Breviary

Proprium sanctorum, sancti Saturnini et Sancti Andreae

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Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati, John Miller Burnam Classics Library, BX2000 .B74 1460

Remarks by the Editor

Assembled from observations by Rebecka Lindau, Head, The John Miller Burnam Classics Library, University of Cincinnati with Yo Shionoya, Special Projects Student Assistant, integrating information from the seller, along with some information obtained from the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts.

General Information

Title Breviary
Material Parchment
Place of Origin Northern Italy (Padua?)
General Remarks

Information from the sales catalogue:

Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Breviary. Ruled for 27 lines of Latin text, written in double columns with dark brown & red ink in fine rounded gothic book hand on animal vellum. One elaborate five-line illuminated initial in red with white penwork, outlined internally in gold with further internal floral design -all sitting on a burnished gold ground & extending into the margin with red with intricate penwork & burnished gold bezants. The unusual lower margin is illuminated with an orange vase in the center, two floral designs on either side in red, blue, green and gold surrounded by intricate penwork and gold bezants! Nine two-line illuminated initials alternating in red with delicate violet penwork and blue with delicate red penwork - all extending in to the margins.
Northern Italy (Padua?), c. 1460.
The elaborate illuminated "D" (recto) begins the Proper of the Saints for 29 November:
"Deus qui nos beati saturnine martyris..." (O God, as you allow us to rejoice in the feast of your blessed martyr Saturninus, grant that we may be helped by his merits)
A Breviary is composed of many books (prayers, hymns, psalms...) painstakingly but carefully written by hand, & used by monks & priests to conduct daily services.

Original Condition

Page Height 150 – 152 mm
Page Width 115 – 118 mm
Number of Columns 2
Number of Lines 27

Current Condition

Extent 1 leaf
Dimensions 150 x 118 mm

Book Decoration and Musical Notation

Description

The elaborate decoration on the recto is undoubtedly due to it being the first leaf of the proper of the saints.

Content

  • Content Item
    • Title Proprium Sanctorum
    • Content Description

      ra: In festo sancti Saturnini martyris oratio. Followed by six lectiones.

      va (at bottom): In vigilia sancti Andree apostoli ad vesperas capitulum, followed by the office. The first lectio appears at the end of vb.

History

Origin

Northern Italy? Padua?https://sdbm.library.upenn.edu/entries/39917

Provenance

Purchased from Charles Edwin Puckett, Akron, Ohio

Possibly from the 449-leaf breviary listed in Reiss & Sohn, Wertvolle Bücher, Landkarten, Ansichten, Auktion 91:II (2003, October 21), lot 503 (SDBM 39917). In turn, this was likely the same codex as SDBM_MS_2190, listed in Dorine Proske-van Heerdt, Fine Medieval Books in 1994 as a ca. 1450, 446 leaf breviary, which itself was listed as Lot 24 at Sotheby's, Mediaeval manuscripts and miniatures, 2 July 1951.