Breviary, Dominican use

70x50mm, manuscript on vellum, ii+257+iv, lacking a few original leaves, some of them replaced in the 15th century (with other 15th-century insertions, especially the first 27 and the last 22 leaves at the beginning and end, and a loose leaf, formerly pasted in; a strip with 4-5 lines of text included in the count of leaves as f.36), 16 lines written ‘above top line’, c.45x35mm, flourished initials at major divisions, accumulated dirt from handling, MEDIEVAL BINDING of polished calf with simple blind tooling over wooden boards, circular label '346' pasted onto spine, pastedowns formed of parts of a document referring to a ‘conventus monasterii predicti’ and Pope Innocent VI, fore-edge clasp missing

The condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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PROVENANCE

(1) Most of the volume was probably written for, and by, a Dominican c.1240 (after the canonization of St Dominic in 1234, but before it became standard to write ‘below top line’); the spelling of ‘kathedra’ and later provenance suggests production in a Germanic region. (2) Leaves especially at beginning and end, but also a few others (and the binding), were added in the 15th century; the volume was still in Dominican ownership as the calendar has Robert, Peter Martyr, Dominic, Bernard and his octave, Francis, Malachi, and Edmund highly graded with 12 lessons, and offices for some of them are added at the end. (3) Hermann Isaac von Aussem (1744-1825), his number 27 (f.ir). If his numbering related only to manuscripts he had a significant collection, of which the following have been identified: a Delft Book of Hours of c.1470, his no 18 (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS Mc Clean 97); an Utrecht Book of Hours of c.1425, his no 40 (Christie's, 23 Nov. 2011, lot 10); a German Prayerbook (The Hague, KB, 134 C 63); a devotional manuscript (Christie's, New York, 16 June 2006, lot 136); a 16th-century Psalter from St Amand (Gaebelein collection); and a 15th-century German Missal (McGill University, see de Ricci, Census, II pp.1672, 2205); see also lot 65. (4) William O’Brien, bequest booklabel dated 1899.

TEXT

Calendar (f.1r), including a note in German ‘so wa hye iars dat swartz gulden getzal der neise sundach dar na datz payschdach gewis’ (f.3v); Collects for saints, including George and Wenceslas (f.19r); Office of St Anne (f.20r); Temporale (f.27v) from Advent to the 24th Sunday; Sanctorale (f.126r), from Stephen to the octave of Andrew, including Dominic, Bernard, Malachi, and Edmund, Francis is perhaps a contemporary addition; Common of saints (f.195r), ending with the Dedication of a church; Hymns for the year (f.213r); added offices (f.235r), including for the Visitation, the Thorn, Bernard, and Robert; last leaf blank.