Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.5.5

Breviary of Marie de Saint Pol

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript was owned, perhaps commissioned, by Marie de Saint Pol, countess of Pembroke (c. 1304-1377) and wife of Aymer de Valence (c. 1270-1324), earl of Pembroke. Marie has a particular connection with the history of the University of Cambridge, being foundress in 1347 of the Hall of Valence Mary - now known as Pembroke College. She was also responsible for the refounding of a priory near Waterbeach for the Franciscan Poor Clares, which subsequently became known as Denny Abbey, and where she was later buried. This book certainly dates to within Marie's lifetime. In addition to thirty-nine illuminated column miniatures, the manuscript is heavily ornamented with decorated borders, marginal grotesques and bas-de-page scenes. These have been identified as the work of a single artist, known as 'Mahiet' (a diminutive form of Matthieu), a professional illuminator who worked in Paris during the second quarter of the fourteenth century, in the circle of Jean Pucelle. Its contents clearly chime with Marie's personal devotional preferences and her attentive patronage of a number of religious foundations within the Franciscan order, primarily in England but also in France. A breviary contains the prayers, hymns, psalms and readings for everyday liturgical use and this example contains the summer and autumn offices of the Franciscan use from Pentecost until the week before the start of Advent. (Another volume, preceding this one, would have contained the winter and spring offices; it is not known to have survived). Iconographic evidence demonstrates indisputably Marie's ownership of the manuscript. Among the thirty-nine miniatures is one that shows a woman in her heraldic mantle kneeling in veneration before St Cecilia (see f. 388r). The arms shown - Châtillon-Saint Pol impaled with Valence - were Marie's own (and were adopted by Pembroke College) and are seen in numerous other places in the manuscript (see, for example, ff. 28v, 106r, 124v, 160r and elsewhere). Examination of these under a magnifying glass and ultraviolet light confirms that they were not painted over a previous coat of arms, establishing that the manuscript was made specifically for Marie. Whether it was Marie herself or a third party who ordered the production of the manuscript remains open to question, however. The precise origins and other provenance of this manuscript are much less clear and, in spite of promising documentary evidence, all of the interpretations have so far relied on circumstantial, suggestive evidence. Debate has arisen in particular over whether this manuscript may be identified with one or other of the two breviaries recorded in Marie's will. One, which she described as 'mon petit breviaire que ma la Royne me dona' ('my little breviary which my Queen gave to me'), she gave in turn to her Franciscan confessor, William Morin. On the basis of similarities noted by Henry Bradshaw and reported by Paul Meyer between the script in the present manuscript and certain books written for Charles IV of France (1294-1328), Hilary Jenkinson conjectured that this breviary and MS Dd.5.5 are one and the same. Richard and Mary Rouse, while not endorsing this identification (see below), have by contrast suggested that Marie's intended meaning here was the Queen of England, 'doubtless Philippa of Hainault' (rather than the Queen of France, presumably Jeanne d'Évreux, third wife of Charles IV). However, Sean Field has since argued that Isabella of France (1292-1358), consort of Edward II and mother of Edward III, is 'the more likely candidate', given the evidence of a longstanding relationship between these two women, and of Isabella's particular interest in book collecting as well as habitual borrowing from and lending to others. The other breviary recorded in Marie's will was gifted to Emma de Beauchamp, Abbess of the Franciscan abbey of nuns at Bruisyard in Suffolk, a book Marie noted as having previously belonged to the Sisters of Saint-Marcel (probably the Franciscan nuns of Lourcine-lez-Saint-Marcel near Paris). Disputing Jenkinson's interpretation, Richard and Mary Rouse proposed MS Dd.5.5 to be this breviary, pointing to the prominence given to the recipient and the breviary in Marie's will and the circumstantial connections that linked her to Emma (who had been a nun at Denny Abbey) and to the Franciscan nuns at Saint-Marcel (close neighbours to Marie's childhood home and later residence at Bièvre). The precise nature of the nuns' prior ownership of breviary is not clear from the text of the will, however, nor how a manuscript demonstrably made for Marie had belonged to them. The Rouses speculated that perhaps the nuns had been responsible for furnishing Marie with the text of a breviary she later had decorated in Paris, or had held the manuscript on deposit for Marie's use whenever she visited. As Sean Field has observed, it is also possible that MS Dd.5.5 is neither of these manuscripts, but a third breviary owned by Marie but donated prior to her death, perhaps (given its specifically Franciscan contents) to Denny Abbey - though there is very little evidence of the books that were held by this establishment: only two books are known to survive from there, a copy of the Northern Homilies in English (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 8335) and a copy of William of Nassington's Speculum vitae, also in English (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 18 ). The manuscript was most recently displayed as part of the exhibition The Rising Tide: Women at Cambridge (14th October 2019-21 March 2020), illustrating the important role women have played from the earliest times in the development of the University. Dr James Freeman| Medieval Manuscripts Specialist| Cambridge University Library
1. 13r-89v
Psalter
Language(s): Latin, with rubrics in French
Incipit: || 13r: manus meas ; et circumdabo altare tuum domine. Ut audiam uocem laudis eius ; et enarrem uniuersa mirabilia tua
1.1. 87r-88v
Litany
Rubric: 87r: La letani
Explicit: 89v: Exaudiat nos omnipotens et misericors dominus. R. Amen. Et fidelium anime etc

