Breviary, Use of Rome; Italy, Milan, S. Giovanni in Conca 15th century, dated 1464–5

Title

Breviary, Use of Rome; Italy, Milan, S. Giovanni in Conca 15th century, dated 1464–5

Shelfmark

MS. Buchanan f. 4

Place of origin

Italian, Milan, S. Giovanni in Conca

Date

1464–5

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment.

Physical extent

iii (modern paper, the first marbled on both sides) + 481 + iii (modern paper, the last marbled on both sides).

Hands

Written in a 'fere humanistica' bookhand, apparently by Dionisius de Castello throughout (see under Provenance)

Decoration

Headings in red; capitals stroked in red ink; guide-letters for one- and two-line initials usually visible within the initial area; oblique strokes next to blue two-line initials were used to ensure a regular alternation of red and blue initials when working on disbound sheets.

Five historiated initials, of varying size, depicting mostly half-length figures; the letter maroon on a blue ground, each with a red foliage extension descending down the margin, and a green one rising up it: (fol. 13r) Temporale. Seven-line initial F[ratres]: St. Paul(?) in profile, holding a sword and book; the bottom margin of the page with a shield, now overpainted with an 'IHS' monogram of S. Bernardino (see under Provenance). (fol. 201v) Psalm 1. Nine-line initial B[eatus]: King David playing the psaltery in a landscape (Pächt & Alexander, 2, pl. LXX no. 731, detail). (fol. 265v) Psalm 109. Five-line initial D[ixit]: God the Father, holding an orb. (fol. 293r) Sanctorale. Six-line initial D[eus]: St. Saturninus(?), holding a palm of martyrdom (Watson, Dated and datable, Oxford, pl. 626, showing most of the page). (fol. 432r) Common. Nine-line initial F[ratres]: an Apostle holding a staff and book . Seven similar smaller painted foliate initials, to the first hymn of the ferial Psalter, and the remaining eight-part divisions of the psalms (fols. 201r, 221v, 230r, 236r, 242r, 250v, 257r). Three- and four-line initials in red with purple penwork, or blue with red penwork, to major feasts in the temporale and sanctorale; similar two-line initials, alternating, to prayers, lessons, psalms, etc.; one-line initials alternately in red or blue, to verses and other minor textual divisions; paraphs in blue.

Binding

19th-century Parisian signed binding by (Alphonse?) Simier. Sewing-supports not visible; bound in very dark green leather over pasteboards; the covers tooled in gilt with an outer frame formed of lozenges and semi-circlets, enclosing another frame of overlapping circle and foliate designs, the centre of each cover with a four-pointed motif composed of heart-shaped leaves on curling leafy stems; the spine with seven false raised bands; with repeated use of large and small heart-shaped-leaf tools, in every compartment of the spine; lettered 'BREUIARIUM' in the third compartment, and 'ANO | 1465' in the sixth; doublures of brown leather framed by the turn-ins, both tooled in gilt around the edge with palmette and quatrefoil roll patterns; the first and last flyleaves finely marbled on both sides; the other flyleaves of unwatermarked wove paper; the edges of the leaves and boards gilt; yellow, green and red endbands; one green silk bookmark; stamped on the top edge of the lower board and on fols. ii verso and 482r 'SIMIER.R[ELIEUR].DU ROI.' (cf. MS. Buchanan g. 1). Boxed. It seems that both René Simier, and his son, Alphonse (on whom see Charles Ramsden, French bookbinders 1789–1848 (London, 1950, repr. 1989), 190; and Hellmuth Helwig, Handbuch der Einbandkunde (3 vols., Hamburg, 1953–5), II, 179), each signed their work 'SIMIER.R[ELIEUR].DU ROI.' at different times (for examples, see Etienne Ader and Léopold Carteret, Bibliothèque Henri Béraldi, cinquième partie: livres des XVIe, XVIIe et XVIII siècles romantiques et modernes dans de belles relieures (auction catalogue: Paris, 1935), pls. facing pp. 6, 38, 39, 105, 122, and 127); but the style of the present binding looks too late to have been executed before the death, probably shortly after 1826, of René.

Acquisition

Given to the Bodleian by his widow, Mrs. E. O. Buchanan, in 1941.

Provenance

Signed and dated by Dionisius de Castello, priest of S. Giovanni in Conca, Milan, 1464–5; dated in red ink at the end of the Hymnal '.1464.'(fol. 291v), and with a colophon in red ink at the end of the volume (fol. 480v). The entry at 1 Dec. in the first calendar (fol. 6v) states that the relics of St. Castritianus are in the church; the shield on fol. 13r appears to have been flanked by two letters in gold, and perhaps topped by a third, all now erased.

Unidentified near-contemporary Italian owner(s): the additions (fol. 10r) of Hermagoras and Fortunatus to the second calendar, and their commemoration (fol. 481r) at the end of the volume, suggest an owner with a special veneration of their cult-they were principal patrons at Udine, Gorizia, and Laibach; an omitted verse of a psalm is supplied in a humanistic semi-cursive script on fol. 254r; a smudged inscription is on fol. 200r: 'Breujarius Romanus [?] | uerbis johannis' (??).

Unidentified French collector, 19th century: a small gilt red leather bookplate (fol. i recto), shows a coat of arms with three fleurs de lys, a bordure with eight scallop shells, encircled by the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with links composed of pairs of facing initial 'C's, surmounted by a closed crown, and flanked by two angel supporters holding banners with, and wearing, fleurs de lys, above the motto: 'DEUS ET DIES'; fol. 484v with a corresponding small red leather bookplate stamped in gilt with a tree of fleurs de lys, surmounted by a closed crown. The same arms and the same tree of fleurs de lys are on the covers of a binding sold at Sotheby's, 15 May, 1997, lot 61 (catalogue with colour pl.); this binding is signed by Lortic (cf. below), who is thought to have started business in 1840, which would make it impossible for the arms to be a variant of those of Charles X of France (1757–1836; r.1824–30), as had previously been proposed, presumably on the basis that the closed crown should only be used by royalty.

Baron François-Florentin-Achille Seillière (1813–73), French banker and book-collector (see Eugène Olivier, Georges Hermal, and R. de Roton, Manuel de l'amateur de reliures armoriées françaises: onzième série (meubles) (Paris, 1927), no. 1130): his sale at Sotheby's, 25 February 1887 and four following days, lot 180, bought by Ridler for £13; inscribed, presumably by Sotheby's, in pencil '985' within a triangle in the upper left corner of fol. ii verso (see Introduction). A cutting of the Sotheby's catalogue description is pasted to a sheet of plain paper and inserted loosely in [pr. bk.] Buchanan f.54, and inscribed by Buchanan: 'Belonged to same collector as Summa Angelica'. Since there is no copy of Angelus's Summa Angelica from Buchanan's collection in either the Bodleian or All Souls, this note presumably refers to the copy in the Seillière catalogue, lot 40, bound by Lortic (cf. above); Seillière presumably acquired the latter and the present manuscript from the same source. Buchanan attended the sale in person, and bought a number of printed books (see Introduction); he presumably bought the present manuscript from Ridler immediately afterwards, since it does not bear Ridler's price-code.

Rt. Hon. T. R. Buchanan (1846–1911)