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Helsinki, National Library, C.IV.10. Dominican breviary with psalter

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A psalter and a Dominican breviary.

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Finnish Literature Society (SKS)
Codices Fennici

Aikamääre

1233-1265
Saec. XIII 2/3

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Formaatti

Parchment (2 [a–b] paper)

Kieli

Latin

Identifiointitunnus

Helsinki
National Library
C.IV.10

Kattavuus

England?

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Helsinki, National Library, C.IV.10. Dominican breviary with psalter
Saec. XIII 2/3
,
England?
(prov. the
Dominican convent in London
,
saec. XIV 2/4
[c.
1326?
]; the
Nordic countries
,
saec. XV
;
diocese of Turku
saec. XV 4/4 or XVI¼
at the latest)
Two probably originally distinct but roughly contemporary books (I–II, copied by three scribes, A–C): a
psalter
and a
Dominican breviary
.
I:
Psalter
Fols. , Psalter, with additional hymns, concluding with
Te Deum
.
Beatus uir qui non abiit... sedit in gloria.
Fols. , the Athanasian Creed.
Quicumque uult saluus esse... saluus esse non poterit.
Fols. , litany and other prayers.
Kyrieleison. Christe, Christe audi uos ... ... Dominus uobiscum, Et cetera.
Oratio
. Deus qui corda fidelium ... ...
Oratio
. Fidelium deus omnium conditor ... Per omnia secula seculorum, Amen.
The book has been modified (
saec. XIV
) for English use; see the additions to the litany on fol. –v, esp. St
Edward
and St
Winifred
. St
Thomas
is added after St
Francis
on , probably
Thomas Becket
rather than
Aquinas
.
II:
Dominican breviary
Fols. , English Dominican calendar (Jan.–Dec.).
Fols. , ;
proprium de tempore
, defect; from the First Advent to the First Sunday after Trinity, and from
septuagesima in mensis Augusti
to the 25
th
Sunday after Trinity.
Notandum quod per
... ... [
lectio
]
VI
a
Ivit igitur Azael in occursum| [
LXX .i. mensis Augusti
] |eius, homines secum munera ... ... ulterius repetanda.
Fols. , Office for the dedication of a church.
[313ra]
De officio dedicationis
. Notandum quod in ... terminentur cum alleluia.
Fols. , , –v, , ;
proprium de sanctis
, defect; from the beginning up to the office of
Mary Magdalene
, with a misplaced leaf,
fol. 353
, at
translatio B. Dominici
, and, after several missing gatherings, the end of
commune sanctorum
.
In quacumque die ... ... non es confusus am|putare in femina ... ... Ad matutinum inuitatorium. Assunt dominici leta sollempnia laude multiplici plaudat ... ...
responsorium nonum
in odoris.
Ad laudes et ad alias
...
Sancte Marie Magdalene
... ... et capillis capitis sui | Yadum nomine qui iminente ... ...
fit officium in conuentu
.
, originally empty, with office for St
Ursula
added in a hand of
saec. XIV
.
In festo sancte ursule martyris et uirginis ad uesperas capitulum
. Multe filie ...
The Dominican nature of part II is most clearly seen in the presence of
totum duplex
feasts of the order’s saints (see e.g
. translatio B.
Dominic
i
on fols. , and –v;
Peter the Martyr
on fols. , ). The breviary itself is generally Dominican, but it has been intended for use in
England
, as can be seen from the calendar, with a number of English feasts, which, however, cannot be found in the extant sanctoral cycle of the breviary: 19.1. St
Wulfstan
, three lessons; 18.3. St
Edward
,
simplex
; 20.3. St
Cuthbert
,
memoria
; 19.5. St
Dunstan
, three lessons; 26.5. St
Augustine of Canterbury
, nine lessons; 17.6. St
Botulph
, three lessons; 22.6. St
Alban
, three lessons; 23.6. St
Ethelreda
,
memoria
; 2.7. St
Swithun
, with the grade erased; 7.7. translation of St
Thomas Becket
,
totum duplex
; 16.11. St
Edmund
, nine lessons; 20.11. St
Edmund king and martyr
,
totum duplex
.
The calendar seems to allow a rather precise dating to the
middle of the thirteenth century
: the
terminus post quem
is set by the inclusion (in the calendar) of St
Edmund of Abingdon
, archbishop of
Canterbury
, canonised in
1247
, while the calendar and the breviary proper ignore the Dominican anniversary of the order’s buried members (7.7.), adopted in general councils between
1263 and 1266
, and St
Richard Wych
, bishop of
Chichester
(3.4.), canonised in
1262
, which provide rough
termini ante quem
(see
Maliniemi 1944, 383–385
).
The present manuscript has several additions, which provide information on the binding together of parts I and II and the later provenance of the book. In the
early fourteenth century
the book belonged to a London Dominican (fol. : ‘[5.11.] Dedicacio ecclesie fratrum predicatorum londinensium totum duplex’; the hand also added the feast of St
Thomas Aquinas
7.3. on , which seems to date him: Thomas was canonized in
1323
and his feast was added to the order’s calendar in
1326
). The same hand or one much like it wrote several additions to part I (see e.g. fols. , , ).
A hand of
saec. XV
has added Scandinavian feasts (fol. : ‘[4.2.]
Ansgar
ii simplex’ and ‘[15.2.]
Sigfrid
i duplex’), and a different, if probably not much later, hand a series of votive masses introduced in the
diocese of Turku
in the
late fifteenth century
(fol. : ‘[23.2.] Missa votiva de trinitate’; fol. : ‘[26.5.] Missa votiva [de beata virgine]’; fol. : ‘[26.8.] Missa votiva de angelis’; fol. : ‘[20.11.] Missa votiva [de] omnibus sanctis’). The addition on fol. of St
Wenceslaus
(28.9.), three lessons, in a hand of
saec. XIV–XV
(in Scandinavia the saint had a feast only at
Turku
and
Linköping
, so
