RITUALE FOR A PRIEST OF THE CHURCH OF ST-EUSTACHE, PARIS, IN LATIN AND FRENCH [FRANCE (PARIS), MID(?) 15TH CENTURY]

c.200x135mm, vellum, iv+74+ii, first and last pasted-down, collation: i-ii8, iii8-2 (outer bifolium missing), iv-vi8, vii8-2 (middle bifolium missing), viii8, x-xi4, foliated in original roman numerals (ff.17, 24, 52-53 missing), 15 lines, c.125x80mm, ILLUMINATED FOLIATE INITIALS, LINE-FILLERS AND PARAPHS THROUGHOUT, somewhat thumbed and some leaves darkened, sewn on four cords and bound in 18th-century French leather, preserving the original endleaves, the spine gilt, with title ‘Rituale / Eccles. / S. Eusta.’, somewhat scuffed and lacking the clasp fittings

PROVENANCE (1) Jean Lecoq (d.1568), curé from 1537 of St-Eustache, and canon of Notre Dame, Paris, with his ownership inscription: ‘Jehan Lecoq cure de s(ain)t eustache et chanoine de paris’ (back pastedown). (2) Since the 1970s in a private collection, UK; thence by descent.

TEXT

Services for: the Baptism for boys, ‘Incipit ordo ad cathecuminum faciendum super puerum masculum pro ecclesia sancti Eustachii Parisius …’ (f.1r), and girls, beginning imperfectly (f.18r), partly in French; Marriage (f.32r), partly in French; the blessing of a nuptial chamber (f.36r); the Visitation of the Sick, and the Last Rites (f.39r), written with masculine forms and feminine alternatives in red, and ending with a list of nine affirmations to be confirmed by the sick person, attributed to ‘Le glorieux sainct Anseaulme’ (ff.67r-69v).