Gospel lectionary. 11th century, second half, with added drawing, 12th century, middle; Austria (?), Salzburg (?)

Title

Gospel lectionary. 11th century, second half, with added drawing, 12th century, middle; Austria (?), Salzburg (?)

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 45

Associated place

Italian

Place of origin

Austria, Salzburg

Austria (?), Salzburg (?)

Date

added drawing, 12th century, middle

11th century, second half

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

ii (paper) + 120 + ii (paper) fol.

Hands

Late Caroline minuscule, rubrics and incipits in majuscules

Decoration

Major feasts and other Sundays with initials (typically 4- or 3-line respectively, but letters with ascenders/descenders, and ‘I’s, are often much taller) in gold, outlined and ornamented with orange, on a blue ground; in the first quire they also use a silver metal; initials for minor feasts (typically 2-line) and rubrics in gold on an orange ground; major feasts with 1-line capitals in gold.

Blank spaces, doubtless for miniatures, sometimes framed, precede major feasts: Christmas (fol. 1v) Epiphany (fol. 5r) Purification (fol. 9v) Palm Sunday (fol. 34v) Last Supper (fol. 50v) Good Friday (fol. 53v) Holy Saturday (fol. 57r) Ascension (fol. 65v; full-page) Pentecost (fol. 67v; full-page)

The framed space before Easter day (fol. 57v) is filled by a 12-cent. drawing in brown with orange elements: The Empty Tomb and Noli me tangere: from left to right, the cave-like sepulchre with the discarded burial cloth; the angel sitting on the stone that has been rolled away (Matt. 28:2); Mary Magdalene kneeling before Christ, who blesses her and holds the cross of the Resurrection.

Binding

Italian, 18th-century. Sewn on four bands laced into pasteboards covered with reddish-brown leather, each cover blind-tooled with a central lozenge within a panel and a border of scrolling leaves; the spine with two green leather title-pieces lettered in gilt capitals ‘Evangelia | de | tempore’ and ‘Cod. mem. | saec. XII.’, the other compartments each with a gilt stamp of a sprig of leaves and flowers.

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817. Former Bodleian shelfmark: ‘Bibl. Can 45.’ (fol. ir), cancelled by encircling.

Provenance

Localization and date after Pächt and Alexander; localization presumably based on the added drawing.

‘Prov.: Italie’ in R. Grégoire, ‘Repertorium Liturgicum Italicum’, Studi medievali, Ser. 3, 9 (1968), pp. 465–592 at 551, citing T. Klauser, Das römische Capitulare evangeliorum (Münster, 1935), p. CV no. 236.

Unidentified (late?)18th-century Italian owner(s), responsible for the binding and the title ‘Evangelia de Tempore & Sanctis’ (fol. 1r)

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805, Venetian Jesuit and bibliophile; to his brother:

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807, on whose death to their nephew: Giovanni Perisinotti, from whom over 2,000 books were:

Title

Gospel lectionary

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 45

Date

11th century, second half

Language

Latin

Physical extent

1 volume