Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
i (paper) + i (parchment)+ 58 + i (paper) folios on parchment, complete (collation i-v10 vi6 vii2), horizontal catchwords, ruled faintly in lead, (justification 85-84 x 75-73 mm.), written in a formal, rounded southern Gothic book hand in 12 long lines in two sizes of script, red rubrics, majuscules filled with very pale yellow, 1-line initials alternately red and blue, 2-line red and blue initials with penwork in the opposite color, blank bottom margins of ff. 4 and 8 replaced with newer blank parchment, slit and early repair in margin of f. 51, some thumbing, overall very good condition. Bound in eighteenth-century Italian paste paper, decorated with green, orange, and yellow diamonds, over pasteboard, vellum spine, front cover worn with a tear running down the middle and outer corners bare, inner front joint split, first quire detached from sewing. Dimensions 145 x 110 mm.
A carefully made small manuscript with the liturgy for the Last Sacraments, from the anointing of the sick to burial, and other texts. Made for Franciscan friars, this manuscript offers us insight into their life as priests, ministering to their own brothers, and, as the texts for the burial of a child and the churching of women demonstrate, to the laity. Well-suited for classroom use to demonstrate how medieval manuscripts were made, this manuscript’s clear, easily read script and attractive decoration are notable.
1.Written in Northern Italy, c. 1450-1482, based on the evidence of text, script, and decoration. Liturgical evidence allows us to date the manuscript after 1450, when St. Bernardinus of Siena was canonized (he is included in the litanies on ff. 11 and 41) and before 1482, when St. Bonaventure was canonized, since his name was added in the margin in the second litany. There is no doubt that this manuscript was made for Franciscan use; the text follows the Franciscan Ordo, and both litanies include numerous Franciscan saints.
Details of the script are possibly slightly a-typical for Italian manuscripts (cf. Derolez, 2003, p. 113, noting the presence of hairlines on “con” sign and on final ‘t’ – both present here, which he notes are found in Iberian rotunda hands and almost never in Italy, and the scribe uses both the northern and “southern” abbreviations for ‘qui’), but the overall evidence still points to Northern Italy (perhaps quite far north); further study of the script and analysis of the later inscriptions on ff. 57v and 58 (see below), may allow this point to be refined.
2. F. 58, in ink, partially erased ex libris from a Franciscan house, late fifteenth century (“ad us<u> de fratre” can be read); below, in other hands, pen trials/doodles, a bird and a face, and “Me tibi comedo <?>.”
3. Ex libris, later sixteenth or seventeenth century, f. 57v, which appears to be from a member of the Armelini family.
4. In ink, inside front cover, “Rituale”; in pencil 1031*; “Rituale” also written in ink, verso, front parchment flyleaf, f. i verso.
5. Belonged to William A. Quayle (1860-1925), his bookplate, inside front cover and stamp, front flyleaf, f. i; Quayle was a Methodist minister and Bishop, president of Baker University, and a book collector. The Quayle book collection regarding the history of printing and the printed book is now found at University of Oregon, Special Collections and Archives (Online Resources); his collection of Bibles is at Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas.
6. Modern inscription in pencil, "Mabel, from Mumsie, Daddy's Library" (f. 58v).
ff. 1-3v, Ordo ad communicandum infirmum. In primis pulsetur campana capituli et fratres qui sunt in ecclesiam conueniant …, … Hiis peractis eo ordine quo ueniunt simul in ecclesia [sic] reuertantur dicendo psalmum, “Miserere”;
Van Dijk, 1963, v. 2, pp. 387-388.
ff. 4-10, Ordo ad ungendum infirmum. In primis pulsetur campana …, … Excepto quod crux remaneat coram infirmo;
Van Dijk, 1963, v. 2, pp. 388-390.
ff. 10v-19, Ordo commendationis anime. Primum fiant litanie breves …, Si anxiatur adhuc anima … Ad dominum cum tribularer;
Van Dijk, 1963, v. 2, pp. 390-392, in the brief litany in our manuscript Benedict precedes Francis, and Bernardinus follows (f. 11).
ff. 19-31v, Egressa autem anima dicatur recitando hoc responsorium, incipit, “Subvenite sancti dei …, Tibi domine commendamus animam famuli tui fratris nostri … Per christum dominum nostrum, Amen”;
Van Dijk, 1963, v. 2, 392-397, with the preparation of the body, prayers in the church and at the grave.
ff. 31v-33v, Incipit ordo offitii in die depositionis parulorum, …;
Rite for the burial of a child.
