Manuscript leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin and French, produced in France (Picardy,...

MS 5650/95

Manuscript leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin and French, produced in France (Picardy, possibly Amiens)

c.1300

Text: From a Book of Hours, in Latin and French

Script: Textualis Formata (Textus Quadratus)

The text is partly from various Psalms and elsewhere. Line ruling is in brown with no line pricking. Rubrics are in red and are in French.

In the border of the verso is a red headed dragon with a tail terminating in a long, bold ivy leaf spray. Three two-line versal initials in gold and several colours, one of which contains a man’s head and one of which has marginal bar extenders, terminating in long, bold ivy leaf sprays. Eight one-line versal initials in burnished gold on a blue or mauve background, with white filigree. Six line fillers of various shapes, one of which contains a beast, another a fish, another a cross and one of which contains a flower.

This leaf comes from a very early French Book of Hours, produced within the first generation of the use of this form of devotional book as a separate volume, apart from the Psalter. The manuscript was lot No.76 in a Sotheby's sale on 17 December 1991, described as ‘a remarkably rich and sophisticated manuscript with high quality illumination on every page.’ The codex belonged ‘in a small group of Picardy manuscripts clustered around the Hours of Yolande of Soissons in the Morgan Library, M. 729, ascribed to Amiens in the last decades of the thirteenth century (cf. K. Gould, ‘The Psalter and Hours of Yolande of Soissons’, 1978).’

See also MS 5650/67, MS 5650/89, MS 5650/94 and MS 5650/103.

Recto side:

1 E t veniat super nos m(isericord)ia tu-

2 a d(omi)ne : Et salutare tuu(m) da nob(is) .

3 E sto nobis d(omi)ne turris fortitu-

4 dinis . A facie inimici . [line filler with beast]

5 M emor esto congregationis tue . [Psalm 73:2

6 Quam possedisti ab initio [line filler]

7 S acerdotes tui induantur iusti- [Psalm 131:9

8 ciam . Et sancti tui exaltent [line filler with fish]

9 D (omi)ne salvos fac reges . Et exau- [Psalm 19:10

10 di nos in die qua invocavimus te .

11 S alvos fac servos tuos (et) ancil-

12 las tuas . D(ominu)s meus sperantes i(n) te .

13 F iat pax in virtute tua . Et ha-

14 bundantia in turribus tuis [line filler]

Verso side:

1 O remus pro fidelib(us) defunctis . Re-

2 quiem et(er)nam dona eis d(omi)ne : (et) lux

3 perpetua luceat eis . p(salmu)s . Deus mise- [Psalm 66

4 reatur n(ost)ri . Et dites toute la psiaume .

5 D (omi)ne exaudi or(ati)onem mea(m) . Orem(us)

6 Orison pour lui mesmes [line filler with flower]

7 O mnipotens sempit(er)ne deus

8 non me perire p(er)mittas quia tua

9 creatura sum . sed concede m(ichi) spatiu(m)

10 vite ut ante diem exitus mei . per

11 veram penitenciam tibi placere

12 merear . Per . Orison general [line filler with cross]

13 O m(ni)p(oten)s sempit(er)ne deus dirige

14 actus n(ost)ros in beneplacito

Notes:

A Letters: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u/v,x,A,D,E,O,P,Q.

Versals: D,E,F,M,O,S.

B Alternative forms of the letters ‘r’(2) and ‘s’(3).

Note the ‘c’ form of ‘s’ in ‘Omnipotens’ (verso, line 13).

C Fusion between letters ‘be’, ‘da’, ‘de’, ‘do’, ‘oc’, ‘pe’, ‘po’ and ‘ps’.

D Ligature between letters ‘st’.

E Elision between letters ‘fi’, ‘ri’ and ‘tu’.

F Hairline on letters ‘g’, ‘h’, round ‘r’, final ‘t’, ‘x’ and the abbreviation for ‘us’.

G Bifurcation of ascenders of letters ‘b’, ‘h’ and ‘l’.

H Abbreviation for ‘misericordia’ (recto, line 1).

I Abbreviation for ‘Omnipotens’ (verso, line 13).

J Use of crossed Tironian ‘et’ symbol (e.g. recto, line 11).

K Line filler on recto side, line 4, has a beast.

L Line filler on recto side, line 8, has a fish.

M Line filler on verso side, line 6, has a flower.

N Line filler on verso side, line 12, has a cross.

MS 5650/67

MS 95

Latin

1 leaf

Material: Vellum leaf