Missal, Use of Sarum ('The Closworth Missal') — 15th century, third quarter; English

Title

Missal, Use of Sarum ('The Closworth Missal') — 15th century, third quarter; English

Shelfmark

MS. Don. b. 6

Place of origin

English

Date

15th century, third quarter

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment.

Physical extent

i (parchment) + viii (modern paper, and a photograph, stuck in) + i (parchment) + 252 + ii (parchment) leaves.

Hands

Written in a good gothic liturgical bookhand

Decoration

Headings in red; capitals in the main text touched in yellow.

One half-page miniature: (fol. 156v) The Crucifixion; the upper part of the background is tooled gold, the lower part part is a landscape of hills under a graded blue sky (ill in Pächt and Alexander, pl. CII, 1095b).

One five-line foliate initial in blue, rose and green on a gold ground, with a leafy border in two margins: (fol. 157r) Te igitur.

Four- to eight-line initials in red and blue, with red and blue penwork, usually of 'puzzle' type, at major feasts and textual divisions: (fol. 8r) Temporale; first Sunday in Advent. (fol. 19r) Christmas. (fol. 24v) Epiphany. (fol. 96v) Easter. (fol. 110r) Ascension. (fol. 113v) Pentecost. (fol. 121r) Trinity Sunday. (fol. 122r) Corpus Christi. (fol. 123r) Sunday after Trinity Sunday. (fol. 161r) Sanctorale; St. Andrew (30 Nov.). (fol. 120r) Purification of the Virgin (2 Feb.). (fol. 176v) Sts. Philip & James (1 May). (fol. 183r) St. John the Baptist (24 June). (fol. 185r) Sts. Peter & Paul (29 June). (fol. 189v) Mary Magdalen (22 July; four-line, not 'puzzle'). (fol. 195v) Assumption of the Virgin (15 Aug.). (fol. 205r) St. Michael (29 Sept.). (fol. 210v) All Saints (1 Nov.; five-line, not 'puzzle'). (fol. 214v) Common of Saints (five-line, not 'puzzle') (fol. 235v) Mass of the Virgin. (fol. 245v) Marriage service.

Two-line initials in blue with very distinctive red penwork, frequently including human faces (e.g. fols. 7v, 14v, 15r, 33v, etc.), usually caricatured, usually laymen, but sometimes tonsured (e.g. fol. 43r); sometime with inscribed scrolls: 'DICE . PATI . PATIT . QVI . VINCIT' (fol. 31r), 'DEUM . TIME . ET MANDATA EIUS . SERVA' (fol. 34v), 'TIMENTIBVS DEVM. NICHIL . DEEST' (fol. 47r), 'VINCIT . QVI . PATITVR' (fol. 48v) (ill. in Pächt and Alexander, pl. CII, 1095a), and 'Fuge. cetum. Feminarum. Nam omnis status harum. Prava dat stipendia' (fol. 52v); stylised or semi-naturalistic flowers or fruit, and other motifs e.g. a fleur de lis (fols. 15v, 26v, etc.), a crown (fols. 25v, 47r, etc.), etc.; one-line initials alternately plain red or blue.

Musical notation

12 staves of 4 red lines with square notation.

Binding

Bound c. 1912 in black morocco by Messrs. J. & J. Leighton; the spine tooled in gilt 'MISSALE | ECCLESIAE | DE | CLOSWORTH || SAEC. XIV'; gilt edges; formerly bound in 'half russia', according to the cutting from a Sotheby's(?) catalogue glued to fol. ix verso.

Acquisition

Sir John Noble, bart.; Quaritch were presumably acting on his behalf at the Meade Falkner sale (hence the absence of any of Quaritch's characteristic markings); presented to the Bodleian by Noble in memory of Meade Falkner, in 1933.

Provenance

Written in England in the third quarter of the 15th century, for secular use.

The original penwork decoration includes the motto 'Disce pati. Patitur qui vivit' and others

Closworth, Somerset, parish church of All Saints (?): the dedication of the parish church of Closworth was added to the calendar in the 15th century: 'Dedicacio ecclesie parochialis de clowsworth maius duplex' (19 June; fol. 3v).

References to Thomas Becket and popes altered or effaced at the Reformation.

? Stephen Hales, who owned Closworth in 1554 (see John Collinson, The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset ..., II (Bath, 1791), pp. 346–7), the year in which alterations were made to the Canon of the Mass.

'The Property of a Military Officer': sold as such by Sotheby's, 13 July 1909 and following day, lot 325; bought by Leighton for £86.

J. & J. Leighton, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1912), item 217, with pl.

John Meade Falkner (1858–1932) (on whom see DNB and MS. Don. b. 5, under Provenance), for whom Leighton rebound the volume (as recorded in London, BL, Add. MS. 45168, fol. 100v); sold at Sotheby's 13 Dec. 1932, lot 295; bought by Quaritch for £230.