Noted breviary; Germany (Münsterschwarzach), 1154 × 1173

Title

Noted breviary; Germany (Münsterschwarzach), 1154 × 1173

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 297

Associated place

Italian

Place of origin

Germany, south, Münsterschwarzach, Schwarzach-am-Main, Benedictine abbey of St Felicitas

Date

1154 × c. 1173

added drawing, 13th century, first half

Language

Latin

Italian

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

ii + 2 + 353 + 1 + ii fol. (i-ii, 1–355, including 328a-c and 329a-b)

Decoration

Good initials (fols. 11r, 110v, 139v, 142v, etc.)

Full-page Byzantinizing drawing added, 13th century, first half, fol. 10v: identified by van Dijk as Gregory the Great

Musical notation

Fine adiastematic, non-rhythmical notation of German neums, tending towards point neums.

Binding

17th century or 18th century, Italian: thick wood boards, no bevel, square-cut with large squares and a strap-groove at centre edge of front board; inside boards are bare wood; light brown leather covering the strap-groove and not allowing for any clasp(s), blind-tooled with double lines and one bee(?)-tool to form a simple panel with crossing diagonals, and with a thin wavy roll near edges; spine lost; edges plain. Same style (archaizing?) as at MSS. Canon. Liturg. 324 and 340. Rebacked in similar leather, late 19th century, Bodleian. 224–225 155 c. 98–104 (book closed).

Traces of lost medieval binding, origin unclear: a former front paste-down at fol. 1 (and flyleaves at fols. 2 and ?353), with traces of pink tawed leather (perhaps from a chemise) and of two fore-edge clasps.

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Provenance

Easter table for 1154–1186; presumably written before 1173 as Thomas of Canterbury is a later addition in the calendar.

The manuscript is usually regarded as written at or for the Benedictine abbey of St Felicitas in Münsterschwarzach, Schwarzach-am-Main. Felicitas and her sons are emphasized in the calendar (10 July), in the litany, fol. 319r, and there are two hymns to Felicitas in the hymnal (fol. 327r). There are numerous entries in the calendar pointing to the diocese of Würzburg, such as the feasts of Burchard on 2 Feb. and 14 Oct. and of Kilian on 8 July: all are marked 'in Wirziburg'.

By the 15th century, and probably earlier, the manuscript was in Italy. Flotzinger suggested that soon after its production the manuscript was in use at the Benedictine abbey of St Gall, Moggio Udinense. His evidence for this was the obit in the calendar (15 Aug.) of 'Albertus presbyter et monachus sancti Galli' and the very early addition of Hermagoras and Fortunatus of Aquileia (12 July) in the calendar. Flotzinger also raised the possibility that the manuscript was written at Münsterschwarzach for Moggio: this was based on the version of 'Aeterne rerum conditor' on fol. 302r incorporating St Gall (although this is also found in a breviary probably from Würzburg, see Cantus 008254a-g).

This is the manuscript whose calendar was printed by Federigo Altan (Althanus), De Calendariis in genere, et speciatim de calendario ecclesiastico ... (Venice, 1753), 129–152 as 'Calendarium Mosacense I' (see also 90–1); apparently the manuscript was then still in the possession of the abbey.

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805: uncertain when acquired, not from Trevisan / Soranzo.

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Title

A Benedictine Breviary

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 297

Summary

A Benedictine Breviary, consisting of:

A calendar with calendarial tables from 1154 to 1186 (fol. 3)

Proprium de Tempore (fol. 11)

Proprium Sanctorum (fol. 189)

Commune Sanctorum (fol. 262v)

Hymnal (fol. 302) with canticles, litany, the Psalter of St. Jerome, etc.

Psalter in shortened form (fol. 329b)

At fol. 10v is a pen-and-ink figure of St. John writing his gospel

The calendar (Feb. 2, July 8 and 15, Oct. 14) points to Würzburg, and perhaps, as Frere suggests (Bibl. Mus.-Liturg., p. 34), to a house of St. Felicitas (July 10). The MS. was carried into Italy in the 15th cent., where numerous additions were made to the calendar, an Italian hymn to the Virgin added (fol. 301v), etc. See nos. 19245, 19408, 19414, 19426, 19432, 19441. There are musical notes.

Date

Written in or soon after 1154, at or near Würzburg

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment

Physical extent

360 Leaves