Sacramentary, of Cistercian Use, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 GBP

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Description

165 leaves, 359mm. by 240mm., text apparently complete in its present form though written at different dates, collation: i-iii^{8 + i-xiv^{8, xv^{6+2, xvi-xvii^{8, with signatures and horizontal catchwords, fols.139-140 later medieval replacements (the conjoints of the originals are cancelled), single or double column, original portion 20 lines, ruled in plummet, written-space 246mm. by 145mm., written in dark brown ink in a large and handsome late romanesque hand, rubrics in red, musical notation in black neumes on 2-line staves in green and red except in the prefaces to the Canon when the staves are in blue, green and red, divided one-line initials in red, green or blue throughout,}}}} painted initials throughout, very approximately 425 two-line initials and twenty 3-line initials in similar style sometimes with contrasting infilling, two very large coloured initials (one nearly full-page) and one line of ornamental capitals, additions made over at least 300 years, later additions including fols.1-24, late fifteenth-century, double column, 38 lines, written-space 263mm. by 175mm., written in dark brown ink in a very fine rounded gothic liturgical hand, rubrics in red, small initials in red and blue, nearly two hundred decorated initials, 2 to 3 lines high, in red or blue with fine contrasting penwork, a 5-line illuminated initial on first page partly formed of a classical fish and with marginal extensions, a leaf from a late thirteenth-century noted Breviary bound in (fol.25) with a large historiated initial, some rubbing and thumbing, evidence of much use, last leaves (apparently recovered from the previous binding) very worn and defective, generally in remarkably good state, modern full black morocco, gilt, by Sangorski and Sutcliffe (commissioned by Major Abbey), in a slipcase

Provenance

provenance

(1) Localising Cistercian manuscripts by appearance alone is notoriously difficult, partly because the books were consciously modelled on those of the mother-house at Cîteaux in Burgundy (and indeed the present manuscript was once ascribed to Cîteaux itself) and partly because of the practice of sending out books from one house to another as each new foundation was set up. Everything about the manuscript is Cistercian, the text, the script, the punctuation and the austere and graceful ornament. It was certainly in Italy by the fifteenth century and in all probability was made there. Its stylistic links with the active scriptorium of the great Cistercian house of Morimondo, near Milan, are mentioned by L. Light, The Bible in the Twelfth Century, Houghton Library, 1988, citing the present manuscript on p.13, n.5, and p.29, n.2, as current location unknown.

(2) In use in a nunnery in Italy the fifteenth century, since some of the added prayers (e.g. fol.145r) are in feminine plural forms. A fifteenth-century hand has added the name of ‘Astorgium pastorem nostrum’ three times of the votive mass on fols.142v-143r. A ‘pastor’ is either a bishop or (less likely in a nunnery) an abbot. The only fifteenth-century Italian bishop of this name is Astorgius d’Agnesi, bishop of Ancona, 1420-36, and of Benevent, 1436-51.

(3) John Ruskin (1819-1900), author, artist, and social reformer; bought from Bernard Quaritch at Easter 1888, from Quaritch’s General Catalogue (1886), no.35699; described as a “venerable and interesting MS ... no less remarkable as furnishing matter of interest to the student of liturgical antiquities”, then described as having two prayers which localised it specifically to Cîteaux Abbey. The manuscript has Ruskin's booklabel (‘Brantwood’; Dearden’s Type 2). It is mentioned by Ruskin in C.Q. Wrentmore, Letters of John Ruskin to Bernard Quaritch, 1867-1888, 1938, p.114. It is listed by J.S. Dearden, ‘John Ruskin, the Collector’, The Library, 5 ser. XXI, 1966, p.132, no.9, as “untraced”.

(4) Major John Roland Abbey (1894-1969), his JA 3369, one of his oldest manuscripts, bought in the sale in these rooms, 11 July 1966 (“The Property of a Gentleman”), lot 243. It is no.3 in J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, 1969, pp.9-11, and pls.IIb, V and VIa. Major Abbey’s sale in these rooms, part X, 20 June 1978, lot 2977, to Schoenberg.

(5) Lawrence Schoenberg, the present owner, his LJS.11; exhibited, Bibliotheca Schoenbergiensis, An Exhibition from the Collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg, University of Pennsylvania, 1995-96, no.11, and Bibliotheca Schoenbergiensis, Selections from the Manuscript Collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg, 1996, Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, no.11, catalogue, fig.5; also illustrated, Dickinson Magazine, VI, ii, 1996, pl. on p.5.

