Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.7.31
Monastic Breviary
Contents
Language(s): Latin with Middle English additions
Contains the Temporale, Commune Sanctorum (ending with commemorative offices for the Virgin Mary, St John the Evangelist, St Martin, and St Benedict on ff. 196v-202r), and Sanctorale. It does not include a Kalendar, Office of the Dead, or Psalter.
Added by a 16th-century hand.
Added by a 16th-century hand.
IMEV 3515 NIMEV TM 1618 DIMEV 5547-2Full transcription. Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription. Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription. Added by an early 16th-century hand. The same hand has added: ‘blackheth fylde’. Another hand has added ‘ele[c]tus ad breconiam’.
The note refers to the deaths of three successive abbots of Battle Abbey: Richard Tovy (r. 1490-1503); William Westfield (r. 1503-1508); Lawrence Champion (r. 1508-1529). The added note ‘electus ad breconiam’ probably refers to the Brecon Priory, a cell of Battle Abbey, from where a proxy would be send to elect a new abbot.
Physical Description
19th- or 20th-century foliation:
[i]-[iii] + 2-207 + [iv]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. The unfoliated early modern paper flyleaves have been allocated Roman numerals between square brackets for reference purposes in this electronic catalogue record.Collation
- Quire 18 (ff. 1-8)
- Quire 28 (ff. 9-15: 6th leaf excised)
- Quires 3-268 (ff. 16-207)
18 28-1 (6th excised) 3-268
The alpha-numerical combinations that have been written by a 15th-century hand with brown ink in the outer corners of the rectos should not be taken for leaf signatures: since this sequence counts sets of 20 leaves, amounting to almost 10.5 units that are designated the letters 'a' to 'l', it does not mark the start and end of quires in the manuscripts. The purpose of this alpha-numerical sequence instead seems to be cross-referencing between liturgical texts (e.g. see the margins of of ff. 141r, 166v, and 192v).
Condition
Layout
120 × 80 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Single columns. 35-48 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
The breviary has been written by a single 15th-century hand writing in a semi-formal version of secretary script, comprising typical secretary letter forms but a more punctilious formation of minims (akin to Anglicana formata).
The added poems on ff. 203v-204v have been added by a single 16th-century hand writing in secretary script.
The added medical recipes on f. 207r have been added by a single 16th-century hand writing in secretary script.
The added note about the abbots of Battle Abbey to f. 207v has been added by a single 16th-century hand writing a secretary script (but with occasional anglicana 'd').
Decoration
One- and two-line plain red initials throughout.
Liturgical instructions rubricated in red ink throughout.
Regular initials (1 line) highlighted with red ink.
Underlining in red ink.
Additions
Binding
18th- or 19th-century half vellum binding with purple paper sides over pasteboards; red-sprinkled top, tail, and fore edges.
Binding height: 150mm; width: 100mm; depth: 40mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
One of the manuscripts of the Benedictine abbey of Battle [Battle Abbey] , Sussex: this is indicated by liturgical evidence as well as an early 16th-century note about the monastery's abbots on f. 207v.
Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702) , dean of York, antiquary and fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. The manuscript is listed as no. 234 (see the 2r), in the list of Gale's manuscripts in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697).
One of the manuscripts of Roger Gale (1672-1744) , antiquary and scholar, son of Thomas Gale. Inherited from his father.
Donated to Trinity College by Roger Gale (1672-1744) , son of Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702), in 1738. The alpha-numerical elements of its current classmark are printed on three three labels pasted onto the spine (‘O.7.31’), and those of its current and previous classmarks are inscribed in the manuscript: the inside of the front cover (‘O.7.31’ in ink) and f. 2r (‘O.17’ in ink) Its printed ex libris featuring its armorial coat of arms, motto (‘Virtus Vera Nobilitas’), and name (‘Coll: Trin: Cant:’), engraved by William Stephens, fl. c. 1740-c. 1760 ("W. Stephens sculp."), pasted on the inside of the front cover.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Bibliography
-
The western manuscripts in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge: a descriptive
catalogue, James, M.R. (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)
The monastic breviary of Hyde Abbey, Winchester: MSS Rawlinson liturg. e. 1* and Gough
liturg. 8
in the Bodleian Library, Oxford Henry Bradshaw Society Series, (London, Printed for the Society by Harrison and Sons, 1932)
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: a List of Surviving Books Royal Historical Society
Guides and Handbooks, Ker, N. R. (London, 3, 1964)
The Early English Carols, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1977)
Medieval English Benedictine Liturgy: Studies in the Formation, Structure, and Content
of the
Monastic Votive Office, c. 950-1540 Routledge Library Editions: The Medieval World, Harper, Sally Elizabeth Roper (London, Routledge, 1993)
Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge Index of Middle English prose, Mooney, Linne R. (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 1995)
The Secular Liturgical Office in Late Medieval England, Salisbury, Matthew Cheung (Oxford, 2011)
Breviarium — Battle, Sussex. Benedictine abbey of St Martin MLGB3, (2024, http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/mlgb/book/375/)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge.
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
