Details
PORTIFORIUM, collection of short offices in Latin, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[England, second half of the 14th century]
120x90mm, 65 leaves (including first and last 2 blank leaves), APPARENTLY COMPLETE, collation: 11 218 314 412 51s66, 17 lines (final prayers 16/20 lines), justification 84x65mm, written in dark brown ink in an English bâtarde bookhand , ff.47-63 in light brown ink in another late 14th century hand, rubrics and initials in red, many capitals touched in red, corner torn from f.17), 18th-century calf
PROVENANCE: (1) Written by Dom John Payterell, who signed his name on the preliminary blank leaf 'Iste liber constat dño ihn payterell' ['aliter hartecombe' inserted in the later 14th-century hand]. He was evidently the scribe, as well as the first owner, probably in the Midlands or Northern England. (2) Francis Powell, Aul.Clar.A.B., he signed his name below Payterell's in the early 18th century, and presented the book to (3) Thomas Fakner
TEXT: This small volume, intended to be carried in the pocket, contains short offices for the use of someone, perhaps a priest who seems to have been particularly devoted to St.Thomas. The principal contents are: f.1. blank, except for signatures. f.2 Suffrage and Office for St.Thomas Becket. f.17v. Short Office for All Saints. f.22. Antiphons and versicles of the memorials for Advent and the Octave of Christmas f.30. Short Hours of the Virgin. f.47. Prayers. ff 64-65 blank, except for a note about archbishop Theobald, successor to Thomas Becket
A RARE SURVIVAL OF AN OFFICE OF ST. THOMAS BECKET