Gospel Lectionary, of Cistercian Use, in Latin, manuscript on vellum

171 leaves, 214 mm. by 166 mm., lacking 2 leaves at beginning (once paginated 1-4), a leaf after p. 186 (lacking since at least the late Middle Ages, as the text has been adapted to conceal the break), single leaves once paginated 253/4 and 273/4, and all leaves after p. 350 (replaced by 15 leaves dated 1609 and 2 eighteenth-century leaves), else complete, collation: i^{6 [of 8, lacking i-ii, vii and viii bound back-to-front], ii-xi8, xii7 [of 8, lacking vi], xiii-xv8, xvi7 [of 8, lacking viii, now replaced by a blank], xvii8, xviii7 [of 8, lacking ii], xix-xx8, with many catchwords (or traces of them) in red cartouches, early seventeenth-century pagination (followed here), 17 lines, ruled in pale plummet, written-space 172 mm. by 120 mm., writing beginning above top ruled line, written in dark brown ink in a large rather angular proto-gothic liturgical hand, rubrics in red}, eight pages of music on a 3-line red stave (pp. 192-99), large painted initials throughout, many of them the letter 'I' ("In illo tempore") in red or pale green or sometimes dark blue, with simple penwork in a contrasting colour, many signs of use, many corrections and textual additions and some erasures, the green pigment oxidised and often eating through the pages sometimes causing the painted areas to fall out, some damp-staining and marginal defects, inner folds worn and sometimes patched and oversewn, bound in modern plain vellum, blue edges, front joint broken

provenance

(1) Written for a Cistercian house, not before 1174 (as Saint Bernard is in the original hand, p. 311, as is Saint Thomas Becket, p. 281, canonised in 1173).  The Cistercian saints William of Bourges (canonised 1217) and Robert of Molesmes (canonised 1222) are both later additions, pp. 281 and 287.  The text allows for 12 readings, which was the monastic practice.  The script is characteristically Cistercian, including the punctus flexus above various words.  Spellings which may reflect local pronunciation include 'luchas', for 'lucas', and 'Iohannes Babtista'.

(2) The manuscript was restored in 1609 (p. 380), apparently for Dominican use, as additions include Saint Thomas Aquinas (p. 286) and the translation of Saint Dominic (p. 308).

(3) Bought from Durtal, Paris, 1954, by a private collector, and by descent to the present owner.

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text

The text comprises the Gospel readings for use at Mass, with the Temporal from the Sundays before Advent to the twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost; the Sanctoral from the eve of Saint Stephen (p. 278) to Saint Thomas the Apostle; and the Common (p. 332).   The Easter office includes eight pages of music.  Other simple musical neumes are added elsewhere.  Phrases of the Passion readings are marked up with the symbols 'a', 'b', 'c' and '+' (pp. 121-38, 161-77 and 180-91), probably for recitation by different people, a practice believed to represent the earliest manifestation of liturgical drama (cf. E. C. Dunn in Medieval English Drama, ed. Taylor and Nelson, 1972, pp. 44-63).  For a note on early Gospel Lectionaries, see L. Light, The Bible in the Twelfth Century, Houghton exhibition, 1988, pp. 27-9.