![Portion of the Summer Part of a Noted Breviary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Southern France, 2nd quarter or mid-12th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2021/CKS/2021_CKS_20107_0068_001(portion_of_the_summer_part_of_a_noted_breviary_in_latin_decorated_manu011428).jpg?w=1)
![Portion of the Summer Part of a Noted Breviary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Southern France, 2nd quarter or mid-12th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2021/CKS/2021_CKS_20107_0068_002(portion_of_the_summer_part_of_a_noted_breviary_in_latin_decorated_manu011436).jpg?w=1)
![Portion of the Summer Part of a Noted Breviary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Southern France, 2nd quarter or mid-12th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2021/CKS/2021_CKS_20107_0068_003(portion_of_the_summer_part_of_a_noted_breviary_in_latin_decorated_manu011443).jpg?w=1)
![Portion of the Summer Part of a Noted Breviary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Southern France, 2nd quarter or mid-12th century]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2021/CKS/2021_CKS_20107_0068_000(portion_of_the_summer_part_of_a_noted_breviary_in_latin_decorated_manu011421).jpg?w=1)
Portion of the Summer Part of a Noted Breviary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Southern France, 2nd quarter or mid-12th century]
Details
Portion of the Summer Part of a Noted Breviary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Southern France, 2nd quarter or mid-12th century]
An unrestored portion of a large Breviary representing an as-yet unidentified liturgical use, with early musical notation.
c.380×260mm, 54 leaves, not foliated, collation: 1-48, 56, 6–78, comprising consecutive complete gatherings, two columns of 47 lines, ruled space: c.275×180mm, the text of chant written on alternate lines, leaving a line above each for neumes, decorated initials in brown or red ink from 2 to 20 lines high (the upper fore-edge corner missing due to rodents(?), staining especially to the lower margin of the first leaves, some blank margins excised, with stains, creases, tears, and dirt throughout, but free of later repairs or restoration). The sewn gatherings loosely inserted into pasteboards covered with leaves from a large 15th-century choirbook, with a paper label on the front cover inscribed ‘Journal 1790’ and ‘Livre 3me’ (vestiges of sewing is medieval and may be original).
Provenance: (1) Script and decoration point to southern France, but there are no obvious clues among the saints in the Sanctorale to suggest a more precise localisation. Offices have a maximum of nine, not twelve lections, so the book was not made for a Benedictine monastery. (2) The binding (whose relationship to the loosely-inserted gatherings is unknown) has late 18th-century notes mentioning Rouen inside the front cover.
Content: The 16th–26th Sundays after Pentecost in the Temporale (beginning in the 5th lection at ‘radicibus inter Iudeos et gentiles […]’), ff.1–30v; Offices of the Trinity, ff.30v–32v, the Dedication of a Church, ff.33r-37v, and the Cross, ff.37v–38; added Marian hymns: ‘Salve regina misericordie’, ‘Alma redemptoris mater’, and ‘Sicut malum inter ligna’, using the blind-ruling as three-line staves, on a page originally left blank at the end of a gathering, f.38v; Offices for saints’ feast days in the Sanctorale, from 1 June – 1 July only, beginning with Nicomedes and ending with the octave of John the Baptist (ending at ‘[…] quam et ipsa expectat qui’), ff. 39–45v.
The decoration is very similar to that of a noted Breviary from Moissac (British Library, Harley MS 2914), combining elegant plain-ink initials with foliate and other ornaments, and larger initials in red with more complex patterns and embellishment.
An unrestored portion of a large Breviary representing an as-yet unidentified liturgical use, with early musical notation.
c.380×260mm, 54 leaves, not foliated, collation: 1-48, 56, 6–78, comprising consecutive complete gatherings, two columns of 47 lines, ruled space: c.275×180mm, the text of chant written on alternate lines, leaving a line above each for neumes, decorated initials in brown or red ink from 2 to 20 lines high (the upper fore-edge corner missing due to rodents(?), staining especially to the lower margin of the first leaves, some blank margins excised, with stains, creases, tears, and dirt throughout, but free of later repairs or restoration). The sewn gatherings loosely inserted into pasteboards covered with leaves from a large 15th-century choirbook, with a paper label on the front cover inscribed ‘Journal 1790’ and ‘Livre 3me’ (vestiges of sewing is medieval and may be original).
Provenance: (1) Script and decoration point to southern France, but there are no obvious clues among the saints in the Sanctorale to suggest a more precise localisation. Offices have a maximum of nine, not twelve lections, so the book was not made for a Benedictine monastery. (2) The binding (whose relationship to the loosely-inserted gatherings is unknown) has late 18th-century notes mentioning Rouen inside the front cover.
Content: The 16th–26th Sundays after Pentecost in the Temporale (beginning in the 5th lection at ‘radicibus inter Iudeos et gentiles […]’), ff.1–30v; Offices of the Trinity, ff.30v–32v, the Dedication of a Church, ff.33r-37v, and the Cross, ff.37v–38; added Marian hymns: ‘Salve regina misericordie’, ‘Alma redemptoris mater’, and ‘Sicut malum inter ligna’, using the blind-ruling as three-line staves, on a page originally left blank at the end of a gathering, f.38v; Offices for saints’ feast days in the Sanctorale, from 1 June – 1 July only, beginning with Nicomedes and ending with the octave of John the Baptist (ending at ‘[…] quam et ipsa expectat qui’), ff. 39–45v.
The decoration is very similar to that of a noted Breviary from Moissac (British Library, Harley MS 2914), combining elegant plain-ink initials with foliate and other ornaments, and larger initials in red with more complex patterns and embellishment.
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.
Brought to you by
Emily Pilling
Senior Sale Coordinator