Identifier:

170/50.

Scope and content:

1) ff. 1-2v ruled but blank, ff. 3-14v: Full calendar in French with major feasts in gold, the others alternating red and blue; included are the feasts of Ansbert (9 February), Austreberta (10 February), Honorina (27 February), Ursinus, translation (12 June), Martialis (3 July, in gold), Our Lady of the Snow (5 August), Transfiguration (6 August, in gold), Mellonius (22 October), Romanus (23 October, in gold), Clarus (4 November), Edmund Rich (19 November), Ursinus (30 December).

2) ff. 15-18v: //articulos fidei decem precepta legis firmiter tenere . . . et michi famulo tuo ostende michi . . . [end of the prayer Obsecro te, Leroquais vol.2, p.346]; Alia oratio, O Intemerata . . . orbis terrarum. De te enim . . . [A. Wilmart, Auteurs spirituels et textes dévots du moyen âge latin (Paris, 1932) pp.494-495].

3) ff. 19-65: Hours of the Virgin, use of Rouen; following lauds are suffrages of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Michael, John the Baptist, the Apostles, Lawrence, Nicolas, Catharine of Alexandria, All Saints, and for peace, ff. 65v-66v ruled but blank.

4) ff. 67-82v: Penitential psalms and litany, including Martialis among the apostles; Blasius, Eutropius, John and Paul, and Firminus among the martyrs; Mellonius, Romanus, Audoenus, Ansbert, Severus, Julianus, Taurinus, Maurus, and Julianus among the confessors; Austreberta and Geneviève among the virgins.

5) ff. 83-85v: Short hours of the Cross.

6) ff. 86-88v: Short hours of the Holy Spirit.

7) ff. 89-115v: Office of the Dead, use of Rouen, ending defectively in the prayer for one's parents, . . . miserere clementer animabus//.

8) ff. 116-118v: The first two lines have been erased and the words “parentum meorum” have been added to complete the prayer on f. 115v; the prayer Douce dame de misericorde ... is missing, as is the prologue to the 7 Requests, which now begin Beau sire dieu ie vous requier . , . [Leroquais vol.2, pp.309-310]; Saincte vraye crois aouree . . . [Sonet 1876]. ff. 119-120v ruled but blank.

Acquisition information:

Written in northern France in the second half of the fifteenth century; the saints in the calendar and litany point to Normandy. Washed out pen notes in French on front pastedown and f. 1, with the dates 1631, 1632, 1633, etc. Belonged to the Chicago mail-order merchant Louis E. Asher (1877-1948); printed ex libris inside the front cover. Given to UCLA by William A. Nitze (1876-1957), professor of French literature at UCLA.

Physical description:

Parchment, ff. 122 (first and last are pastedowns, ruled but blank). 183 × 123 (100 × 65) mm. 1 2 (followed by a lacuna) 3-8 9 10-15 (followed by a lacuna) 16 . Horizontal catchwords, often trimmed in binding. 16 long lines ruled in purple ink. Late, upright, calligraphic French gothic bookhand in liturgical style (littera textualis formata); brown ink. Full-page illuminations on f. 19, Annunication; f. 28v, Visitation of St. Mary to St. Elizabeth; f. 42, Nativity; f. 47, Adoration of the shepherds; f. 50, Adoration of the Kings; f. 52v, Circumcision; f. 55v, Flight into Egypt; f. 61, Coronation of the Virgin Mary; f. 67, David and Nathan; f. 83, Crucifixion; f. 86, Pentecost; f. 89, Three Living and Three Dead; each panel measures 155 × 110 mm, and is surrounded by a border with fantastic and naturalistic animals, conventional flowers, and strawberries on gold background; in the inner and outer margins of the border are included two medallions with scenes related to the subject of the hour. Each page of the calendar has a similar border, with an illuminated panel in the lower margin; the panels on the rectos represent the occupations of the months, and those on the versos illustrate a variety of subjects, mostly biblical, including the baptism of Jesus, Jonah and the whale, Abraham's sacrifice, Noah's Ark, the creation of Eve, Job on his dung heap, Daniel in the lions' den, the Assumption of the Virgin, the drowning of Pharaoh's army. Throughout the book the outer margin of every page is decorated by a band 25-28 mm wide, with conventional flowers and strawberry motifs in green, red, blue, and gold; the decoration is repeated by tracing from the recto to the verso 4-line, 2-line, and 1-line initials in light blue with white highlighting, enclosing floral or strawberry motifs on gold background. Initials in the text slashed with yellow. Rubrics in red minuscule. Line-fillers in gold with ornamental patterns of logs and floral bands.

Bound with a velvet cover (s. XX) over the original bare wooden boards, sewn on 5 thongs.

Bibliography:

Bond and Faye, Supplement, p.539.

Note:

Secundo folio: [Calendar, f. 4] ffevrier

Fig. 23

Access and use