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Parisian Table of the Ferial Antiphons before Christmas 1r
Lists for duplex and semi-duplex feasts 7v
Absolutions and blessings for the year 9v
Calendar 13r
Liturgical Psalter (lacking beginning), including antiphons, versicles, responses, and capitularies, with Canticles and Litany 25r
Temporale, from first Sunday in Advent through last Sunday in November 267r
Sanctorale 434r
Little Office of the Virgin 535r
Office of the Dead 553v
Common of Saints 567r
Lessons for the feast of Mary Magdalene 622r
Parisian Table of the Ferial Antiphons before Christmas 1r
Lists for duplex and semi-duplex feasts 7v
Absolutions and blessings for the year 9v
Calendar 13r
Liturgical Psalter (lacking beginning), including antiphons, versicles, responses, and capitularies, with Canticles and Litany 25r
Temporale, from first Sunday in Advent through last Sunday in November 267r
Sanctorale 434r
Little Office of the Virgin 535r
Office of the Dead 553v
Common of Saints 567r
Lessons for the feast of Mary Magdalene 622r
Parisian Table of the Ferial Antiphons before Christmas 1r
Lists for duplex and semi-duplex feasts 7v
Absolutions and blessings for the year 9v
Calendar 13r
Liturgical Psalter (lacking beginning), including antiphons, versicles, responses, and capitularies, with Canticles and Litany 25r
Temporale, from first Sunday in Advent through last Sunday in November 267r
Sanctorale 434r
Little Office of the Virgin 535r
Office of the Dead 553v
Common of Saints 567r
Lessons for the feast of Mary Magdalene 622r
Parisian Table of the Ferial Antiphons before Christmas 1r
Lists for duplex and semi-duplex feasts 7v
Absolutions and blessings for the year 9v
Calendar 13r
Liturgical Psalter (lacking beginning), including antiphons, versicles, responses, and capitularies, with Canticles and Litany 25r
Temporale, from first Sunday in Advent through last Sunday in November 267r
Sanctorale 434r
Little Office of the Virgin 535r
Office of the Dead 553v
Common of Saints 567r
Lessons for the feast of Mary Magdalene 622r
All Decorations
This manuscript is a Breviary made in Paris early in the fourteenth century for the Franciscan Use of Rome, and contains lists of the ferial antiphons, feasts, absolutions, and blessings (fols. 1r-11v), a calendar (fols. 13r-24v), a liturgical psalter (fols. 25r-263r), the temporale and sanctorale cycles of feasts (fols. 266r-533v), the Little Office of the Virgin (fols. 534r-552r), the Office of the Dead (fols. 552v-565v), the Common of Saints (fols. 566r-621v), and lessons for the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene (fols. 622r-623v). Together, these comprise all the liturgical texts of the Divine Office for use throughout the year. The text is embellished with fifteen historiated initials showing biblical figures, saints, and scenes from their lives as well as over one thousand illuminated initials and many more smaller decorated initials. Some folios have been excised, including those at the beginning of psalms 1, 38, 97, and 109 (most likely for their historiated initials). The presence of Jean de Navarre's obit and the absence of one for Philip IV gives a potential date range of 1304-1314. The miniatures have been attributed to a follower of famed Parisian illuminator Jean Pucelle, artist of the celebrated Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 54.1.2). Like the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, this book's diminutive stature strongly suggests that it was made for the private devotion of a high-ranking layperson. However, with folios measuring just 71 x 46 mm and lines of text just 1 mm high, the present volume is in fact even smaller than the famously small d'Evreux Hours in all respects except length (having 623 folios to the d'Evreux Hours's 209).
Support: Parchment; Extent: iv+623+iv; 71 x 46 mm bound to 76 x 56 mm; Foliation: Inconsistent and inaccurate foliation and pagination; Collation: Uncertain
One column of seventeen lines; ruled in brown ink; pricking visible; written area: 43 x 30 mm
Gothic--textualis quadrata
Fifteen historiated initials; over one thousand illuminated initials, some with marginal flourishes; numerous smaller decorated initials and line-fillers in red, blue, and gold
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
No correct system of foliation or pagination present
At least two folios missing, after fols. 23v and 193v
Additional text has been added to a number of folios in a contemporary hand
Corrections to original text in a contemporary hand
Paris, France
Early 14th century
Possibly German, nineteenth-century, red morocco with gilt tooling and gilt clasp
Latin; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)
Sold by Laurence Witten (no. 1946 in the 1962 catalog no. 5); purchased by the Free Library of Philadelphia with the Simon Gratz Fund
Paris, France
Early 14th century
Latin; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)
Sold by Laurence Witten
This manuscript is a Breviary made in Paris early in the fourteenth century for the Franciscan Use of Rome, and contains lists of the ferial antiphons, feasts, absolutions, and blessings (fols. 1r-11v), a calendar (fols. 13r-24v), a liturgical psalter (fols. 25r-263r), the temporale and sanctorale cycles of feasts (fols. 266r-533v), the Little Office of the Virgin (fols. 534r-552r), the Office of the Dead (fols. 552v-565v), the Common of Saints (fols. 566r-621v), and lessons for the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene (fols. 622r-623v). Together, these comprise all the liturgical texts of the Divine Office for use throughout the year. The text is embellished with fifteen historiated initials showing biblical figures, saints, and scenes from their lives as well as over one thousand illuminated initials and many more smaller decorated initials. Some folios have been excised, including those at the beginning of psalms 1, 38, 97, and 109 (most likely for their historiated initials). The presence of Jean de Navarre's obit and the absence of one for Philip IV gives a potential date range of 1304-1314. The miniatures have been attributed to a follower of famed Parisian illuminator Jean Pucelle, artist of the celebrated Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 54.1.2). Like the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, this book's diminutive stature strongly suggests that it was made for the private devotion of a high-ranking layperson. However, with folios measuring just 71 x 46 mm and lines of text just 1 mm high, the present volume is in fact even smaller than the famously small d'Evreux Hours in all respects except length (having 623 folios to the d'Evreux Hours's 209).
No correct system of foliation or pagination present
At least two folios missing, after fols. 23v and 193v
Additional text has been added to a number of folios in a contemporary hand
Corrections to original text in a contemporary hand
Gothic--textualis quadrata
Fifteen historiated initials; over one thousand illuminated initials, some with marginal flourishes; numerous smaller decorated initials and line-fillers in red, blue, and gold
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
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