Add MS 49363

HOLKHAM HALL MSS. Vol. XIII (formerly Holkham MS. 39). CLUNIAC BREVIARY AND MISSAL, in Latin, written and illuminated in England, circa 1280-1290, possibly for use when travelling, perhaps by a superior of the jurisdiction of La Charité-sur-Loire in England (see D. H. Turner and R. Stockdale, The Benedictines in Britain, 1980, pp. 45, 47, 106). Cited as a source (B15, C4) in A. Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to their Organization and Terminology, Toronto, 1982 (see description on pp. 396 and 404, and paragraphs 877, 878 n. 18, 880 n. 24 and fig. 8.17 on pp. 227-31), and also described by Hughes in his unpublished typescript 'Forty-Seven Medieval Office Manuscripts in the British Museum: a Provisional Inventory of Antiphonals and Breviaries', pp. 26-7, a copy of which is deposited in the Department of Manuscripts. Masses are provided for only the more important occasions. Belonged to Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, whose signature appears on f. 1 on either side of an erased coat of arms, and afterwards to Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham, whose bookplate is inside the front cover (f. i).

Vellum and paper; ff. iv+380. 150 x 100mm. Sec. fol. 'essemus'. Gatherings of 12, except for xxviii10, xxix10, xxxiii8, xxxiv8 (xvii lacks 8, 9; xxvii lacks 4, 9; xxviii lacks 7-10; xxix lacks 1-5, xxx lacks 12), with catchwords. Double columns with 32 lines to a page. 18th cent. binding with gold roll-tolled borders on both covers and title and ornamentation on the spine. On the front cover the Coke crest of an ostrich on a chapeau holding in its mouth a horseshoe (see H. M. Nixon, 'Notes on the Bindings of the Holkham Books', B.M.Q., xvii, 1952, p. 40). Cropped.

Contents:–

1. ff. 1-144b, 193-238b. Temporal, 1st Sunday in Advent to 22nd Sunday after the Octave of Pentecost. The Psalter is misbound in the middle of the temporal (ff. 145-192b) and there is a lacuna between the last part of the collect at lauds on Friday in Whitweek and the first part of the first lesson at matins on Trinity Sunday (ff. 199b, 200). The last part of the temporal is missing, after the first words of the first lesson at matins on 22nd Sunday after the Octave of Pentecost (f. 238b). Proper prefaces are provided for St Stephen (f. 27b), St John the Evangelist (f. 30b), the Holy Innocents (f. 33b) and the Circumcision (f. 38b), and the sequence of Alleluia verses for the Sundays after Pentecost is the standard Cluniac type as in the eleventh century gradual, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. lat. 1087 (see Le Graduel Romain, Edition critique, ii (Les Sources), Solesmes, 1957, p. 97, and the Missale ordinis Cluniacensis, printed by S. Vostre and G. de Marnef, Paris, 1510). In the Easter vigil the litany is of the short type and mentions Benedict, but no specifically Cluniac saints. The office of St Thomas Becket (ff. 34-36) is rhymed and similar to that in G. M. Dreves, Analecta Hymnica, vol. xiii, Leipzig, 1892, pp. 238-42. The present MS. and Oxford, University College, MS. 101, a contemporary Cluniac breviary from Pontefract priory, later at Monkbretton priory, are the earliest English witnesses for the complete rhymed office of Becket.

