Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.4.17
Book of Hours (Use of Sarum)
Contents
Physical Description
Mid-20th-century foliation:
[a] + i + 1-135 + ii + [b]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by H.L. Pink.Collation
The manuscript comprises 12 quires, formed of three principal codicological units: Quires 1-2 (suffrage miniatures and calendar), Quires 3-6 (Hours of the Virgin and Holy Spirit) and Quires 7-12 (Penitential Psalms, Litany, Office of the Dead). In two places, leaves have been lost from the volume and later replaced; these are described separately.
16 212; 3-612; 710 814-2+2 (7th-8th leaves lost and later replaced) 910-1+1 (1st leaf lost and later replaced) 1010 118 128-3 (6th-8th leaves excised)Condition
Binding
Rebound by Douglas Cockerell and Son (i.e. Sydney Morris ('Sandy') Cockerell (1906-1987): see stamp on rear turn-in), Letchworth, December 1962. Red leather over wooden boards, sewn on three bands. Title and classmark tooled in gold on the spine.
Detached boards from eighteenth-century binding are preserved with the manuscript (but have not been digitised). Reverse brown calf, with centre panel and fleurons at the corners.
Damage to the fore-edge of f. i indicates the presence of two clasps on a former earlier binding.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The manuscript is first recorded among the collections of Cambridge University Library in a catalogue compiled 1754-56 (now MS Oo.7.53).
Part 1: Binding fragments adhered to front pastedown [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.4.17, binding fragments]
Contents
Language(s): Middle French
Physical Description
Hand(s)
Written in littera textualis.
Part 2: Book of Hours [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.4.17, ff. 1-94, 97-102, 104-135]
Contents
Language(s): Latin, with some Middle French
Me gardez cors e alme . de mal e dencumbrer. Fetes moy tre duz sire . bon fin aver. e par vostre grace de enfern eschaper e venir a la ioye ke sanz . fin deit durer amen
Added by a 14th-century hand.
Inscription treated with reagent.
'Pape' erased throughout.
Rubrics written over erasures.
Rubrics written over erasures.
Prayers added by two later hands: ff. 75v-77v and f. 78r.
Ends imperfectly
Begins imperfectly
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 16 (ff. 1-6)
- Quires 2-612 (ff. 7-78)
- Quire 710 (ff. 79-88)
- Quire 814-2+2 (ff. 89-102: 7th and 8th leaves lost, after f. 94; later replaced by two leaves, now ff. 95-96)
- Quire 910-1+1 (ff. 103-112: 1st leaf missing, before f. 104; later replaced by a single leaf, now f. 103)
- Quire 1010 (ff. 113-122)
- Quire 118 (ff. 123-130)
- Quire 128-3 (ff. 131-135: 6th-8th leaves excised, probably blank)
Layout
150 × 105 mm. Text ruled in ink, frame and line. Single columns, 16 lines to the page, written below top line.
13r-18v 150 × 105 mm. Calendar ruled in ink, frame and line. Four columns, 33 lines, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Written in textura quadrata.
Decoration
Twelve full-page suffrage miniatures, framed and on tooled gold or diapered pink and blue ground, in pairs at alternating openings before the Calendar. Their style is associated with the Queen Mary Psalter workshop ( London, British Library, Royal MS 2 B.vii). The same artist worked on a Psalter made for a patron in the Norwich diocese, which later passed to Peterborough Abbey ( Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 53).
- 1v: woman (perhaps intended to represent the commissioner or an early owner of the manuscript) kneeling in veneration before a sainted archbishop. The archbishop (?St Thomas, ?St Edmund) was altered from being a bishop (perhaps originally St Hugh, as in the Calendar) by the substitution of a cross for a crozier and the addition of a pallium. The arms of the Reymes family also appear to have been added to the woman's mantle.
- 2r: St Catherine and St Margaret
- 3v: St George
- 4r: St Christopher
- 5v: Annunciation
- 6r: Nativity
- 7v: Resurrection
- 8r: Ascension
- 9v: Coronation of Virgin
- 10r: Christ in Majesty, with Evangelists' symbols
- 11v: Virgin and Child
- 12r: Crucifixion
12v Rough drawing of St John the Baptist with Lamb, probably added in the 14th century.
Calendar miniatures comprising labours of the months and zodiac signs, on punched gold ground under canopies, in outer margins. Executed by a second artist, related to that of the prefatory suffrage miniatures.
- 13r: January: Janus feasting; Aquarius
- 13v: February: man warming himself by fire; Pisces
- 14r: March: pruning; Aries
- 14v: April: hawking; Taurus
- 15r: May: Maying; Gemini
- 15v: June: mowing; Cancer
- 16r: July: reaping; Leo
- 16v: August: threshing; Virgo
- 17r: September: harvesting grapes; Libra
- 17v: October: sowing; Scorpio
- 18r: November: beating for acorns; Sagittarius
- 18v: December: slaughtering pig; Capricorn
Border decoration of rich foliage in blue, red, green and gold extending from letter finials and forming full or partial frames, with marginal grotesques and drolleries. The border decoration relates to the Howard Psalter possibly made for John Fitton of Wiggenhall St German's, Norfolk (London, British Library, Arundel MS 83, part I), the Gorleston Psalter (London, British Library, Add. MS 49622), and the fourteenth-century part of the Alfonso Psalter (London, British Library, Add. MS 24686).
