Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.8
Book of Hours
Contents
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Added by a late 15th- / early 16th-century hand. Quotation and rubric in Latin.
For another version of this prayer, see Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.2, ff. 23v-24r.
Added by a late 15th- / early 16th-century hand.
Calculation of Easter and the Moveable Feasts by Primes. Added by a 15th-century hand. Means (1992) notes that the text appears to be closely translated from a set of Latin instructions found in several manuscripts: see, for example, Oxford, University College, MS 179, f. 97v.
Full transcription. Added by a 15th-century hand (the same responsible for the text below).
Full transcription. Added by a 15th-century hand (the same responsible for the text above).
Calculation of Ember Days from Wednesdays.
Entries for 16 June (Translation of Richard, bishop of Chichester, confessor), 7 July (Translation of Thomas Becket, martyr) and 29 December (Becket) erased; also 'papa' erased throughout.
Antiphon (RH 18189) and prayer 'Deus qui nobis signati lumine'.
Antiphon (RH 26987) and prayer 'Beate iohannes baptista christi precursor'.
Added by a 15th-century hand (the same as the text below).
Added by a 15th-century hand (the same as the text above).
Antiphon (RH 26999) and prayer 'Deus qui beatum Thomam martyrem tuum atque pontificem'. Crossed out by hatched lines, the name 'Thomas' deleted.
Full transcription. Added by a 15th-century hand (the same responsible for the text below).
Added by a 15th-century hand (the same responsible for the text above).
Antiphon (RH 39618) and prayer 'Concede quaesumus omnipotens et misericors deus ut qui beati christofori'.
Added by a 15th-century hand.
Antiphon (RH 6993) and prayer 'Deus qui dedisti legem Moysi'
Antiphon (RH 6895) and prayer 'Deus qui beate marie magdalene penitentiam tibi placitam'
Hymn (RH 18310?); prayers 'Deus qui de beate marie virginis', 'O intemerata', and 'Obsecro te'; seven prayers in honour of the Virgin, with an indulgence for remission of a hundred days in the name of Pope Clement (RH 21899); final prayer 'Te deprecor sanctissima maria'.
Ten hymns excerpted from Johannes Lemovicensis (John of Limoges), De passione Christi. The first eight are addressed to the Crucifix, Cross, Head and Five Wounds of Christ, the last two to the Virgin and St John the Evangelist: RH 14081; 20594; 23377; 33260; 'Ave tu sinistra' (not in RH); 39355; 'Salve vulnus dextri pedis'; 'Levi pedis perforati' (not in RH), 30648; 28714.
'Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui unigenitum filium tuum'
Prayer 'Domine ihesu christe qui hora diei ultima de crucis depositus'; hymn (RH 1974); prayers 'Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui gloriose virginis marie' and 'Sancta et perpetua virgo maria'; kyrieleison; prayers 'Deprecor ergo te piissima dei genitrix', 'O domina dulcissima pia', 'Dominus rex omnium ex te nobis fecit', 'Gaude virgo gaudium maria', 'Deus qui beatam virginem et matrem maria'.
Psalms 21-22, 24-30
Added by a 15th-century hand (the same responsible for the text below).
Added by a 15th-century hand (the same responsible for the text above).
Appears to begin imperfectly. Extracts from the Bible: Psalm 39:14-16; Exodus 15:6-7, 16; Psalm 68:24. Tetragrammaton (x2, the second interspersed with crosses in red). Lord's prayer.
Physical Description
20th-century foliation
1-3 + 4-143
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf, by an unidentified hand of the 20th century.
Collation
The manuscript consists of 16 quires, mostly gatherings of 8 leaves and occasionally with miniatures inserted on additional single leaves. Quire 2 comprises numerous single leaves and its collation is irregular, with one of these now missing (for Thomas Becket); the exact structure of the quire is uncertain. The structure of Quire 13 is also not clear. According to Binski and Zutshi, a miniature of St Jerome has been removed before 135r at the beginning of Quire 16, however it has not been possible to determine how this related to the collation of the volume.
