Breviary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Italy, late fourteenth century]

371 leaves (plus one modern paper flyleaf at each end), 335mm. by 230mm., catchwords, wanting a number of single leaves and bifolia throughout and gatherings after fols.194, 219 and at each end, Calendar misbound in at fols.195r-200v, collation: i⁸, ii-viii¹⁰, ix⁹ (x wanting), x-xiv¹⁰, xv⁹ (ix wanting), xvi-xviii¹⁰, xix⁸, xx¹⁰, xxi⁶ (the Calendar misbound here instead of at beginning), xxii⁸, xxiii-xxv¹⁰,  xxvi¹², xxvii⁴,  xxviii⁸, xxix-xxxix¹⁰, double column, 29 lines, written space 225mm. by 160mm., written in a large and rounded gothic bookhand, capitals touched in red, rubrics in red, one-line initials and paragraph marks in red or blue, 2-line initials in red with purple pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing, 4-line puzzle initials in red and blue with contrasting pen-flourishing and ochre infill, many leaves with ink flaking away, stains and damage to edges of leaves (but with only minor losses to text), in fair condition, nineteenth-century half-leather binding with marbled papers over pasteboards, edges bumped and scuffed and boards scratched and torn

(1) Most probably written and illuminated for an Umbrian community, perhaps in Perugia or Narni (local saint, Herculanus, bishop of Perugia, for 1 March in Calendar), and by the seventeenth-century in use in a cathedral dedicated to St. Juvenal (inscription of that date: “Breviarium Cathedralis … cum lectionibus S. Juvenalis episcopi et martyris” at head of fol.1r, with similar hand adding feasts to the Calendar and “consecratio ecclesie sancti Juvenalis episcopi et martyris” for 3 March), most probably that in Narni.

(2) John Perceval (1683-1748), Earl of Egmont: his armorial book-plate with motto, dated 1736, inside upper cover.

(3) Richard Caton (1842-1926), Professor of Physiology, University College Liverpool 1882-91, and Lord Mayor of Liverpool 1907-08: his armorial book-plate with motto, dated 1914, inside upper cover.

text

This Breviary includes the Temporal (opening mid-text in the middle of the fifth lesson of Matins of the first Sunday in Advent; fol.1r), a Calendar (fols.195r-200v), the Ferial Psalter with Litany (fol.201r), and the Sanctoral from St. Saturninus (29 November; fol.254r) to St. Calixtus (14 October; fol.371v, ending imperfectly).