ff. 33v-52, Seven Penitential Psalms, litany (ff. 40-41v) and prayers;
Litany with Stephen, Lawrence, Vincent, Fabianus, Sebastianus, Gervasius (spelled in our manuscript, “Cervagsi,” and corrected to “Cervasi”) and Protasius among martyrs; Ambrose, Jerome, Nicholas, Louis, [with Bonaventure added in margin], among the pontiffs and confessors, and doctors, and Benedict, Francis, Anthony, Bernardinus, and Dominic, among the monks and hermits.
ff. 52-53v, Incipit ordo offitii quod debet dici ad purificationem mulierum post partum secundum consuetudinem romane curie, ….;
Rite for the churching of a woman (“purification” after childbirth).
ff. 54-55, Forma absolutionis a pena et culpa in articulo mortis, …;
Rite for absolution.
ff. 55-57v, [In a small italic script], Passion according to John: John 18:1-19:37; [f. 58rv, blank, with later notes].
Although this text is certainly copied in a very different script than the formal liturgical script found in the remainder of the manuscript, it seems likely that it is original; compare another Italian Ritual on this site, TM 964, with the beginning of John’s Gospel copied in a script markedly different than the remainder of the manuscript.
The liturgy of the medieval church included more than the celebration of the Mass and the Divine Office. Then, as now, the administration of the sacraments punctuated the life of the believer, from baptism, confirmation, and marriage to death and burial. The earliest sources for texts of this sort are the Ordines romani from the seventh and eighth century (Andrieu, 1931-1961), but the texts were copied throughout the Middle Ages in many different types of liturgical manuscripts, added to manuscripts for the Mass and Office (Missals, Sacramentaries, Collectars, Processionals, Pontificals) or gathered together in collections we can loosely call a Ritual (Rituale, in the Middle Ages sometimes called a Manuale or Pastorale). A comprehensive and standardized Ritual did not exist in the Middle Ages and instead dates from the Roman Ritual published in 1614.
The small, portable manuscript described here contains the liturgical rites the Last Sacraments for the dying and the dead from communion and anointing of the sick to final prayers and burial. The form of our manuscript is clearly Franciscan; the text follows the Franciscan Ordo very closely (Van Dijk, 1963, pp. 386-397). These are the rites used by the Franciscans within their own communities (the manuscript often speaks of the brothers, fratres). And the Franciscans also served the laity, as demonstrated here by the inclusion of the rite for burying a child and for blessing, or purification, of a woman after childbirth (the churching of women). Small independent liturgical volumes such as this one, known as libellus or “little books,” could be easily carried along by a priest when he needed to perform specific rites (Gy, 1990; Palazzo, 1990 and 1998). These booklets were often kept unbound or in lightweight parchment wrappers during the Middle Ages.
Andrieu, Michel. Les “ordines romani” du haut Moyen Âge, Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense 11, 23, 24, 29, Louvain, 1931-1961.
Derolez, Albert. The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books: From the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century. Cambridge and New York, 2003.
Gy, P. “Collectaire, Rituel, Processional,” in La liturgie dans l'histoire, Paris, 1990, pp. 91-126.
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.
Palazzo, Eric. A History of Liturgical Books from the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century, trans. Madeline Beaumont, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1998.
Palazzo, Eric. “Le role des libelli dans la pratique liturgique du haut Moyen Âge: histoire et typologie,” Revue Mabillon, n.s., t. 1 (= t. 62), 1990, pp. 9-36.
Available online, https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/pdf/10.1484/J.RM.2.305467
Roy, N. J. “The Development of the Roman Ritual: A Prehistory and History of the Rituale Romanum,” Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal 15:1 (2011), pp. 4-26.
Salmon, P. Les manuscrits liturgiques latins de la bibliothèque Vaticane, III: Ordines Romani, Pontificaux, Rituels, Cérémoniaux, Studi e Testi 260, Vatican, 1970.
Van Dijk, S. J. P. Sources of The Modern Roman Liturgy: The Ordinals by Haymo of Faversham and Related Documents (1243-1307), Leiden, 1963.
William Alfred Quayle selected papers, University of Oregon Libraries
https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/1930
Baker University, Quayle Bible Collection
https://www.bakeru.edu/history-traditions/quayle-bible-collection/
Herbert Thurston, “Ordines Romani,” Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11, New York, 1913
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Ordines_Romani
J.-B. Lebigue, “Initiation to Liturgical Manuscripts” (in French)
https://cel.archives-ouvertes.fr/cel-00194063/document
TM 1338