2. ff. 145-192b. Psalter, Canticles and Litany. The beginning of the psalter, as far as Ps. 26: 34, is missing. The litany has thirty-one invocations of martyrs, including Stephen, Clement, Alexander, Marcellus, Austremonius, Ignatius, Jovinianus, Marinus, Laurence, Vincent, Edmund, Thomas, Aelphege, Alban, Marcellus, Quintin and Pancras, twenty-nine invocations of confessors, including Sylvester, Hilary, Martin, Martial, Gregory, Amatar, Germanus, Taurinus, Aquilinus, Eucherius, Nicolas, Dunstan, Swithin, Albinus, Cuthbert, Benedict, Maurus, Philibert, Columban, Giles, Odo, Majolus, Odilo, Hugh, Leonard, and Gerald, and eighteen invocations of virgins, including Margaret, Scholastica, Milburga, Mildred, Radegundis, Walburga, Florentia, Consorcia and Daria. Jovinian's is the only name which seems to point to a definite Cluniac mother house, namely to La Charité-sur-Loire, where his relics were. The litany in the late thirteenth century psalter from La Charité, Metz, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS. 1187 (see V. Leroquais, Les Psautiers Manuscrits des Bibliothèques Publiques de France, Mâcon, 1940-1, vol. i, pp. 265-7) is similar to that in the present MS. After the litany in the present MS. are the blessing of Holy Water and masses for the Sundays in Advent, Christmas Eve (with a proper preface, f. 192b), and Christmas Night. The section ends imperfectly, at the title of the epistle on Christmas Night.

3. ff. 365-372, 239-360. Sanctoral. The beginning is missing and the first surviving gathering, Philip and James - Dunstan, is misbound as ff. 365-372. After a gap the sanctoral should continue at f. 239, Nicomedes and Reverianus. It concludes with Thomas the Apostle, with further lacunae occurring after ff. 262, 272, 311, 315, 324, 340. The following appear to be the entries which are not standard (cf. Leroquais, 'Carolingian Sanctoral' in Les Bréviaires Manuscrits des Bibliothèques Publiques de France, i, Paris, 1934, pp. cxxx-cxxxii):- f. 365, Athanasius, Bp. and Doctor; f. 367b, Quiriacus, Bp. M.; f. 367b, Jovinian, M. and Lector; f. 370b, Gregory of Nazianzus; f. 370b, Majolus; f. 372, Victor and Corona; f. 372, Dunstan;

f. 239, Reverian (with Nicomedes); f. 239b, Medard; f. 239b, Barnabas, Ap.; f. 240b, Basil, Bp.; f. 240b, Cyricus and Julitta; f. 241, Florentia;

f. 241b, Alban and 'Ipso die' Consortia; f. 249, the Invention of Milburga;

f. 249b, Irenaeus and his companions; f. 258b, Swithin; f. 260b, the Translation of Martin; f. 263, Martial, Bp.; f. 264, the Translation of Benedict, with an octave; f. 267, Mildred; f. 267b, Margaret; f. 268, Victor and Ursus and their companions; f. 268, Mary Magdalen; f. 273, Germanus; f. 279, Oswald, K. M.; f. 279b, the Transfiguration, with an octave; f. 282, Justus and Pastor (with Sixtus, Felicissimus and Agapitus); f. 290, Radegundis; f. 303, Genesius and Genesius, Mm., and 'Ipso die' Aredius, Abb.; f. 303, Philibert, Abb.; f. 304, Caesarius, Bp.; f. 307, Hermes and Julian, Mm.; f. 308, Giles; f. 308b, Justus, Bp. C.; f. 308b, Marcellus. M.;

f. 309b, Cyriacus; f. 317, Maurice and his companions; f. 319, Andochius, Thyrsus, and Felicissimus; f. 319b, Exuperius; f. 323, Victor and Ursus;

f. 323b, Germanus, Remigius and Vedast; f. 324, Leadegarius; f. 324b, Faith, V.; f. 324b, Dionysius, Rusticus and Eleutherius; f. 327, Gerald;

f. 327b, Junianus; f. 329, Aquilinus, Bp. C.; f. 329b, Leothadius, Bp. C.;

f. 330b, the Eleven Thousand Virgins; f. 332b, Theuderius, C.; f. 336b, Lauthenus, Abb.; f. 336b, Benignus and Eustace (with Caesarius); f. 337b, Quintin, M. and 'Ipso die' Valentine and Hilary, Mm.; f. 338, Austremonius, Bp. M.; f. 338b, Leonard, Abb.; f. 341b, Brice, Bp.; f. 342b, Edmund, Bp. C.; f. 342b, Eucherius; f. 343, Anianus and Gregory; f. 344b, Odo; f. 345, Edmund, K. M.; f. 346, Columban; f. 349b, Peter, Bp. M.; f. 350, Vitalis and Agricola; f. 353b, 'Tumulatio sancti benedicti'; f. 353b, Nicholas;

