Beschreibung:

ORDO SECUNDUM CONSUETUDINEM ROMANE CURIE AD UNGENDUM INFIRMUM etc, in Latin, use of Rome, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Italy, 14th century and 19th century] 233 x 168mm. 88 leaves: 1 1 0 , 2 8 , 3 5 (i repositioned endleaf), 4 12 , 5 1 0 , 6 4 +2 , 7-8 12 , 9 1 3 (xiii a singleton), lacking leaves at least after f.18 and before f.64, Litany on ff.20-23v in two columns of 23 lines, otherwise up to 20 lines written in black between two verticals and up to 21 horizontals, rubrics in red, capitals touched red, one- and two-line initials of red and blue, music of square notation on a four-line red stave, one large blue initial with flourishing of red and blue, FULL-PAGE BORDER WITH SAINTS AND CONFRONTED BEASTS added to opening folio, ONE MINIATURE and FOUR FIGURES added to margins or spaces originally blank (worn, darkened, many gutters reinforced with strips from notarial documents). Old brown leather over wooden boards, upper cover with 8 of 9 bosses and brass catch, lower cover with 2 of 9 bosses, pastedown inside upper cover part of a leaf with music from a 12th-century Italian Gradual, pastedown inside lower cover from a 15th-century Italian legal document (scuffed and stained, small losses). PROVENANCE: 1. Made for a priest, it specifies the ritual for administering sacraments and performing other services in the cure of souls. The opening rubric identifies it as for the liturgical Use of Rome, and the Office of the Dead is closer to the Use of Rome than any other published Use -- it differs only in the responsory to the third lesson. 2. The manuscript was 'sophisticated', most probably in the 19th century, with the addition of archaizing illumination. 3. Sotheby's 14 April 1924, lot 166B. 4. Purchased Maggs Bros, London, 19 August 1943 -- donated to SMS November 1943. CONTENT: Rituale or Ordo consuetudinem romane curie : Extreme Unction ff.1-12v, Commendation of souls, lacking end ff.13-18v, Litany ff.20-23v, Office of the Dead ff.24-63v, Baptism, lacking beginning ff.64-76v, Benedictions ff.77-88. This was a functional and compact volume made to be taken around by the priest as he carried out his duties. The decoration of such books is customarily restricted to flourished initials, and this would originally have been the case with the present manuscript. Then, probably in the 19th century, it was provided with exotically archaic illumination combining romanesque-style figures with beast and foliate decoration of moorish appearance. The figures and scenes were supplied with no thought to their suitability to the text but to make a handsomely written, but serviceable, artefact into an attractive thoroughly 'medieval' artwork. The subjects of the illuminations are as follows: f.1 full-page border with standing figures of Christ and a saint at lower corners, a central medallion with a seated ?Carthusian saint and, at the upper corners medallions with two bust-length saints f.20 a bird perched on a tree, between the columns of text f.33v marginal figure of a peasant balanced on rocky ground having let fly an arrow f.51v miniature with an enthroned monk handing the monastic rule to a group of monks, with a banner with the Crucifixion, on the left and a group of nuns, with a banner with the Virgin and Child, on the right f.75v marginal figure of a standing man, his head bandaged, holding his nose and pointing f.78v figure of the Virgin holding a pair of scales