The Psalter is arranged for liturgical use with hymns, antiphons, canticles and prayers included. Psalms are not numbered.

The text begins imperfectly, Psalm 25.

Folios 35v-37r: break in the text, due to missing leaf: "...Dominus iudicabit fines terre ; et dabit imperium" (I. Sam. ii) to "domine quoniam benigna est misericordia tua..." (Ps. 68).

2. 91r-198v
Temporale
Language(s): Latin, with rubrics in French
Rubric: 91r: En la uigile de pentecoste . aus vespres anciene
Incipit: 91r: Dum complerentur dies penthecostes erant omnes discipuli pariter in eodem loco
2.1. 195r-198v
'Rebriches generaus'
Language(s): French
Rubric: 195r: Ci commencent les rebriches generaus
Incipit: 195r: Le premier dyemanche de lauent est touz iours le dyemanche qui eschiet entre le derrenier
Explicit: 198v: L'en ne doit pas dire preces a prime ne a complie est feste double ne par les octaues .
Explicit: 195r: si placuerit ei aut si susceperit faciem tuam : dicit dominus exercituum
3. 199r-401v
Sanctorale
Language(s): Latin, with rubrics in French
Rubric: 199r: En la feste saint antoine prestre et confesseur
Incipit: 199r: Gaudeat ecclesia quam in defunctorum sponsus ornat gloria matrem filiorum
Explicit: 401v: qui uiuit et regnat cum patre in unitate spiritus sancti deus : per omnia secula seculorum . Amen .

The sanctorale starts with the feast of St Anthony (13 June) and ends with the feast of St Catherine of Alexandria (25 November).

4. 403r-438v
Common of Saints
Language(s): Latin, with rubrics in French
Rubric: 403r: Ci commence le commun des sains
Incipit: 403r: Fratres ; iam non estis hospites et aduene . sed estis ciues sanctorum et domestici dei super edificati super fundamentum apostolorum et prophetarum
Explicit: 438v: de uirginitate sua gloriam foris expectunt in uasis suis oleum habere uoluerunt. R. Hec est virgo sapiens||

Text ends imperfectly in the 8th lesson for the Common of Virgins ('Omelia beati gregorii').

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 14r: Exaudi domine
Form: codex
Support: Parchment, of very fine quality (disposition of hair and flesh sides unclear)
Extent: Codex: i + 424 + i leaves. 200 × 135 mm.
Foliation:

20th-century foliation:

a + 13-35, 37-89, 91-438 + b

Numbering in pencil, in the upper right-hand corner. Folio numbers 1-12, 36 and 90 assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).
Foliation:

19th-century foliation:

Partial, apparently incomplete numbering in pencil, in the lower right-hand corner of the opening leaf of each quire (see, for example, ff. 25r and 33r).

