Harley MS 2868

Contents:

ff. 2r-3v: Suffrage to St Barbara, with the rubric: ‘Quicumque factum sancte barbare animam celebraverit et cotidie hanc memoracionem et oracionem martirii eiusdem subsequentem bene et devote dixerit multa tormenta corporis per eius intercessionem evadet et absque confessione et vera mentis contrictione ab hac luce non discedet ut memorant salutaciones subsequentes et in eius vita evidenter patet ac eciam in legenda aurea plenius [...]atur’; beginning: ‘Ave martir gloriosa / Barbaraque generosa’.

ff. 4r-6r: Suffrage to St Giles, with the rubric: ‘De sancto egidio abbate antiphone cum oracione’; beginning: ‘O patriarcha monachorum / O pater catholicorum / O pater egidi pastor’.

ff. 7r-13v: Calendar, featuring Norman feast days.

ff. 14r-23v: Gospel Lessons, featuring a rubric on f. 22r: ‘Istud evangelium multum valet dici super infantem inmediate post baptismum ad effugandum morbum caducum ac eciam propter spiritus malignos ab eo penitus effugandos. Require quod sub scribitur’.

ff. 24r-77v: Mixed Hours of the Virgin and Hours of the Cross with suffrages after Lauds; imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 78r-90r: The Seven Penitential Psalms; imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 90r-94r: The Fifteen Gradual Psalms.

ff. 94r-102v: Litany of Saints, including Norman saints, followed by prayers to God; the last prayer is imperfect at the end.

ff. 105r-143r: The Office of the Dead; imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 145r-167v: The Commendation of Souls; imperfect at the beginning.

The manuscript contains several additions:

ff. 1r-1v: A prayer in Middle French, beginning: ‘A dieus de ciel et seigneur de terre confessioun de mes pecches noille fere’; added in the 15th century.

f. 4v: An English recipe for a medicinal treacle wine, beginning: ‘Take an unce of gode treacle half an unce of tormentile rotes a sponfull of columbyn sedes vj nutkyrnels’; added in the 1st half of the 16th century.

ff. 103r-104r: Seven masses that were purportedly revealed to Giles to pardon Charlemagne's sins,, beginning: ‘[S]anctus egidius precepit karolo regi ffrancie per annunciacionem angeli quod faciat cantari vij missas pro peccatis’; added in the late 15th century.

f. 143r: Prayers for a soul, beginning: ‘Omnipotens domine pro tua pietate miserere anime famule tue et a contagiis mortalitatis exutam in eterne salvacionis partem restitute P[er dominum nostrum Jesum Christum]’; added in the 15th century.

ff. 143v-144r: Prayers for the community, beginning: ‘Miserere quesumus domine clementer animabus omnium benefactorum nostrorum defunctorum’; added in the 15th century.

ff. 168v-169r: Mass of the Five Wounds (Missa de quinque vulneribus), beginnining: ‘Humiliavit semetipsum dominus noster ihesus Christus usque ad mortem’; including a prayer, beginning: [D]omine ihesu Christe fili dei vivi qui de celo ad terram de sinu patris descendisti et in ligno crucis quinque plagos sustinuisti'; and a lection, begining: ‘Hec dicit effundam de spiritu meo super domum David’; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 170v-171r: A partially erased devotional instructions to arrange votive masses for and give alms on each day of the week, the first legible instruction begins: ‘The wednesday a messe in the worship of saint peter and the appostilles and light xij candilles and fede xij poor folkex or gif xij almus’; ending with the promise that: ‘And at thies messes yee muste offre in iche of thies days some offeryng and and yee will for soth thres praiers shall be hard within schort tyme’; written in the late 15th century.

f. 171v: A petition to God to staunch the blood of a wounded patient, beginning: ‘Deus qui fecisti celum et terram et primum hominem quem precioso sanguine tuo redemisti per virtutem sanguinis tui preciosi cesset sanguis istius hominis N’; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 172v: ‘To all trewe crystene pepell to whom this presente wrytinge shall com to be sene red or understand that wher as on William red late of Abbersorthe within the countie Laseter hayth by chaunce of fyare lost all his goodes and catell to his utter undoinge and if he be not helped with well dysposed pepell agay now in his [...]’; written in the 16th century.

ff. 172v-173r: A poem in English ‘hee that looseth all for mee shall find it at the last S. Ely – God so loved the world that he gave his only son for us that whomsoever beleveth in him shalbe saved S. E.’; written in the late 16th or early 17th century.

f. 173v: An English medical recipe against the plague, entitled: ‘Pro pestilencia’, beginning: ‘Bolle armoniake terra sagillata and brinstone of every lyke muche’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 174v: A charm: ‘Theobal gutta cananei sanat me elizabeth filiam dei'; added in the late 15th century or early 16th century.

Decoration:

8 large initials in gold and colours with partial borders on three sides with gold ivy scrolls and flowers (ff. 34r, 52r, 57v, 61r, 64r, 68v, 71r, 110v); the borders include a butterfly (ff. 34, 110v), and an acanthus leaf and the head of a man in profil (f. 71r). Initials in colours and gold, some with foliate tendrils. Paraphs and line-fillers in colours and gold. 2-line initials in red ink (added prayers on ff. 143r-144r).