Catalogue Note

text

This is one of the oldest liturgical manuscripts in private hands and is a magnificent example of Cistercian romanesque book production. A Sacramentary contains the portions of the Mass which are recited by the celebrating priest himself and not by the deacon or sub-deacon. From the end of the twelfth century this material was generally combined with other elements to form the Missal. The present manuscript is of particular textual interest, not only because of its early date but also because it seems to have been constantly in use over a long period and was repeatedly brought up to date by marginal additions and by the insertion of new leaves. The original portion (fols.27v-138v, 141r-153r) was probably compiled between 1185 (when Saint Thomas Becket was introduced into the Cistercian liturgy) and 1191 (when Saints Malachy and Martial were introduced; they are both added in the margin). On fol.117r is a marginal note ‘de sancto Bernardo quere in alia pagina’, perhaps in the original hand, implying that the office for Saint Bernard (canonized 1174) was written separately or has been taken out of the book.

It comprises:

Folios 1r-24r, additions of the late fifteenth century, portions of the Mass not found in the main Sacramentary, introits, graduals, versus, offertoria, communions, for the Temporal, Sanctoral, and Common. After the Common are the Dedication of the Church and the Mass for the Dead, and then the collects, secret and post communion for the feasts of Corpus Christi, Visitation, Saint Anne, Holy Crown, ‘in festivitate sancti patris nostri bernardi’, and Saint Edmund Rich. This section must have been added after 1476 when the Visitation was introduced into the Cistercian liturgy.

Folios 25-27, additions made in Italy as follows: (a) folio 25, a single late thirteenth-century leaf from an Italian noted Breviary, apparently with no connection with the rest of the manuscript; (b) folio 26, fourteenth-century, with square musical notation. ‘In magnis festivitatibus de beata Maria’; (c) folio 26v, Mass for Christmas day, late fourteenth to fifteenth century; (d) folio 27, Mass for the 11,000 Virgins, collect, secret, post communion, thirteenth to fourteenth century. The end of (c) is written below (d) on folio 27 and must therefore be later.

Folios 27v-161v, the main Sacramentary from the Vigil of Christmas Eve, twelfth century, with the Temporal (folio 27v) and Sanctoral (folio 78v), including the Canon (fol.91v). The Canon, preface and prayers are as printed in the Cistercian Missal, Strassburg 1487 (Proctor 521), and the series of masses additional to the Gregorian Sanctoral are as given by Leroquais, Les Sacramentaires, I, 1924, p.335, from the Cîteaux Sacramentary, Dijon ms.114. Folios 138-9 are fifteenth-century replacements, like fols.1-24. The conjoints of the original folios have been cancelled, leaving stubs between fols.143 and 144, but the text is uninterrupted. The original Sacramentary continues to the ‘Missa pro vivis et defunctis’ (fol.149r) with lections, and ends on fol.152. Additional masses with some thirteenth-century rewrites and additional prayers follow, to fol.161v.

Folios 162-64: Various leaves, apparently pastedowns and fragments from bindings probably unconnected with the main manuscript: (a) fol.162, prayers and the beginnings of the Litany apparently from a Breviary, fourteenth century, probably French; (b) fol.163 leaf from a Missal for the fifteenth Sunday after Petecost, twelfth century, German; and (c) fol.164, part leaf of a Lectionary, late twelfth century, French, very fine script, coloured initials.

script and decoration

The original script is a large and handsome hand with sharp serifs, including the punctus flexus punctuation found in Cistercian manuscripts (cf. H. and K. Reinecke, eds., Buchmalerei der Zisterzienser, 1998, with many comparable examples). There are large, austere and elegant initials throughout, painted (as appropriate for early Cistercian art) in clear red, blue and green, without gold. There are well over four hundred 2- to 3- line initials. The opening line of the Canon (fol. 92v) is in the form of an intricate design of alternating large and small capitals. On the preceding pages are a large ‘P’ (green with red and blue decoration) and a smaller ‘v’ (blue with red decoration).

The late fifteenth-century additions include an illuminated ‘A’ (fol.1r), 5 lines high, with extensions, perhaps Ferrarese or Mantuan. The script and penwork decoration of this section is of very high quality. The added late thirteenth-century leaf, folio 25, has a fine and large historiated initial ‘N’ (“Nisi dominus edificavit domum”, Psalm 126), 83mm. by 63mm., showing three men pointing to a towered building, probably Sienese, very close to the hand of Duccio di Buoninsegni (d.1318, documented from 1278), as described in P. Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, pp.48-50, no.27.