Latin Prayer Book, England, 15th century

 
Component identifier:
Item 7
Content Summary:

Description: i-iii, 209, iv-v leaves (vellum); 137 x 90 mm.

Script: English littera gothica textualis formata + littera gothica textualis or perhaps a Gothic Textualis semi-quadrata. Two scribes, the second commencing on f.130r.

Decoration: The capital letters are written in blue with marginal flourishes in red ink, and capitals throughout in red and blue (passages in red have, in several instances been off-set on opposite surface). Psalms marked by major pen flourished initials and borders and traces of fore-edge book markers for them.

Layout: One column; 18 lines to the pageBinding: Bound in 17th century sprinkled calf, with two gilt rules enclosing a central panel of two gilt filets with leaves and acorn ornaments at corners; spine gilt.

Provenance: On inside front cover is a 'C' surmounted by a coronet signifying the Clifford family. The number '4' is written below. On front flyleaf iii (recto) is written 'Geo[rge] Kingsley' in an 18th-century hand in pale reddish crayon or ink.

Notes: The book has at some time has been slightly affected by damp, with spotting on some leaves. Has catchwords and systematic quire signatures (hi, hii etc). On back flyleaf iv (verso) is a 'prayer-like' text re Abraham and death. In the Vigils of the Dead (147r-201r) are many musical passages, four red line staves carrying black square notation.

Text opens modestly with some prefatory devotional matter before commencing with a major red and blue pen flourished initial to the Psalm 'Domine deus pater omnipotens…' on f.5r. There is some emphasis upon St Augustine, with long rubrics introducing matters attributed to him and some contemporary marginal insertions drawing attention to him in the text. There is also a 15th-century English cursive marginal annotation referring to Anselm of Canterbury. A particularly lengthy rubric (f.50v-52v) refers to prayer for time off from purgatory, which may be a popular prayer of the Church in 15th century, occurring in many Books of Hours. A prayer marked in rhyming couplets with red braces, like drama mss, is included on f.73v commencing 'Benedicta trinitas sis que me creasti...'. On f.96r-98v is a rubric referencing indulgence. On f.114r-115r a lengthy rubric about Thomas Becket whose name is unerased, possibly because it is embedded in the text, but probably indicating this is a recusant's book or was out of England after 1539 when Henry VIII ordered this name expunged. Also indicates, with the Anselm reference, a Canterbury interest and also perhaps Augustinian influence.

Litany includes St Gildard and St Medard of Soissons, the sole UK dedication to whom is the church of Little Bytham, Lincolnshire, near Stamford. Litany also contains St Edith of Wilton and eight of the twenty-one churches dedicated to her are in Lincolnshire. For this reason the volume or patron is probably from Lincolnshire. St Genevieve, patron of Paris and France, also occurs in litany and there is a church dedicated to her at Fornham St Genevieve, Suffolk. Female saints in the litany and emphasis on the Virgin may suggest female use, but not overwhelmingly so.

Reference: Sinclair: No.9 pp. 30-34; Manion Vines: No.53 p.131

Immediate source of acquisition:
The collection was purchased by the National Library of Australia from the estate of the 11th Baron Clifford in November 1963. It reached Canberra in April 1964. The Chertsey Cartulary (item 65), possibly the most important medieval manuscript held in Australia due to the fact that it is one of only three extant from the 14th century and the only one held outside the UK, was received in 1975, following the granting of an export licence by the British Government.

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Access and use

Parent Restrictions:
Available for research.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
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