Breviary, Use of Rome, in Latin [Italy, Piedmont (Casale Monferrato), dated 1474]

145x105mm, vellum, i+405+i, foliated 2-405, with 188a after 188, and 286-295 after 305 due to a misplaced quire, in quires of 10 except i8, xx8, xxiii10-2 (wanting central bifolium), xxv10-1 (wanting vii), xxxiv10-1 (wanting vii), ff.2, 200-206, 405 blank, 2 columns, 30-31 lines, 90x65mm, 5 HISTORIATED INITIALS, 4 FULL OR PARTIAL BORDERS, AND 9 OTHER ILLUMINATED INITIALS, sporadic minor staining and thumbing, contemporary blind-tooled brown leather over wooden boards, repaired and re-backed and with new clasps, but RETAINING THE ORIGINAL METAL HOOP BY WHICH IT COULD HAVE BEEN HUNG FROM A BELT

SIGNED AND DATED BY THE SCRIBE, A PRIEST

PROVENANCE

(1) WRITTEN IN 1474 BY GUGLIELMO, PRIEST OF S. MARIA, CASALE MONFERRATO, roughly half-way between Turin and Milan, with his colophon ‘Explicit iste liber per manus presbiteri gull(ielm)i de maria de casali. Anno dni. M.cccc.lxxiiij.’ (f.399v); this is followed immediately by a short litany of saints, which includes Secondo (whose cult was centred west of Turin) among the martyrs, and Gottardo (whose cult was centred north of Milan) among the confessors. The fact that two of the three full borders contains blank shields suggests that Guglielmo wrote the book for sale, rather than for his own use. The metal loop at the top of the front board of the binding is similar to those found on chained books, but a Breviary such as this is a personal liturgical book, not a library book, and thus would not have been chained; like a so-called ‘girdle-book’, it could be hung from a belt for easy access throughout the day. (2) There is an erased 17th(?)-century ownership(?) inscription in the lower margin of f.3r. (3) TIBOR GEREVICH (1882–1954) of Budapest, art historian, professor, politician, government commissioner, Director of the Hungarian Institute in Rome, and President of the National Monuments Committee. (4) From the Tőzsér collection, Hungary.

TEXT AND ILLUMINATION

Calendar (f.3r); circular diagram for finding the date of Easter (f.9r); Temporale from Advent to the 4th Sunday in November, ‘secundum consuetudinem Romane curie’ (f.10r); rubrics (f.186r); office of St Catherine (f.196r); exorcisms of salt and water (fol.197v) and blessings of newlyweds (f.198v); Ferial Psalter followed by canticles and creeds (f.207r); the Office of St Anthony of Padua (f.264r); Sanctorale, from St Saturninus to St Catherine (29 Nov.-25 Nov.) (f.266r); Common of saints (f.371v); Dedication of a church (f.387r); Office of the Dead (f.390r); Office of the Virgin (f.393r); the Ordo for blessing meals (f.398r); colophon, litany, and prayers (f.399v).

The style of illumination is Lombard.

The subjects of the historiated initials are: (1) f.10r, St Paul; (2) f.207r, a saint holding a model of a church(?); (3-5) ff.207r, 215v, 229r, three images of King David.