Ordinal, Use of Hirsau, and Miracles of the Virgin, in Latin with some German and Czech; south-eastern Germany, Austria, or northern Italy, late 12th or perhaps early 13th century

Title

Ordinal, Use of Hirsau, and Miracles of the Virgin, in Latin with some German and Czech; south-eastern Germany, Austria, or northern Italy, late 12th or perhaps early 13th century

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 325

Place of origin

Germany, south-east, or Austria, or Italy, north-east, diocese of Udine

Date

12th century, late (after 1173) (or very early 13th century?) (with additions)

Language

Czech

Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment, flaws sometimes repaired with red or green thread (e.g. fols. 154, 162, 164)

Physical extent

ii (paper) + iv (medieval parchment) + 220 + i (medieval parchment) + ii (paper)

Hands

Expert early Gothic bookhand.

Decoration

One 9-line foliate initial (fol. 160v) drawn in red ink, with a bird- or dragon-head terminal, the background filled with pale yellow and green washes One similar but simpler 4-line initial (fol. 15v); 4-line arabesque red initial, fol. 13r.

Other initials, mostly 1- or 2-line, in plain red.

Musical notation

See above: adiastematic neums; square notation on four-line staves.

Binding

18th-cent. brown calf, the covers framed with a blind and gilt roll tools, a standard Canonici style; marbled endpapers; rebacked, reusing the title-piece lettered in gilt capitals: ‘Ordo Div. Off | Mirac. BV et SS | et alia &c | cod. membr’. The first and last leaves with rust stains and holes caused by the metal fittings of a previous binding.

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817. Former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘E codd. Bodl. Miscell. Liturg. CCCXXV’ in ink (fols. ir, 5r, 13r), and ‘Miscel Liturg. 335’ in pencil, the second ‘3’ overwritten in ink with a ‘2’ (fol. ir).

Provenance

Written for a house of the Hirsau Congregation; probably, as argued by Heinzer, Buchkultur, 194–8, for San Gallo, Moggio (Mosach), where the manuscript certainly was later (see below), as suggested not only by the calendar but by the inclusion of local saints such as Hermagoras and Fortunatus (fol. 116r) in the ordinal itself. Watson's suggestion of an origin at Hirsau Abbey itself (Dated and Datable) is rejected by Heinzer and Gutfleisch on palaeographical and art-historical grounds and because of the dialect of the German text, all of which suggest south-east Germany or Austria and do not exclude the possibility that the manuscript was written at Moggio itself. Regarding the date Watson observed that Thomas Becket, canonized in 1173, is included by the original scribe in the calendar, while Cunegund (3 March), canonized in 1200, and her Translation (9 Sept, 1201), are additions (as is her feast at fol. 126v), and thus dates it between 1173 and 1200; Gutfleisch, op. cit., however, dated the manuscript slightly later palaeographically.

Benedictine abbey of San Gallo, Moggio (Mosach), in the patriarchate of Aquileia, as indicated by several inscriptions in the calendar (q.v.) and elsewhere: ‘[ … ] in die sancte theodori [ … ]do de [ … ] abbat[ … ] monasterii mosacen. [ … ]’(fol. 1r) ‘Millesimo Cxviiij dedicatum fuit monasterium siue [ecclesie?] Mosacum in festo sanctorum Primi et Feliciani [i.e. 9 June; cf. the calendar] [ … ]’ (fol. 2r) ‘M ccc.lj die sabbati tercio mensis decembris venerabilis vir dominus Nicholaus [of Luxembourg] patriacha Aquiliensis, frater domini Caruli [ … ] fecit detruncari caput [...]’ (fol. 4v) ‘M ccco xlviiij interfectus fuit Gilbertus abbas a mosacensis’ (fol. 160r) MS. Canon. Liturg. 340 and MS. Canon. Liturg. 346 apparently come from the same house.

Giacomo Soranzo (?): J. B. Mitchell's card-index of Canonici manuscripts note that the endpapers are similar to those in other manuscripts owned by Soranzo: 'perhaps Soranzo's'.

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Title

A Benedictine Ordinal

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 325

Summary

A Benedictine Ordinal, consisting of:

A calendar with tables (fol. 5)

'ordo diuini officii per circulum anni secundum Hirsiacenses' (fol. 15v)

At fol. 160v follows 'libellus de miraculis & beneficiis s. Marie': beg. 'Ad omnipotentis Dei laudem cum sepe recitantur', at the end of which is a 'Benedictio campanę' (fol. 223)

Among the additions are some Latin hymns (fols. 1v, 4, 224v), and a note about masses 'aput Anesum' (Ens, near Linz ?: fol. 3)

There are some musical notes in the volume.

Date

Written early in the 13th century in Germany (?)

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, partly in double columns, with some fine capitals

Physical extent

227 Leaves

Custodial history

The calendar points to Germany (St. Cunegunda honoured, added in a contemporary hand, Mar. 3, Sept. 9: canonized in A.D. 1200). In the first half of the 13th cent. the book was transferred to the diocese of Aquileia, probably to the 'monasterium Mosacense', see calendar: the local notes extend from 1302 to 1381 (fols. 1, 4v, 159v, 160). A cycle of years on fol. 12 is from 1344-1409, covering an older series (perhaps 1256-1321).