f. 356b, the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary; f. 357b, Syrus, Bp. C.; f. 358, Eulalia and 'Ipso die' Valeria. On ff. 368-70 is a rare rhymed office for the feast of St John before the Latin Gate, which is given as an alternative to the ordinary office. Dreves printed a version in Analecta Hymnica, xxvi, Leipzig, 1897, pp. 154-7, using as a source, apparently, a Dutch breviary of the thirteenth century, which he collated with the Pontefract and Monkbretton breviary, Oxford, University College, MS. 101. It should also be noted that on f. 370b is a responsory entitled: In oct. eius (sc. John before the Latin Gate).

4. ff. 360-363. Office of the Dedication of a Church.

5. ff. 363-364b. Common of Saints (imperfect, only the first part of the Common of Apostles remains).

6. ff. 373-380b. Rites of monastic profession (imperfect at beginning), visitation of the sick and extreme unction, followed by commendation of the dying, the burial of the dead, and the office of the dead (imperfect at end). The litany of the sick is almost exactly the same as that after the psalter (see above).

Fifteen historiated initials, viz:- f. 20b, the Nativity; f. 34b, the Martyrdom of Becket; f. 142, the Ascension; f. 295b, the Coronation of the Virgin (with a sketch for the scene in the margin); f. 310, the Nativity of the Virgin; and as illustrations to the Psalter:– f. 145b, Christ motioning silence to a man (David?) who points to his tongue (Ps. 38); f. 149b, David and Goliath (Ps. 51); f. 149b, Saul stabbing himself (?) (Ps. 52); f. 154, Jonah and the Whale (Ps. 68); f. 159b, Jacob and the Angel (Ps. 80); f. 165, clerks singing at a lectern (Ps. 97); f. 165b, a man praying (Ps. 101); f. 170b, the Father and Son (Ps. 109); f. 176, a prostrate figure praying (Ps. 119). The miniature formerly on f. 280 and illustrating the Transfiguration has been cut out. The terminations of these initials are usually continued in the margin and are sometimes decorated with animals or grotesques. The remaining initials are decorated in two different ways: the more important are of gold with pink or blue frames and contrasting fillings, while the others are in red or blue penwork, again with contrasting fillings and flourishes. N. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts 1250-1285, 1988, pp. 15, 58, 179, 185, suggests that the decoration of the present MS. was the work of a group of artists who produced the Bible which is now Princeton University Library, MS. Garrett 28. A. Bennett, 'The Place of Garrett 28 in thirteenth-century English illumination', Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1973, identifies three other MSS. as the work of this atelier: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 484 (Bible); Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Lat. 15472 (Bible); MS. Lat. 15211 (Glossed Psalms, Epistles and Luke). Bennett argues that the work of these artists anticipates in figure style and ornamental form the Windmill Psalter, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 102. Morgan proposes a date of circa 1280-1290 for the present MS. on the basis of its stylistic relationship to MS. Garrett 28.

Orders; Religious. Cluniacs: Breviary and Missal, English: circa 1300.

Liturgies LATIN: Breviary and Missal, English Cluniac: circa 1300.

Bookplates and Book-stamps: Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham: Bookplate of Lord Leicester of Holkham: 1837.

Bindings ENGLISH: Dark brown leather, with crest of Coke family of Norfolk and gold-tooling: 18th cent.

Art. Illuminations and Drawings ENGLISH: Cluniac Breviary: initials and margins: circa 1300.

includes:

• f. 34 Saint Thomas Becket,; Archbishop of Canterbury: Rhymed office: circa 1300: Lat.
• f. 368 Saint John,; Apostle and Evangelist: Rhymed office for 6 May: circa 1300: Lat.