Missale pro defunctis, in Latin, illustrated manuscript on vellum [Italy (probably Novara), first half of the fourteenth century]

39 leaves, 260mm. by 190mm., wanting a leaf before fol.39, else complete, collation: i-ii^{10, iii6, iv4, v8, vi1, single column, 15 lines in black ink in a late gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, capitals touched in red, one- and 2-line initials in red or blue (some with contrasting penwork), quarter-page rectangular} miniature of the Crucifixion on fol.11v, flaking of ink throughout and small stains, else excellent condition, early wooden boards with spine rebacked with modern leather

provenance

1. Prepared for an Italian monastic community, perhaps in Novara: the Communicantes prayer of the Canon and the Libera nos prayer after the Pater Noster with the local SS. Agabius, Gaudentius, first bishop of the town, and his assistants, Julius and Julianus.

2. Sale by Hoepli and Kundig, Geneva, 20 November 1947, lot 79, illustrated in colour (pl.xxxix).

3. Bergendal MS.68; bought in our rooms, 11 December 1984, lot 43: Bergendal catalogue no.68; Stoneman, 'Guide', pp.192-93.

text

This volume opens with a special Missal for the Dead, a very rare type of medieval Missal composed of the Mass for the Dead preceded by the burial service and followed by a Processional for the anniversary of a death (cf. G. Dogaer, "A Missale pro Defunctis ...", Fine Books and Book Collecting, 1981, pp.6-8). On fol.27r there follows a Processional with services for Palm Sunday, the consecration of a church, and others.

illustration

On fol.11v there is a miniature of the Crucifixion, 93mm. by 66mm., showing Christ in a purple loin-cloth on a blue Cross flanked by the Virgin and St. John, all on a blue background heightened with white tracery. The composition is related to that found in a group of Franciscan Missals painted in the late thirteenth century in Perugia under the influence of Cimabue (cf. Manion and Vines, Illuminated MSS. in Australian Collections, 1984, p.38, figs.12-14).