Malin 1925, 104
), suggests that while only the votive masses definitively situate the book there, the book may have been in the
diocese of Turku
already earlier in the fifteenth century.
Several other additions (see e.g, , , –v) testify to the book’s regular use in the middle ages.
parchment (2 [a–b] paper)
371 + 2 fols.
11cm × 15cm (7-8cm × 10,5-12cm)
Modern foliation throughout the book in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of every fifth folio.
1
[a]
+ III
6
+ 6VI
78
+ I
80
+ 9IX
242
+ VI
254
+ (XI–1)
275
+ IX
293
+ VIII
309
+ (V–1)
318
+ (IX–2)
334
+ IX
352
+ 1
353
+ IX
371
+ 1
[b]
Quire signatures (an alphabet and Arabic numeral, c3 to g7) added (
saec. XIV
?) to part I on fols. , , , (subsequently erased) and 78v, suggesting that it was by this time bound with a calendar (as it would be quire a1), perhaps the present one.
Part I comprises fols. 7–80, part II fols. 1–6 and 81–371. A
bifolium
(fols. 79–80) has been added to part I before or on the occasion of its being bound with part II (possibly to replace a missing or defective quire?) In part II feast days have been written in red in the upper margins.
Part II has been copied on thin and very finely finished parchment, while the support of I is rather coarse. At the time of
the 19
th
-century
rebinding the leaves were extensively trimmed. At some point the outer edges of the folia have been treated with a dark brown substance that stains the hands of the readers and through them the pages. This ought to have happened after the leaves were last trimmed, but some of the erasures impinge on the staining (see e.g. fol. ).
26 (I: 22) lines in two columns, ruled in lead (I: ink); pricking not visible.
I: Gothic bookhand written by two scribes, B (fols. ) and C (fols. ); II: Gothic bookhand written by one scribe (A); with several additions in various hands writing bookhand and cursive. Hands A and B appear roughly contemporary, while C has a slightly later (
saec. XIV?
) look and is of distinctly lower quality.
Two grades of pen-flourished lombards for section openings; within sections, prayers and songs are marked with smaller lombards without flourishing; painted alternately red and blue (A: e.g. , ; B: e.g. ). The highest-grade flourished lombards in part I are of better quality than those in part II, although the general impression of part II is that it displays a higher quality. There seem to have been two artists working on the flourishing in part II, with a clear difference in skill: compare the inferior work on
fols. 81–152, 310–318, 243–275 and 319–353
with the better quality on
fols. 153–243, 354–371
. The two may have worked together on
fols. 276–309
, cf. the red and blue flourishing on e.g. fols. . The decoration in the part copied by scribe C is the roughest, with small lombards in red and blue and larger blue lombards without flourishing.
Nineteenth-century
rebinding in leather with raised bands; black laquer finish with gilding. The spine reads, erroneously, ‘Missale’, and the front cover has been blind-tooled with the
National Library
’s stamp. It is likely that the disorder of the contents arose on the occasion of this rebinding, executed after the book entered the library’s collections in
1862
.
>
Two books produced at roughly the same time, if probably not in the same place: part II is a Dominican book copied for English Dominicans, perhaps by commercial stationers, given the uniformity of the result, while part I is a
psalter
that in the
early fourteenth century
was modified for English Dominican use. By this time the two parts had been bound together and were in the possession of a
London
Dominican. The book seems to have spent some time in
England
, but had found its way to the
Nordic countries
, probably
Sweden
, by the
fifteenth century
. Although it may have arrived before, it can be securely localised to the
diocese of Turku
by the
end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century
, through the addition of the votive mass days particular to the diocese. It is possible that the movements of the book are explicable through the movements of Dominican preachers, but once in the
diocese of Turku
the book was probably used by a parish priest.
Several additions testify to the medieval provenance of the book; for these see
Contents
, above.
On the inside of the front cover, the blue stamp of the
Helsinki University Library
(now National Library), and on the inside of the back cover (in pencil) “Konkord. 1862.A.9” and the current shelfmark (in ink): “C.IV.10”. The book was found in an unknown parish church in
Satakunta
by student
David Skogman
in
1861
(see
Skogman 1864
, where the book is not explicitly mentioned; the only parish where he reports having found manuscripts was Sastamala, at 129) and donated to the
Finnish Literature Society
, which in turn donated it to the then University Library in
1862
(see the protocols of the society in
Suomi
2:2, 1864, 221 and 242
;
Maliniemi 1944, 383 n. 2
).
Jesse Keskiaho, ‘Bortom fragmenten. Handskriftsproduktion och boklig kultur I det medeltida Åbo stift’,
Historisk Tidskrift för Finland
93, 209–252.
Aarno Maliniemi, ”Englantilaisperäinen 1200-luvun dominikaanibreviarium Suomessa”,
Historiallinen arkisto
50 (1944), 378–387.
Daniel Skogman, ’Kertomus matkoiltani Satakunnassa muisto-juttuja keräämässä’,
Suomi
2:2 (1864), 123–162.
Cataloguer
Jesse Keskiaho
Finnish Literature Society (SKS)
Codices Fennici
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