Missal, Use of Sarum; England (London), s. xvin

Title

Missal, Use of Sarum; England (London), s. xvin

Shelfmark

Christ Church MS. 87

Place of origin

England (London)

Date

s. xvin

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment (FSOS)

Physical extent

Fols 283

Hands

Written in gothic textura quadrata by five scribes: A = fols 1ra-104vb; B = fols 105ra-124vb, 132ra-165ra; C = fols 165rb-180rb; D = fols 183ra-191rb; E = fols 191va-283ra. Their work has been supplemented by two later additions, each in its own textura (s. xv), to fill in gaps, fols 125–31 and fols 181–82.

Punctuation by point, puntus elevatus, punctus interrogativus, and (scribe E only) double point.

Decoration

Headings, liturgical directions, and notations for oral reading in red. Sections introduced by alternate two-line lombards, blue with red flourishing and gold leaf with purple flourishing (in both cases with marginal leafy extenders). Ochre-slashed capitals. A few linefillers in simple geometric blue and gold leaf. Scribe C enjoyed adding crowns to the top margin of several leaves (fol. 167v, 168, 172, 173v, 174, 174v, 176) and, on occasion drew faces, including a woman’s severed head, the neck dripping blood (fol. 172va, and cf. 177va).

The single surviving decorated page is fol. 220, for the Nativity of the Virgin: a vinet in gold leaf, blue and violet, a simple bar outline with floral sprays and knots; a painted (perhaps historiated?) initial has been excised. Nearly all the missing leaves probably reflect more thorough depredations, for surviving surrounding leaves routinely have offset from vinets and demivinets, e.g. fols 6v, 8, 30, 35v, 144v, 178, 180v, 190, 203, 204, 214v, 230v, 235. The removal of folios for their illumination also extended to scratching off the gold-leaf on some of the initials (eg fol. 106rb, 233ra).

While our manuscript does not appear in Kathleen L. Scott, Dated & Datable English Manuscript Borders c. 1395–1499 (London, 2002), her discussion suggests that the illumination (as now appears at fol. 220) was already old-fashioned by the middle of the first decade of the fifteenth century. See AT no. 406 (41).

Musical notation

Some noted portions on a four-line stave in red.

Binding

White leather (shows red dye on the turnins) over unbevelled wooden boards, s. xv. Sewn on nine thongs, anchored straight into the board, as in Pollard’s Figure 5. Remains of green cloth ties, stubs with nails and one intact metal plate on the upper board; remains of the metal posts to which they were attached at the centre of the lower board. Marks from a ChCh chain staple in Watson’s position 5 (see Appendix I). No front pastedown, a ChCh bookplate inside the upper board, the rear pastedown waste parchment. No flyleaves.

Provenance

The Calendar refers to ‘ecclesi[a] sancti botulphi extra aldgate’. As Ker MLGB, 221 notes, there are two London churches dedicated to St Botolph, one ‘extra Aldersgate’, the other ‘iuxta Aldgate’. Which of the two is an issue not just for our manuscript but also for London: Guildhall, MS 515. What is certain is that the two volumes cannot hail from the same church, as the date of dedication recorded in each calendar is different. In the manuscript now in the Guildhall, 4thOctober is given as the date of ‘dedicacio ecclesie sancti Botulphi extra Aldrichgate’; Ker, MMBL, 1:73–74 surmises that this is probably St Botolph’s-without-Aldersgate; if so, then our manuscript must presumably be from the church commonly called St Botolph without Aldgate.

This must be the volume donated by Thomas Edwardes, chancellor of John King, Bishop of London and former Dean, in 1614, and recorded in the Library Donors’ Register, MS LR 1, p. 25b: ‘Missale Man: Script: fol’. Edwardes, a Berkshire man, matriculated at All Souls in 1581; he was a fellow in 1577 and received his BCL and DCL in 1584 and 1590, respectively. He was subsequently an advocate in Doctors’ Commons (1595), prebendary of St Paul’s (1591–1605), and chancellor to the Bishop (AO, 450). With his bishop, John King, Edwards also gave Christ Church £46 13s 4d for book purchases in 1614, recorded at the Donors’ Register, pp. 14ª-17ª.

The book contains on the turn-in of the cover to the upper board, the old ChCh shelfmarks: that of the 1676 catalogue, ‘D.2’ (see Appendix I), cancelled, and the New Library’s ‘E.1’ (see Appendix IV).