Description
309 leaves (one blank, 310mm. by 210mm., complete, collation: i-xiii12, xiv11 (first leaf blank and cancelled), xv-xix12, xx10, xxi-xxvi12, with alpha-numeric quire signatures at top of pages, written space 215mm. by 135mm., double column, 36 lines in an angular Gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, small initials touched in red, numerous 2- to 5-line initials in red or blue (the larger with simple contrasting penwork, 22 metal tags attached as page markers for quick reference to a number of sections, some minor mould damage to first and last few leaves (with a few repairs to those at end) and discolouration through being left open for fols.194v-5r, else excellent condition and on thick and heavy paper with wide and clean margins, fifteenth-century blind-stamped leather over wooden boards, one remaining strap and remnants of another, metal corner-pieces and central bosses intact, leather loose and cracking at base of spine and where spine meets boards, but solid in binding
Catalogue Note
The text includes the Temporal for the whole year beginning with the first Sunday in Advent (fol. 1r); a number of related Masses including that for the consecration of a church (fol. 195r); and the Sanctoral for the entire year (fol. 196v), with a number of offices including the Office of the Dead (fol. 296r).
The manuscript was written c.1450 for a community, and perhaps a church, in eastern Germany or Bohemia: the presence in the Sanctoral of St. Hedwig (fol. 241v), who was a duchess of Silesia (d. c.1174, feastday 17 October) might suggest an origin there, or perhaps as St. Wenceslaus is also included in the Sanctoral (fol. 254r) and St. Stanislaus, bishop of Kraków (d. 1079, feastday 11 April), appears among the other offices at the end of the book (fol. 307v), an origin in Poland is more probable.
