Lot 32
  • 32

Funeral Offices, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper [Italy (perhaps Lombardy), late fifteenth century]

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description

  • Paper
54 leaves, 216mm. by 157mm., complete, collation: i6, ii-vii8, contemporary foliation 1-55 (omitting 7), single column, 18 lines of text in a round calligraphic hand or 5 lines of music on a 4-line red stave accompanied by text, some small initials touched in yellow and heightened with penwork, rubrics and paragraph marks in red, one-line initials in blue or red, larger initials in same but variegated, those on fol.1r, 30r and 40v with penwork and foliate infill to contrast, some leaves with minor show-through of acidic ink from other side, first and last leaves supported by modern guards, small stains, else good condition, early tooled binding over wooden boards, with remnants of 4 clasps in Italian style, skilfully rebacked and restored

Provenance

1. Written for a community of monks in northern Italy in the fifteenth century, most probably that of the Carmelites of Oliveto, Brescia: seventeenth- or eighteenth-century inscription on fol.53v stating that it was used in the choir there.

2. Petrus Julius Genutti (perhaps "of Genoa"); his eighteenth-century inscription on fol.1r, above a note of much the same date describing the gift of the volume to the "Libreria de Pl. Capia" by "Fr. Costrizo Capano".

Catalogue Note

text

This volume contains a detailed record of the offices of the funeral processions of a monastic community (most probably that of the Carmelites of Oliveto, Brescia), specifying not only the services, but also the actions of each group of the community taking part, and where those actions are to take place. After the main office, the Lamentations of St. Jerome begin on fol.40v, followed by musical chants to be sung as the body is carried into the sepulchre (49r) and as the monks leave the tomb (52v).