Franciscan Choir Breviary

Flyleaf with prayers for SS Peter and Paul, Francis, Anthony of Padua, Louis of Toulouse, and Clare

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Victoria, B.C., University of Victoria Libraries, Ms.Lat.7

Remarks by the Editor

This description was completed as part of a manuscript studies course taught at the University of Victoria by Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin (Fall 2023). 

General Information

Title Franciscan Choir Breviary (flyleaf)
Shelfmarks Ms.Lat.7
Page/Folio Reference f. 1r
Material Parchment
Place of Origin Italy
Date of Origin 1301-1350
Script, Hands

Multiple hands have added texts to this flyleaf. The two main scribes write in a large, even Southern Textualis, while another four are sixteenth-century (perhaps even seventeenth-century) cursives. 

General Remarks

This flyleaf, likely originally a blank leaf at the front of the book's calendar (ff. 2-7), does not fit cohesively with the rest of the codex. It includes prayers for SS Peter and Paul, Francis, Anthony of Padua, Louis of Toulouse, and Clare, added in two columns, while other hands add later prayers for Francis and Bonaventure in blank spaces and margins.

Current Condition

Extent 1 leaf
Dimensions 175 x 260 mm
More about the Current Condition

The parchment is discoloured with particularly noticable green discolouration around the edges. The bottom corner has a few holes. There is a blue library stamp in the right margin of the recto. Ink is in legible condition for the most part. The leaf is part of the quire that holds the host volume's liturgical calendar and was almost certainly blank before additions were added in the centuries after the host volume was created. 

Host Volume

Title Choir Breviary (Franciscan Use)
Date of Origin/Publication 1260-1300
Place of Origin/Publication Central/Northern Italy
Shelfmark Ms.Lat.7
Persons 1) Thomas Rodd (1796-1849), London; sold by Sotheby’s, February 2, 1850, lot 120 2) James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-1889); inside front cover, bookplate, “Presented to the Plymouth Proprietary, Plymouth Library, Cornwall Street, by J. O. Halliwell, Esq., no. 3 Plymouth Proprietary Library (Halliwell-Phillipps, 1853, p. 2, no. III); sold by the library, December 12, 1977, lot 62 3) University of Victoria Special Collections purchased from Les Enluminures, 2017
Remarks

Codex was bound in the fifteenth-century in dark brown leather with a stamped pattern on it (restored) and has two clasps. 

Bibliography