Collation

The manuscript comprises 36 quires, mostly gatherings of 12 leaves.

  • Quire 112 (ff. 13-24)
  • Quire 212-1 (ff. 25-35; 12th leaf missing, after f. 35, i.e. f. 36)
  • Quires 3-612 (ff. 37-84)
  • Quire 76-1 (ff. 85-89; 6th leaf excised, probably blank, after f. 89, i.e. f. 90)
  • Quires 8-3112 (ff. 91-378)
  • Quire 3214 (ff. 379-392)
  • Quire 3310 (ff. 393-402)
  • Quires 34-3612 (ff. 403-438)
112 212-1 (12th missing) 3-612 76-1 (6th missing) 8-3112 3214 3310 34-3612

Leaf signatures occasionally visible.

 Catchwords enclosed in boxes drawn in red ink.

Layout

130 × 85 mm. Two columns, 30 lines, written below top line. Frame and line ruling in fine red/light brown ink: single vertical bounding lines extending the length of the page, single horizontal bounding line extending the full width of the page at the top of the text block, line ruling not crossing the intercolumnar space.

Hand(s)

Written in textura quadrata.

Decoration

The column miniatures, decorated borders, marginal grotesques and bas-de-page scenes have been identified as the work of a single artist, known as 'Mahiet' (a diminutive form of Matthieu), a professional illuminator who worked in Paris during the second quarter of the fourteenth century, in the circle of Jean Pucelle .

Miniatures:

Thirty-nine 10-line miniatures, framed, some with architectural features, on patterned gold ground.

Psalter:

  • 13r: David pointing to his eyes before God (Ps. 26).
  • 21r: David pointing to his mouth before God (Ps. 38).
  • 28v: Fool with club and bread (Ps. 52).
  • 46r: David ringing bells (Ps. 80).
  • 55r: Clerks chanting (Ps. 97).
  • 65r: God the Father and Jesus Christ enthroned (Ps. 109).

Temporale (following the marked feasts):

  • 91r: Pentecost.
  • 106r: Celebrant with host at altar (Corpus Christi).

Sanctorale (following the marked feasts):

  • 199r: St Anthony writing.
  • 207r: Sts Gervase and Prothase.
  • 211r: Nativity of St John the Baptist.
  • 217v: St John and St Paul.
  • 221r: St Peter and St Paul.
  • 236r: Woman (perhaps intended to represent Marie de Saint Pol) praying to St Mary Magdalene.
  • 239r: St James.
  • 246r: Woman (perhaps intended to represent Marie de Saint Pol) praying to St Peter.
  • 253r: Three masons building a cathedral (Blessed Virgin Mary 'de la neif').
  • 264r: Martyrdom of St Lawrence.
  • 274r: Woman (perhaps intended to be Marie de Saint Pol) praying to St Clare.
  • 280r: Dormition of Virgin (Assumption).
  • 294r: Martyrdom of St Bartholomew.
  • 295r: St Louis enthroned.
  • 299r: St Augustine preaching.
  • 302r: Martyrdom of St John the Baptist.
  • 307v: Nativity of Virgin.
  • 325r: Martyrdom of St Matthew .
  • 331v: Archangel Michael fighting the dragon.
  • 338v: St Francis receiving the stigmata.
  • 358r: Martyrdom of Sts Denis, Rusticus and Eleutherius.
  • 359r: Dedication of a church.
  • 364r: St Mark writing.
  • 368r: St Simon and St Jude.
  • 369v: Group of saints (All Saints).
  • 379v: St Martin and beggar.
  • 386r: St Elizabeth.
  • 388r: Marie de Saint Pol in heraldic mantle praying to St Cecilia.
  • 392v: Martyrdom of St Clement.
  • 397r: Martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria.