On f. 19r, heraldic shields suspended from vine sprays projecting inwards from the border, showing the coats of arms of:
- England (gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or)
- Unknown (shield defaced, but formerly azure)
- Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke (c. 1270-1324)
A further three heraldic shields were once included, suspended from corresponding vine sprays projecting outwards from the border, however all have since been wholly or almost entirely cropped.
Also on this page, a decorated initial contains the arms of the Reymes family (gules a cross or engraved or) .
19r: at the opening of the Hours of the Virgin: a nine-line historiated initial D, executed by a third artistic hand. The figure style of this artist is related to the Bardolf-Vaux Psalter (London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 233). Letter formed of interlaced vine stems, on coloured ground divided into quarters, formed alternately of red or blue chequered patterns. Contains scene depicting a woman (perhaps intended to represent the commissioner or an early owner of the manuscript) praying to seated Virgin and Child, on punched gold ground.
79r: at the opening of the Penitential Psalms, a seven-line historiated initial D, executed by a fourth artistic hand. Letter formed of interlaced vine stems, on coloured ground divided into quarters, formed alternately of red or blue chequered patterns, which extend into the interstice of the letter. Contains Christ in Majesty, seated and holding a book, on a burnished, oval-shaped gold ground.
Three- to six-line figural initials, filled with foliated and zoomorphic spirals, on tooled gold ground, to the Hours of the Virgin (ff. 25v, 37v, 41r, 43v, 45v, 48r, 52r) and at the beginning of the Hours of the Holy Spirit (f. 68r).
Two- to seven-line initials in blue, filled with foliage, human heads or grotesques, on burnished gold ground.
Four-line initials in blue in the Calendar, filled with red and green foliage, on gold ground.
One-line initials at the beginning of verses, alternating in gold and blue, with contrasting blue and red penwork flourishing.
Line-fillers comprising vegetation, geometric and zoomorphic designs in blue or turquoise and red, some forming frames.
Additions
Under the illustration on 4r, a Latin collect has been added.
On folios 61r-74r, the rubrics have been erased and written over in French.
Folios 95r-96v were added later, written in a 16th-century hand, presumably due to loss of these folios in the original.
Additions have been made to the calendar, 13r-18v, by several hands dating variously to the early fourteenth to the fifteenth century. These include obits and saints' days (see Provenance for further details) and notes by two hands that mark the beginning and end of the 'dies caniculares' (or 'dog days'; 16r, 17r), the hottest period of the year.
History
The manuscript may be datable to after 1320: since Thomas Becket is among the martyrs, the Thomas among the confessors in the Litany (f. 90r) is probably Thomas de Cantilupe , who was canonized in 1320.
For explanation of the terminus post quem non, see Provenance.
The manuscript may have been made in East Anglia, as were other manuscripts with which it bears artistic affinities (see Decoration).
Provenance
Probably owned by Alice de Reydon , née Reymes, wife of Robert de Reydon. Her obituary is added to the Calendar in a contemporary hand, on the 5th July (fol. 16r): 'Obitus Alicie de Reidon anno domini Mo ccco ⟨x⟩...'. The year is uncertain, but must be after 1310 (the first limb of 'x' is visible; if any number followed, it has been cropped) but before 1323: the Inquisitions Post Mortem held in that year on Alice's husband gives the name of his widow as Margaret. The manuscript may have been produced for her prior to her marriage, since her family's coat of arms features on f. 19r. The female figures on ff. 1v and 19r may have been intended to represent her: the mantle of the former figure has had the Reymes family coat of arms painted over it (the cross or has been divided in two vertically and painted along each edge).
Two early fourteenth century hands have inserted additional feast days that confirm an East Anglian provenance: St Winwaloe ('Sancti Winewaloei') on 3rd March (f. 14r) and St Ethelbert on 21st May (usually 20th; f. 15r). Winwaloe is more commonly patron saint of foundations in the south-west, his reputed homeland, however a Benedictine priory dedicated to him was founded at Wereham in 1199; it was later dissolved in 1321 and given to nearby abbey of West Dereham.
Stranle family: the birth dates of John Stranle (17th February) (f. 13v) and Matilda Stranle (9th April) (f. 14v) were inserted in the calendar, by perhaps the same hand. Another, later hand glossed the entry for John Stranle with the year of his birth: 'anno Regis Ricardi secundi quarto' (1380/81).
Part 3: Replacement leaves [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.4.17, ff. 95-96]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Physical Description
Layout
140 × 105 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line. Single columns, 16 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Written in an uneven textura quadrata of the 16th century.
Decoration
Line-fillers sketched in ink.
Part 4: Replacement leaf [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.4.17, f. 103]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Physical Description
Layout
150 × 105 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line. Single columns, 16 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Written in textura quadrata, in brown ink. The hand is different to that responsible for the rest of the text (compare the execution of marks above the letter i and the occasionally rounded execution of lower serifs).
Decoration
Two-line puzzle initial in red and blue, with internal void decoration, enclosing animal grosteque in red ink, and supporting marginal flourishing in red and blue ink.
One-line initials, alternating in red or blue, with contrasting penwork infill and marginal flourishing in blue or red.
Line-fillers comprising geometric and zoomorphic designs, executed in red and blue.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact Cambridge University Library Admissions). Contact the Manuscripts Department for further information on the availability of this manuscript
Bibliography
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Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
