AUGUSTINIAN MINIATURE BREVIARY, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
AUGUSTINIAN MINIATURE BREVIARY, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM

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AUGUSTINIAN MINIATURE BREVIARY, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Flanders, possibly Tournai, second half of the 13th century]

70 x 49mm, 289 leaves. COLLATION: 112 2-2116 2210 23-4416 4510 (lacking 9 leaves, one probably a cancel, another the final blank = 1/1 [first leaf of Calendar], 6/7, 8/9, 30/10, 35/9, 38/1 [a cancel?], 41/1, 45/9 and 10 [final blank?]). 16 lines, ruled in black and brown ink, justification: 42 x 27mm, written in dark brown ink in a very small gothic textura, rubrics in red, Calendar in red and black with some capitals in blue, versal initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork decoration along the length of the page, two-line illuminated initials in burnished gold on blue ground with cusped dragon-like extensions, six-line initial 'B' and 9 four-line decorated initials in burnished gold and blue, most with similar extensions, one containing a rabbit. (Slight discoloring in quire 28, some oxidation of ink on 28/11). 15th-century blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, spine with later (worn) vellum back, (clasps lacking).

PROVENANCE: Probably made for Augustinian monastic use in the diocese of Tournai or Liège. The calendar contains Saints Ursmar, abbot of Lobbes and bishop of Flanders, on 19 April when his feast is in Tournai; Maurontius, abbot of Breuil-sur-lys near Douay; Lambert, bishop of Maestricht and Liège and Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht. Also St. Augustine in red on 28 August, with his translation on 11 October, as well as his octave on 4 September. There are also long prayers and homilies to him in the Sanctorale. There are no later indications of ownership.

TEXT. The book contains a Calendar, Psalter and Canticles, followed by the Litany and hymns; the office for the dedication of a church; the Temporale, Sanctorale and Common of Saints.

A very rare example of an early miniature breviary, made to be carried in a small pocket. However, although it is written on very fine vellum, the volume is almost 60mm thick. GENERALLY IN VERY GOOD CONDITION.

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