Fragment, C9th | Sacramentary, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Northern Italy, 9th century (2nd half)]

Sacramentary, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Northern Italy, 9th century (2nd half)]

6 fragmentary leaves, the largest c. 325 × 220 mm, the smallest c. 225 × 95 mm, blind-ruled for two columns of 33 lines, written in two sizes of Carolingian minuscule script, headings in orange-red; recovered from use in bindings with consequent damage, glue stains, offsets of tanned leather the turn-ins, and other defects, fol. 3 with a small hole and green stain-mark at the middle of the lower edge from the staple of a chain on a chained binding; bound in half red-brown morocco, in a brown cloth-covered box with gilt leather title-piece.

PROVENANCE

1. Produced in an abbey within the Holy Roman Empire, to judge by the masses for an abbot (fol. 4v) and for an emperor (fol. 5v).
2. The leaves were cut up for use in a binding or set of bindings probably in the 16th century, to judge from the later scribbles.
3. Maggs Bros, Catalogue 1002 [1980], no. 8; presumably bought by:
4. Mark Lansburgh (1925–2013), teacher, hand-press printer, and book collector (on whom see Dutschke, 2024); presumably sold by him to:
5. Neil F. Phillips (1924–1997), QC, of Montreal, New York, and Virginia: his MS 698; sold in our rooms, 2 December 1997, lot 42; bought by:
6. The Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 804.

TEXT

(fol. 1) Temporale masses for Ember Friday and Saturday in Advent.

(fol. 2) Sanctorale masses for St Peter’s Chair (22 February), Matthias (24 February), Perpetua & Felicitas (7 March), and Gregory (7 March).

(fol. 3) Temporale for Easter Day and Easter Monday.

(fol. 4) Votive Masses for those at sea, for one’s enemies, and for the abbot and congregation (one column only).

(fol. 5) Votive Masses for the emperor (‘Deus qui ad praedicandum aeterni regis euangelium romanum imperium preparasti; pretende famulo tuo .N. regi nostro arma celestia …’), for rain, and in time of war (one column only).

(fol. 6) Votive Masses (the recto bound as the verso): opening in a Missa communis and ending with a blessing of salt and water, continuing on the other side with Masses in time of cattle plague, for the irreligious, against judges who act badly, against those who practise calumny, ending with a rubric ‘Missa in contentione’.

LITERATURE

Maggs Bros., Catalogue 1002: Western Text Hands from the Late 9th to Early 14th Century [London, 1980], no. 8 and pl. VII

C. Dutschke, ‘Mark Lansburgh: Collector and Seller of Medieval Manuscripts’, in Medieval Manuscripts and Their Provenance: Essays in Honour of Barbara A. Shailor, ed. by A.S.G. Edwards (Woodbridge, 2024), pp. 116–31