Breviary, use of Sarum, [England (East Anglia), late 14th century]

Breviary, use of Sarum

in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum. [England (East Anglia, Norwich or Bury St Edmunds?), late 14th century (c.1385–90)]

218 + iii leaves, c.155×105mm, foliated on every 10th leaf, collation: 1–8⁸, 9^8-2 (2nd and 3rd leaves missing after f.65), 10–17⁸, 18^8-1 (5th leaf missing after f.138), 19–21⁸ ; 22⁶ (calendar); 23–27⁸, 29^8-1 (last leaf, and probably further quires containing a sanctorale, missing), written in gothic script in two columns of 37–41 lines (125×80mm), with extensive rubrics in red, DECORATED WITH SEVENTEEN LARGE INITIALS in blue with extensions in red and blue, and red penwork flourishing (ff.1r, 28r, 61v, 106v, 125r, 129v, 133r, 135r, 172r, 179r, 183v, 187v, 191v, 197r, 202r, 207r, 212v); the first and last pages dirty, extremities of decoration occasionally cropped at the upper edge and with a few other minor defects, but overall in good condition; bound in 19th-century blind-tooled polished leather, rebacked.

PROVENANCE

(1) The the feast of Anne (26 July), introduced in 1383, is present, while the feasts of Sts David (1 March), Chad (2 March), and Winifred (3 Nov.), introduced in 1391, were omitted by the original scribe and added later.

(2) Other additions to the calendar of Norwich synodal feasts (for which see Medieval Art in East Anglia, 1300–1520, ed. by P. Lasko and N. J. Morgan (Norwich, 1973), nos. 40, 48, etc.), suggest that the manuscript was used at or near Bury St Edmunds by the 15th century: Felix of Dunwich ‘sinodal.’ (8 Mar.), the Translation of Edmund (29 Apr.), Dominic (5 Aug.), Thomas of Hereford (2 Oct.), and the Translation of St Nicholas (9 May) of which Nicholas Rogers writes, "when found in a Norwich diocesan calendar, almost invariably indicates a Bury connection" (‘Fitzwilliam Museum MS 3-1979: A Bury St Edmunds Book of Hours and the Origins of The Bury Style’, in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 229–43, at 231). Another East Anglian addition is Etheldreda of Ely (17 Oct.).

(3) The feasts of Thomas Becket have not been erased from the calendar. suggesting that the book was in recusant hands at the Reformation.

(4) A few marginal inscriptions include ‘William H[...]’ (f.1r), ‘John Robinson ye owner Memento mori 1743’ and ‘Jacobus Harrisone’ (f.185r).

(5) Sotheby’s, 17 December 1991, lot 68; bought by the Schuster Gallery; bought from them by the present owner in 1993. Accompanied by his typescript description noting that there are 1,628 small blue flourished initials.

TEXT

(ff.1r–164r) Temporale; medieval additions (f.164v); ruled, otherwise blank (f.165r–v).

(ff.166r–171v) Calendar

(ff.172r–218v) Psalter, followed by canticles, ending imperfectly in the fifth of the usual six.

This is a fine, if modest, and substantially complete record of the daily liturgy that would have been followed by thousands of monks and canons across England in the late 14th century. That it was apparently used in the area of Bury St Edmunds provides additional interest.