small foliate initials in colours and gold. Large puzzle initials in blue and gold, with red penwork decoration (ff. 3r-22r, 572r-579v).
Small initials in blue with red penwork decoration, or red with blue penwork decoration. 'KL' initials in red and blue (ff. 47r-48r, 81r-82r).
Paraph marks in red and blue. Running titles in blue and red display script.
Rubrics. Underlinings in red. Marginal notes framed in red.
Square musical notation on a four-line stave in red ink throughout.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002097578", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 23935: Exemplar of the revised Dominican liturgy, made for the use of Humbert of Romans" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002097578
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002097578
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_23935 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1255
- End Date:
- 1265
- Date Range:
- c 1260
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment (possibly 'uterine vellum', extremely fine).
Dimensions: 267 x 172 mm (written space: 173 x 114 mm), written in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 579 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the end); f. 1 is a pastedown affixed to the inside upper cover; f. 2 is a medieval parchment flyleaf; the remnants of parchment tabs affixed to ff. 250v, 378r, 444r, 480r.
Horizontal catchwords. Quire signatures.
Script: Gothic, written by three scribes: 'Scribe 1' (ff. 23r-80v, 249r-479v), 'Scribe 2' (ff. 81r-106v, 117r-248v, 480r-571v), and 'Scribe 3' (ff. 107r-116v).
Binding: Pre-1600 (14th-century, French). Sheepskin binding over wooden boards, thong-clasps, the upper metal clasp and two outer pins modern replacements; the spine rebacked, the remnants of the original spine affixed to the inside lower cover.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Paris, France.
The manuscript was made at the Dominican convent of Saint Jacques in Paris in the early 1260s as a personal copy of the revised Dominican liturgy for Humbert of Romans (b. c. 1190-1200, d. 1277), the fifth Master General of the Dominican Order: inscribed, 'Iste liber factus est pro magistro ordinis quicumque fuerit pro tempore ut quicumque dubitaverint in aliquot de officio possint per eum rectificari. Non est [recurrendum] ad exemplar qui facile dest[ruitur] propter operis subtilitatem' (f. 2r).
The text of this inscription had faded and was made readable by a chemical reagent supplied by Sir George Frederic Warner (b. 1845, d. 1936), Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum (1904-1911), who subsequently transcribed it (see Legg, Tracts on the Mass (1904), p. xxii); it is now no longer visible.
Provenance:
Jacques de Peradello (fl. 1418-1426), Prior of the Convent of San Domenico, Bologna: inscribed, 'Ego frater iacobus de peradello positus ad custodiam armarij inferioris inueni defectum incisionis in principio ipsius libri sicut patet' (Inside front cover).
The Dominican convent of Toulouse: recorded in the 1552 inventory of the convent's books (see Morard, 'La bibliothèque évaporée' (2014), p. 87).
The manuscript was still housed at the convent by the early 18th century when its presence was noted by the French Dominican historians Jacques Quétif and Jacques Échard (see Quétif and Échard, Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum (1719), I, pp. 143-44). It remained at the convent until the dissolution of the community following the French Revolution (1789-1799): on this identification and the history of the manuscript at the convent, see Smith, 'The Toulouse Exemplar of the Dominican Liturgy' (2023).
É. L. J. É. Audin (fl. 19th century), French bookseller based in Florence: listed in the bookseller's 1839 catalogue (see Audin, Catalogue de livres imprimés et manuscrits (1839), no. 23).
Lancelot Holland (b. 1781, d. 1859), British army officer and diarist, and Henry Holland Jr (b. 1775, d. 1855).
Purchased by the British Museum at Sotheby's, 31 July 1860, lot 1958, for £68 through Messrs Boone, London booksellers, together with Add MS 23934.
- Publications:
-
Jacques Quétif and Jacques Échard, Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum recensiti, notisque historicis et criticis illustrati (Paris: Ballard et Simart, 1719), I, pp. 143-44.
É. L. J. É. Audin, Catalogue de livres imprimés et manuscrits (Florence: Imprimerie de Félix Lemonnier, 1839), no. 23.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1860 (London: British Museum, 1875), pp. 920-21.