- Quire 16 (ff. 4-9)
- Quire 2thirteen (ff. 10-22: one leaf missing after f. 15)
- Quire 38+1 (ff. 23-31: 1st leaf inserted)
- Quires 4-58 (ff. 32-47)
- Quire 68+1 (ff. 48-56: 4th leaf inserted)
- Quires 7-88 (ff. 57-72)
- Quire 98+2 (ff 73-82: 1st and 2nd leaves inserted)
- Quire 108(ff. 83-90)
- Quire 116+1 (ff 91-97: 1st leaf inserted)
- Quire 128+1 (ff. 98-106: 1st leaf inserted)
- Quire 13eleven (ff. 107-117)
- Quire 148+1 (ff. 118-126: 9th leaf inserted)
- Quire 158 (ff. 127-134)
- Quire 168 (ff. 135-142)
Condition
Staining to the opening endleaves (1r-3v) and occasional moisture-damage (16r-16v, 131r).
Most of the miniatures have been heavily rubbed and their pigments have flaked away (10v, 12v, 14v, 17v, 19v, 21v, 23v, 98v, 109v, 126v).
A few initials have been smudged (8v-9r, 92r).
Suffrages to St Thomas of Canterbury have been crossed out roughly (16r-16v, 36r).
Layout
100-105 × 70 mm. Single column, 21 lines, ruled in red ink, below top line.
115 × 85 mm. Calendar: frame and line ruling in red ink, single column, 34 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Written in textura quadrata.
Decoration
Miniatures:
Thirteen (originally fifteen) full-page miniatures, framed by green, blue, orange, ochre or pink panels linked by gold quadrilobes and surrounded by short black sprays terminating in gold disks and ivy leaves.
- 10v: Throne of Mercy ('Domine deus omnipotens')
- 12v: Vernicle ('Salve sancta facies')
- 14v: St John the Baptist ('Gaude Iohannes Baptista')
- [before 16r: St Thomas of Canterbury; miniature removed ('Gaude lux londaniarum')]
- 17v: St Christopher ('Sancte Cristofore')
- 19v: St Catherine ('Gaude virgo Katherina')
- 21v: St Mary Magdalene ('Gaude pia magdalena')
- 23v: Annunciation (Matins of the Virgin)
- 51v: Our Lady of Humility ('Salve virgo virginum')
- 74v: Deposition (Hours of the Passion)
- 91v: Man of Sorrows with Instruments of the Passion (Psalms of the Passion)
- 98v: Last Judgement (Penitential Psalms)
- 109v: Funeral service (Office of the Dead)
- 126v: Christ blessing three souls carried to heaven by two angels ('Commendatio animarum')
- [before 135r: ?St Jerome; miniature removed ('Beatus ieronimus')]
Initials:
Twenty-one three- to six-line initials with white ornamentation and blue, purple and orange floral scroll infill on burnished gold ground. At major textual divisions, initials are accompanied by four-sided frames of cusped burnished gold, purple and blue bars with short oak and ivy leaf scrolls and gold studded black sprays. At minor textual divisions, there are identical bars extending from purple-and-orange initials in the left-hand margins.
- 24r, 28v, 39r, 41r, 42v, 44r, 45v, 46v: Hours of the Virgin.
- 52r: 'Salve virgo virginum'.
- 75r, 77v, 78v, 79v, 80v, 81v, 82v: Hours of the Passion.
- 92r: Psalm 22.
- 99r: Penitential Psalms.
- 110r: Office of the Dead.
- 127r: 'Commendatio animarum'.
- 135r: Psalter of St Jerome.
Two- and three-line burnished gold initials with blue/purple infill and frames, to verses, prayers and in the Calendar. With gold, blue and purple bars with white patterns and short gold-studded black sprays extending from gold initials in left margins.
One- and two-line blue or gold initials with red or purple infill and marginal flourishing.
Capitals highlighted in red.
Additions
Notes on Christmas, Epiphany, Easter and Ascension (perhaps related to the computus texts on f. 3v), added to the front pastedown by a late 15th- / early 16th-century hand.
Binding
Late 18th- or early 19th-century quarter leather binding: paper over pasteboard with a brown leather spine, gold-tooling, and a red leather label with the gold-stamped title inscription: ‘MISSALE M.S.’.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 38 (f. 2r) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I (1660-1727) : donation bookplate engraved by John Pine (1690-1756) in 1736 on front pastedown.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Bibliography
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The Letter ‘C’ and the Date of Easter English Language Notes, Rigg, A. G. (5, 1-5, 1967)
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28-29 april
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Funding of Cataloguing
Kate Rudy (digitisation)
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
