Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
82 + i (contemporary paper, no watermark) folios on parchment, modern foliation in pencil, 1-82, lacking a quire before f. 7, otherwise complete (collation i6 ii-x8 xi4), horizontal catchwords, alphanumerical quire signatures, ruled in brown ink (justification 212 x 147 mm.), written in brown ink in Gothic cursive bookhand (bâtarde) in two columns on 34 lines, rubrics in red, capitals touched in yellow, 1-line initials alternating in red and blue, 2-line initials alternating in red with brown penwork flourishes and in blue with red penwork flourishes, several 3- to 4-line puzzle initials in red and blue with penwork flourishes in brown and red, several stains, tears, and signs of wear, but text and decoration well conserved, in overall good condition. Original limp vellum binding with some stitching showing through, spine flat, inscribed in brown ink on the top cover and on the spine “Breviarium,” several quires detached from the binding, cover stained and very worn. Dimensions 325 x 224 mm.
Of special interest for its unusually large size and its cursive gothic script more commonly found in French vernacular manuscripts than in liturgical books, this is a distinctive Breviary and Ferial Psalter. Bourges was flourishing center of religious life and manuscript production in the fifteenth century; a manuscript of this grand scale was possibly intended for a canon of its Cathedral of St.-Etienne. In its original condition with an intact binding and displaying grand margins, this manuscript survives as an important witness to the liturgy of this diocese.
1. There is no doubt that this manuscript was made for use in the diocese of Bourges, as abundant liturgical evidence demonstrates. The liturgical use of the Office of the Virgin is for Bourges (“secundum usum bituricensis,” f. 63). The calendar contains numerous feasts celebrated in that diocese (details below, Text), and the litanies include the confessors venerated in Bourges, St. Ursin, St. Austregisilus, St. Sulpice, and St. Guillaume, as well as, among the martyrs, St. Étienne (f. 59). The Office of the Dead also follows the liturgical use of Bourges.
The style of the script and decoration suggest dating the manuscript in the second half of the fifteenth century. The inclusion of the Feast of the Transfiguration (6 Aug) indicates a date after 1458.
In the fifteenth century the city of Bourges was dominated by the presence of its magnificent Gothic cathedral dedicated to Saint Étienne (Stephen). The Cathedral chapter of Bourges was directed by a dean, a head singer, a chancellor, and an archdeacon, and since the end of the twelfth century it offered forty prebends, each receiving a portion of the chapter revenue, of which over thirty were attributed to canons. Our manuscript may have been made for one of the canons of the Cathedral. The litanies of martyrs are headed by St. Étienne, the patron saint of the Cathedral.
2. Fifteenth-century notes in a very small hand in the margins. Fifteenth- or sixteenth-century scribblings on the verso of the end flyleaf, illegible.
3. Private Collection.
ff. 1-6v, Calendar, use of Bourges, including numerous feasts celebrated in the diocese of Bourges: St. Guillaume, archbishop of Bourges, “Guillermi archiepiscopi bituricensis cantoris” (10 Jan, in red), octave of St. Étienne (2 Jan), octave of St. Ursin (5 Jan), St. Sulpice, bishop (17 Jan, in red), Ordination of St. Austregisilus, bishop of Bourges (15 Feb), Dedication of the Church of Bourges, “Dedicatio ecclesie biturcensis duplex” (5 May, in red), Translation of the relics of St. Guillaume (7 May), Translation of the relics of St. Nicholas (9 May, in red), octave of the Translation of St. Guillaume (14 May), St. Honorat, bishop (16 May), St. Austregisilus, bishop and archbishop of Bourges, 597-624 (20 May, in red), octave of St. Austregisilus (27 May), St. Apollinaire, bishop of Bourges (23 July), Invention of the relics of St. Étienne (3 Aug, in red), octave of the Invention of the relics of St. Étienne (9 Aug), Translation of St. Sulpice (27 Aug), Translation of St. Ursin (9 Nov), Translation of St. Étienne (18 Nov), St. Nicholas, bishop (6 Dec, in red), and St. Ursin, bishop and confessor (29 Dec, in red). in the lower margins including Cisiojanus, mnemonic verses for the feasts and saints of the calendar, “Cisio janus epi sibi...”;
ff. 7-54v, Ferial Psalter, including Psalms 23:4-150, lacking the first quire with Psalms 1-23:3 and beginning imperfectly in Psalm 23:4, incipit, “Innocens manibus et mundo corde ... cymbalis jubilacionis: omnis spiritus laudet Dominum.” Psalms 148-150 are copied continuously without breaks;
ff. 54v-58v, Liturgical canticles: Confitebor (Isaiah 12), Ego dixi (Isaiah 38:10-21), Exultavit (1 Kings 2:1-11), Cantemus (Exodus 15:1-20), Domine audivi (Habakkuk 3), Audite celi (Deut. 32:1-44), Benedicte omnia, Benedictus dominus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, Te Deum;
ff. 58v-60v, Litanies, followed by prayers;
ff. 60v-63, Office of the Dead, use of Bourges (with responsories for the lessons nos. 14-72-82-36-46-68-57-32-38; see Ottosen, Online Resources); lessons are given in full, Psalms are recorded with incipits only;
ff. 63-66, Office of the Virgin, secundum usum bituricensis (use of Bourges), with three lessons;
ff. 66-67, Office of the Holy Cross;
ff. 67-82, Common of Saints;
f. 82, Benedictions; liturgical directions on duplex and semi-duplex feasts; [f. 82v, blank].