The Palaeographic Society: Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Second series, ed. by Edward Augustus Bond, Edward Maunde Thompson, and George Frederic Warner (London: Cloves and Sons, 1884-1894), II, pl. 112.
Edward Maunde Thompson, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography (London: Kegan Paul, 1894), p. 38.
John Wickham Legg, Tracts on the Mass (London: Harrison and Sons, 1904), pp. xxi-xxiv, 71-94, 243-46.
Guide to the Manuscripts, Autographs, Charters, Seals, Illuminations and Bindings Exhibited in the Department of Manuscripts in the Grenville Library (London: British Museum, 1906), p. 84.
Georgina Rosalie Cole-Baker, 'An 'Attracted' Script', The English Historical Review, 36 (1921), 420-422.
Georgina Rosalie Galbraith, The Constitution of the Dominican Order, 1216-1360 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1925), pp. 193-253.
Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen. 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. LXXV.
William R. Bonniwell, A History of the Dominican Liturgy (New York: J. F. Wagner, 1944), pp. 94-96.
Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint-Louis: A Study of Styles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 82, 83, 223, 227, fig. 225.
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. 292.
Marie-Therese Gousset, 'La décoration du ‘Prototype’ et des manuscrits liturgiques apparentés', Documents, études et répertoires de l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, 67 (2004), 43-57 (pp. 53-55).
Michel Huglo, 'Comparaison du prototype du couvent Saint-Jacques de Paris avec l’exemplaire personnel du maître de l’ordre des prêcheurs (Londres, British Library, Add. MS 23935)', in Aux origines de la liturgie dominicaine: le manuscrit Santa Sabina XIV L 1, ed. by Leonard E. Boyle and Pierre-Marie Gy (Rome: École française de Rome, 2004), pp. 197–214.
John Haines, 'The Origins of the Musical Staff', Musical Quarterly, 91 (2008), 327-78 (pp. 361-62).
Richard Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medieval England, A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 312, 317.
Eleanor Giraud, 'The Production and Notation of Dominican Manuscripts in Thirteenth Century Paris', unpublished PhD dissertation (University of Cambridge, 2013), pp. vii, 27-28, 30, 50, 54, 61, 63, 78, 91, 93-97, 98, 100, 101, 104, 107, 122-39, 146, 147, 148, 156-73, 182-91, 192, 199, 205-06, 208, 227, 232-41, 248-69
Laura Light, 'The Thirteenth-Century Pandect and the Liturgy: Bibles with Missals', in Form and Function in the Late Medieval Bible, ed. by Eyal Poleg and Laura Light (Boston: Brill, 2013), pp. 185-216 (p. 205).
Martin Morard, 'La bibliothèque évaporée. Livres et manuscrits des dominicains de Toulouse (1215–1840)’, in Entre stabilité et itinérance: Livres et culture des ordres mendiants, XIIIe-XVe siècle, ed. by Nicole Bériou, Martin Morard, and Donatella Nebbiai Dalla Guarda, Bibliologia, 37 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), pp. 73–128 (p. 87).
Eleanor Giraud, 'The Dominican Scriptorium at Saint-Jacques, and its Production of Liturgical Exemplars', in Scriptorium: Wesen, Funktion, Eigenheiten. Comite International de Paleographie Latine, XVIII. Internationaler Kongress, St. Gallen, 11-14. September 2013 (Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2015), pp. 247-58.
Eleanor Giraud, 'The Dominicans and Their Identity in Medieval Britain and Ireland: Evidence from Dominican Gospel Lections', in Music and Liturgy in Medieval Britain and Ireland, ed. by Ann Buckley and Lisa Colton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), pp. 269-91 (pp. 283, 288, 290-91).
Richard Finn, The Dominicans in the British Isles and Beyond: A New History of the English Province of the Friars Preachers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), p. 53.
Innocent Smith, 'The Toulouse Exemplar of the Dominican Liturgy: A Note on the Provenance of London, British Library, Add. Ms. 23935', The Library (2023).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)