Royal MS 2 A XIV

BREVIARY Of Sarum use, sc. (1) Temporale (wanting the first leaf), f. 1 ; (2) Calendar, not including David, Chad and Winifred, formally added to the Sarum Calendar in 1415, nor john of Beverley, added in 1416, f. 127 ; (3) Psalter (wanting PS. i. i-vii. 5), Canticles and Litany, f. 133; (4) Proprium Sanctorum, f. 174; (5) Officium mortuorum, f. 251 b; (6) Commune, with the colophon (f. 276), 'Explicit hic commune sanctorum sec. usum Sarum', f. 263 b. At the end (f. 277) in a later (15th cent.) hand is a service 'In commemoracione beate Birgitte', sc. S. Bridget of Sweden, foundress of the Brigettine

order for both sexes (d. I373, can. 139i). As she is spoken of as 'nostra patrona', the MS. probably came into the possession of Syon monastery, Isleworth, founded in 1416 and the only Brigettine house in England. This service is followed (f. 279 b) by Memoriae of various saints, including the four late Sarum saints named above, and (f. 288), in still later hands, by prayers to the Virgin, &c., including (f. 288 b) an 'Absolucio fratrum die canonizacionis sce. Birgitte'. Vellum; ff. 291 7.3/8, in. x 51 in. About 1400. Double columns; with copious rubrics. Initials in blue and red. Whole or partial borders at the several divisions, with illuminated initials, all of an ordinary kind. On a fly-leaf (f. 291) the name of Cornishe Sampsone (late 16th cent.), and on f. 1 the monogram of john Theyer.