Lansdowne MS 451

folio.

Pontificale ad usum Ecclesiæ Romanæ et Anglicanæ.

This is a very fine MS. of the fourteenth century. elegantly written on vellum, and executed altogether in the English manner. Several of the margins are gaudily, though somewhat rudely as to art, decorated with borders and grotesque or ludicrous figures; and the initial letters are painted with subjects relating to the text. Among many other curious forms and ceremonies contained in this book, the following seem deserving of notice, and may be found useful in many respects, and particularly to design. ers of ecclesiastical subjects. The manner and ceremony of elerical tonsure. fo. 11. On the colours of ecclesiastical garments, and why used on particular occasions. fo. 14. The consecration of Bishops, according to the man form. fo. 35. The consecration and installation of Bishops, according to the English form. fo. 41 b. The consecration of Nuns. fo. 59 b. The form of making a Recluse. fo. 62 b. The form of the coronation of the Kings of England. fo. 96 b. The form of dedicating and blessing churches, fo. 111. Benediction of a new episcopal seal. fo. 172. ----of bells. fo. 176. ----of a new well. fo. 193. ----of a new house. fo. 193. Order of espousals, with the blessing of the nuptial bed. fo. 226. In the margin of fo. 123, there is a curious painting of a leprous beggar-woman ringing a hand-belt to excite the attention of the passengers. Above her head is a label, inscribed "Sum good my gentyll mayster for God sake." It appears from the former Catalogue of the Lansdowne Manuscripts, that there somewhere existed a memorandum relating to the present article, by Mr. West, its former possessor. The substance of it is as follows:-That it had been purchased by Mr. Somers, when a counsel on the Oxford circuit, of Mr. Fowler, a Quaker at Evesham, to the abbey of which place it had formerly belonged; and that it afterwards fell into the han5s of Mr. West at Sir Joseph Jekyll's auction. On the other hand the compiler of the above catalogue conceived, but without much probability, that this book had belonged to the Cathedral of Exeter; a conjecture that appears to have been founded ori a memorandum made by some former possessor, on the last page, relating to the amount of the tenths of that see.