Beschreibung:

The Beauvais Cathedral Archive, a collection of six decorated and illuminated manuscripts, in Latin, on vellum [Beauvais, eleventh to fifteenth century] six manuscripts: (i) Martyrology of Usuard, with added obituary notices of Beauvais cathedral, 182 leaves, 235mm. by 185mm., wanting single leaves from first and fourteenth gatherings, else complete, collation: i8 (iii a stub, iv wanting, viii a singleton once attached to endleaf), ii-iv8, v5 (iv a slip bound in), vi-xiii8, xiv6 (ii and iv wanting, vi-viii cancelled blanks), then an early twelfth-century addition to the volume: xv8, xvi9 (last singleton), and returning to the eleventh century original again: xvii-xix8, xx10, xxi-xxiii8, single column, 21 lines in brown ink in a number of late Carolingian minuscule and early gothic hands, rubrics and date headings in orange-red ornamental capitals, capitals in text touched in same, 2-line initials in red or part-coloured in red and following early Carolingian models, two large ornamental initials in red penwork with acanthus leaf infill, with animal masks (fols.137r and 144r), very large initial ‘A’, 115mm. high (fol.128r), in geometric knotwork on red grounds with a floral boss at its foot and a biting lion’s mask at its top, very large initial ‘F’, 145mm. high (fol.149v), in same with scrolling foliage and biting animal mask, early polyphonic music on a 5-line stave copied among other notes and pen trials on last endleaf, “Sancti petri Belvacensis” in bas-de-page of first leaf in contemporary hand, and armorial bookplates of cathedral chapter pasted on a blank leaf in text and on inside and outside of boards, a few leaves with corners and sections torn away, and where vellum thin and fine some leaves now with splits (affecting centre of large initial on fol.128r), corners of leaves at each end of volume curled and some leaves cockled, some staining of areas of borders through use of chemical reagents, overall in good condition, endleaf at front reused from thirteenth-century biblical commentary, strong in early medieval white leather tooled with chevrons over thick bevelled wooden boards, some minor splits at spine and small hole, manuscript of late eleventh and early twelfth century, with eighteenth-century handwritten cataloguing of Canon Danse (see below); (ii) Martyrology of Usuard, and a tabulated martyrology arranged according to the Calendar, both with added obituary notices of St. Nicholas, Beauvais, 155 leaves, 263mm. by 175mm., wanting single leaves from first, seventh and nineteenth gatherings, a bifolium from the fourteenth, and a few gatherings after fol.45, else complete, collation: i5 (wanting leaf at end), ii-vi8, vii7 (last a singleton), viii8, ix2, x-xiii8, xiv6 (central bifolium wanting), xv-xviii8, xix7 (last leaf wanting), xx-xxi8 (last a stub), some contemporary quire signatures, single column, 24 lines in dark brown ink in a number of fine early gothic hands, initials in first part of text in alternate green or red, the larger ones touched in contrasting penwork, and in second part of text in red or blue with contrasting penwork, a few leaves torn or cockled, but overall in fair and presentable condition, some gatherings loose, medieval binding of brown leather (torn in places with a few holes) over bevelled wooden boards (back board with split, front board with small losses to lower corner and lower edge of board where a chain has been removed), manuscript of thirteenth century; (iii) Missal, Use of Beauvais, 151 leaves (including an endleaf at front), 245mm. by 150mm., apparently complete, collation: i3 (i the endleaf, ii a singleton), ii-x8, xi7 (last a cancelled blank), xii2, xii-xxi8 (eighteenth gathering a near-contemporary addition), single column, 17 lines in a large and skilled early gothic bookhand, initials in red or pale blue, the larger with flourishes or dots mounted within their bodies, space left for very large initials on 9r and 10r, spaces left in added section for initials, drypoint s