Breviaries contain the Psalms, lessons, and prayers for the Divine Office, celebrated by the secular clergy and members of the religious orders throughout the day and night. But liturgical nomenclature is at times inexact. Our manuscript includes a liturgical calendar, a liturgical, or Ferial, Psalter (that is the Psalms and other ordinary texts for the Office), the Canticles, a Litany, Office of the Dead, and other Offices, concluding with the Common of Saints, and could be described either as a Breviary, albeit a partial one, or as a Ferial Psalter, although the inclusion of the Common of Saints makes it difficult to describe this as a Psalter. To say the Office, the priests who used this manuscript would have needed a companion manuscript with the proper texts for the Office for the feasts of the Temporal and Sanctoral.
The weekly recital of the 150 Psalms was the heart of the Divine Office. The Ferial Psalter on ff. 7-54v of our manuscript is decorated with seven 4-line puzzle initials decorated with penwork flourishing in two colors that mark the so-called liturgical division of eight. Six initials (originally seven; the leaf with the initial beginning Ps. 1, Beatus vir, is lacking) begin the text for the Office of Matins on each day of the week according to secular use; another 4-line puzzle initial begins Psalm 109, the beginning of the Psalms for Vespers: f. 7v, Ps. 26, “Dominus illuminacio mea …”; f. 12v, Ps. 38, “Dixi custodiam …”; f. 17v, Ps. 52, “Dixit insipiens ...”; f. 22, Ps. 68, “Salvum me fac deus ...”; f. 28, Ps. 80, “Exultate deo …”; f. 33v, Ps. 97, “Cantate domino …”; and f. 39v, Ps. 109, “Dixit dominus … .”
The archdiocese of Bourges was founded in the third century, with Saint Ursinus as the first bishop. In the twelfth century, the viscounty of Bourges constituted the only lands that the French kingdom possessed south of the Loire. In the fifteenth century, when our manuscript was made, Bourges was among the most important cities of France due to its commercial activities and its municipal and royal functions. Its geographical position was economically advantageous, between the hubs of Paris and Lyon. Many of the city’s most famous monuments date from the fifteenth century. The tomb of Jean, duc de Berry (1340-1416), who commissioned the Très Riches Heures, was in the Sainte Chapelle of Bourges, part of the ducal palace (after its destruction, the tomb was relocated to the cathedral of Bourges). The palace of the wealthy merchant and royal master of the mint, Jacques Coeur (c. 1395-1456) was built from 1443-1451. The university of Bourges was founded in 1467, establishing the need for local book production, and from c. 1470, the production of illuminated manuscripts is well-documented in Bourges, home to artists including Jean and Jacquelin de Montluçon (active 1461-1505), the Master of Spencer 6 (active 1490-1510), and Jean Colombe (c. 1430-1490) (Avril and Reynaud, 1993, pp. 324-47).
Avril, F. and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1993, pp. 324-347.
Fassler, Margot E. and Rebecca A. Baltzer, eds. The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments, Hagiography: Written in Honor of Professor Ruth Steiner, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Harper, J. The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians, Oxford, 1991.
Hughes, Andrew. Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to their Organization and Terminology, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1982.
Leroquais, V. Les bréviaires manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, 5 vols, Paris, 1934.
Leroquais, V. Les Psautiers manuscrits latins des bibliothèques publiques de France, 3 vols, Mâcon, 1940-1.
Palazzo, É. Histoire des livres liturgiques: Le Moyen Age, des origines au XIIIe siècle, Paris, 1993.
Plummer, J. Liturgical Manuscripts for the Mass and Divine Office, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1964.
Van Deusen, N. ed. The Place of the Psalms in the Intellectual Culture of the Middle Ages, Albany, 1999.
K. Ottosen, “Responsories of the Latin Office of the Dead”
https://www.cantusplanus.de/databases/Ottosen/search.html
Consuelo Dutschke and Susan Boynton, “Liturgical Books”
https://liturgical.columbia.edu/
TM 1204