Common of Saints:

  • 403r: Group of saints.

Illuminated initials:

  • Two- to three-line initials, in blue or red/pink, with contrasting red/pink or blue edging at corners, and foliage infill, framed, on burnished gold ground.
  • Two- to four-line initials in gold or blue, with contrasting black or red penwork infill and marginal flourishing, aligned with the left-hand edge of the text columns.
  • Single-line initials in gold or blue, with contrasting black or red penwork infill and flourishing around the edges, interspersed within the columns of text.

Border decoration:

Gold, blue and pink ivy scrolls extending from illuminated initials, framing page and supporting birds, butterflies, animals, human figures, grotesques and heraldic shields; bas-de-page games, domestic, hunting and fishing scenes.

Additions

Collation formula and date of rebinding written on the rear pastedown by Arthur Owen .

Binding

Bound in alum-tawed pigskin; on the spine, blind-tooled zig-zag patterning at the head and foot, with >gold-tooled label and classmark. By Alan Farrant , Cambridge University Library, 1980.

Binding removed in 1980 described by H.L. Pink in an unpublished description of the manuscript: 'Early xix cent. quarter russia, paper sides to 8 bands, edges gilt' (see Source for further details). A small portion of the leather cover has been retained on the rear pastedown.

Decorated edges, presumably contemporary or near-contemporary with the production of the manuscript, comprising coloured lozenge-shaped pattern (not currently digitised).

History

Origin: France, Paris. ; Second quarter of the 14th century (probably c. 1330-1340).

The decoration of this manuscript was first ascribed by Sydney Cockerell to the fourth of four artists (working in the atelier of Jean Pucelle in Paris) who decorated the Hours of Jeanne II, Queen of Navarre (now Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, nouv. acq. lat. 3145) (see Cockerell, A descriptive catalogue of fourteen illuminated manuscripts... (1912), pp. 59-62, where the present manuscript is no. 15).

The identification of this artist as 'Mahiet' (a diminutive form of Matthieu) by Kathleen Morand and François Avril (among others) has since been restated by Richard Rouse (see 'Mahiet, the illuminator of Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.5.5' (2007), p. 173). The earliest datable evidence of Mahiet's activities (and the only context in which he is named) is the Belleville Breviary (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 10483 and 10484), produced in Paris between 1323 and 1326, which was painted by Jean Pucelle and four assistants, among them Mahiet (see f. 33r of MS lat. 10483 for Mahiet's name). The latest datable example is the Hours of Jeanne II, mentioned above, which was made between 1336 and 1340, 'though', according to Rouse, 'Mahiet probably lived until c. 1350', since he continued to produce work for an important court clientele during the reign of Philip VI of Valois (d. 1350). On this basis, the date of production of MS Dd.5.5 is sometimes tentatively assigned to around 1330 to 1340.

The manuscript was originally the second in a two-volume breviary; the other would have contained the winter and spring offices, and is not known to have survived.

Provenance and Acquisition

Marie de Saint Pol (c. 1304-1377) , countess of Pembroke and wife of Aymer de Valence (c. 1270-1324) , earl of Pembroke: shown kneeling in veneration before St Cecilia, wearing a heraldic mantle bearing the arms of Châtillon-Saint Pol impaled with Valence, on f. 388r. Other kneeling female figures, presumably also intended to represent Marie, are found on ff. 236r and 274r, and her arms were also frequently incorporated into the marginal decoration throughout the manuscript (see, for example, ff. 21r, 28v, 106r, 211r, 217v, 236r, etc).

Perhaps William Morin , Franciscan confessor of Marie de Saint Pol; or Emma de Beauchamp , abbess of the Franciscan abbey at Bruisyard, Suffolk; or the house of Franciscan nuns at Denny Abbey , Cambridgeshire (see Introduction for further discussion and references).

Erasure of 'Papa' from the text, indicating the manuscript's presence in England during the Reformation (see ff. 422r, 430r, 434r, 438v, and elsewhere).

The manuscript is first recorded among the collections of Cambridge University Library in a catalogue compiled 1754-56 (now MS Oo.7.53).

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press) and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1947 and 1970 by H.L. Pink , now held in the University Archives (ULIB 7/3/75/2).

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Bibliography

    Les manuscrits français de Cambridge. II. Bibliothèque de l'université Romania, Meyer, Paul (15, 237-357, 1886) Bibliotheca musico-liturgica: a descriptive handlist of the musical and Latin-liturgical MSS. of the Middle Ages preserved in the libraries of Great Britain and Ireland Bibliotheca musico-liturgica, Frere, Walter Howard (London, 2, 1894) A descriptive catalogue of fourteen illuminated manuscripts; nos. XCV to XVII and 79a, Thompson, Henry YatesCockerell, S. C. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1912) Mary de Sancto Paulo, Foundress of Pembroke College, Cambridge Archaeologia (Second Series), Jenkinson, Hilary (66, 401-446, 1915) Illuminated manuscripts Franciscan history and legend in English mediaeval art British Society of Franciscan Studies, Little, A. G. (Manchester, 35-77, Manchester University Press, 1937) Jean Pucelle, Morand, Kathleen (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1962) Images in the margins of Gothic manuscripts California studies in the history of art, Randall, Lilian M. C. (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1966) Die Handschriften der Sammlung Ludwig, von Euw, AntonPlotzek, Joachim M. (Köln, Schnütgen-Museum, 1979) The breviary of Marie de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke Pembroke College Cambridge Society: Annual Gazette, Wilcockson, Colin (62, 36-41, 1988) A Recent Discovery concerning the Sources of Chaucer's "Second Nun's Tale" Modern Philology, Reames, Sherry L. (87, 4, 337-361, 1990, http://www.jstor.org/stable/438557) Pembroke College, Cambridge: a celebration, Grimstone, A. V. (Cambridge, Pembroke College, 1997) Women, art and patronage from Henry III to Edward III, 1216-1377, Gee, Loveday Lewes (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2002) The Cambridge Illuminations: ten centuries of book production in the medieval west, (London, Harvey Miller, 2005) A French Franciscan Breviary in Lisbon and the Breviaries by Jean Pucelle and his followers Quand la peinture était dans les livres: mélanges en l'honneur de François Avril à l'occasion de la remise du titre de docteur honoris causa de la Freie Universität Berlin Ars nova, Morgan, Nigel J. (Turnhout, 203-221, Brepols, 2007) Mahiet, the illuminator of Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.5.5 The Cambridge illuminations: the conference papers, Rouse, Richard (London, 173-186, Harvey Miller, 2007) Marie de St-Pol and Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.5.5 The Cambridge illuminations: the conference papers, Rouse, RichardRouse, Mary (London, 187-191, Harvey Miller, 2007) The medieval imagination: illuminated manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand, Stocks, BronwynMorgan, Nigel J. (Victoria, Macmillan Art, 2008) Les marges à drôleries des manuscrits gothiques, (1250-1350) Matériaux pour l'histoire, Wirth, JeanEngammare, IsabelleBräm, Andreas (Genève, Librairie Droz, 2008) Reading the medieval book in an exhibition Imagination, books and community in medieval Europe: papers of a conference held at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 29-31 May, 2008, in conjunction with an exhibition 'The Medieval Imagination', 28 March-15 June 2008, Manion, Margaret (South Yarra, Vic.; Melbourne, Vic., 13-49, Macmillan; State Library of Victoria, 2009) Marie of Saint-Pol and her Books English Historical Review, Field, Sean L. (125, 513, 255-278, 2010, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25639996) Western illuminated manuscripts: a catalogue of the collection in Cambridge University Library Western illuminated manuscripts, Binski, PaulZutshi, P. N. R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011) Gothic manuscripts 1260-1320 A survey of manuscripts illuminated in France, Stones, Alison (London, Harvey Miller Publishers, 2013)

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