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![BREVIARY, use of Sarum, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, [western England, perhaps Devon, c.1310-20]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_01584_0006_003(breviary_use_of_sarum_in_latin_illuminated_manuscript_on_vellum_wester052313).jpg?w=1)
![BREVIARY, use of Sarum, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, [western England, perhaps Devon, c.1310-20]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_01584_0006_004(breviary_use_of_sarum_in_latin_illuminated_manuscript_on_vellum_wester052313).jpg?w=1)
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Details
BREVIARY, use of Sarum, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, [western England, perhaps Devon, c.1310-20]
154 x 97mm. iv + 256 + iii leaves, ruled space: 110 x 62mm. Two-line initials with flourishing the height of the text extending into the lower margins as human and animal heads, foliage, drolleries or birds, some margins with additional drawings of deer and musicians, and with painted birds, two large initials in burnished gold with foliate sprays, NINE HISTORIATED INITIALS with painted foliate extensions forming WHOLE OR PARTIAL BORDERS inhabited with drolleries, angels, animals and naturalistic birds (some rubbing with loss to pigment, text to opening leaves affected by damp, five marginal vellum repairs, inner margins strengthened on final versos of gatherings). Chestnut morocco gilt by Douglas Cockerell (1870-1945) for the W.H. Smith and Son Bindery (WHS monogram stamped on lower turn-in) with spine titled 'PORTIFORIUM AD USUM SARUM. TEMPORALE'.
THE LONG-LOST COMPANION VOLUME TO MORGAN M.329
PROVENANCE:
(1) Style, measurements and content are all consistent with this manuscript being the sister volume of a manuscript in New York (Morgan Library and Museum, M.329), a Sarum breviary containing Calendar, Psalter and Canticles, Sanctoral, Vespers of the Dead and the Common of Saints — the elements that complement and complete the Temporal of the present manuscript. The Calendar of the New York volume contains one feast uncommon in a Sarum calendar — the Cornish saint, Petroc (4 June) also venerated in Devon — and various early obits that suggest an origin or use in the West Country. The presence of the feast of St Eustace in red in M.329 has been taken to indicate that it was intended for use in a church with that dedication, most likely St Eustace in Tavistock. The manuscript also contains a suffrage to Eustace and the stag of St Eustace appears twice in the margins. The stag with a cross between its antlers also features in the lower margins of ff.13v and 166 of the present manuscript. Obits added to the Calendar of the Morgan volume indicate ownership by a member of the family of Nicholas de Meoles (Moels) of Somerset, his death on 24 January 1316 is recorded, as is that of his wife’s brother, Hugh de Courtenay, Earl of Devon. Hugh’s son John was Abbot of Tavistock. The Morgan volume was owned by Richard Sterne (1596-1683, Archbishop of York and great-grandfather of Laurence Sterne), who signed the verso of the paper fly-leaf. The fly-leaves of the present volume offer no evidence of its early provenance as they belong to the Cockerell rebinding. The Morgan volume has been dated to c.1320-25 on the grounds that it contains the feast of Corpus Christi, only introduced into England in 1317. Yet the death of Nicholas de Moels in 1316 was an addition to the Calendar so the manuscript may be earlier; the Corpus Christi cult was likely widespread by 1318: E. Antoaneta Ciobanu, The Spectacle of the Body in Late Medieval England, 2012, p.111. In the present manuscript the knight emerging from the lower painted border on f.68 carries a spear and a shield, gules two chevrons or. These could be the arms of Simon de Fawsley (or Falvesley) of Northamptonshire, d.1333. In three other instances, ff. 72, 121 and 246, the conical hats on pendrawn heads in the lower margin are also decorated with two chevrons. Perhaps this is significant for the original ownership of the manuscript or the origin of the illuminator: the style would accord with a formation in the Midlands. (2) Bernard Quaritch Ltd, cat.no 328, A catalogue of rare and valuable books, January 1914, no 580, illustrated.
CONTENT:
Breviary, Temporal, from Advent to Trinity ff.1-256v.
ILLUMINATION:
The lively drolleries peopling the illuminated borders that mark the major openings and the profusion of humorous figures and heads drawn in the margin of almost every page make this a highly appealing and delightful manuscript. Entertaining details — such as the huntsman with a duck tied round his waist (f.1) or men playing hockey (f.37) — are excellent examples of the genre inclusions which flourished in English manuscripts in the late 13th to early 14th century. The disparities of scale, variety in technique – fully painted surfaces alongside outline drawing — juxtaposition of naturalistic details with stylised narratives and the fantasy hybrids are characteristic features of English illumination and they reappear throughout the 14th century (L. Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 1986, p.16). Although differing in format, quality and border forms there are broad similarities with the Pabenham-Clifford Hours (formerly Grey-Fitzpayn Hours: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Mus. MS 242) and the Vaux Psalter (London, Lambeth Palace Library MS 233) in the manner in which the disparate elements are brought together, and quite precise similarities in some of the naturalistic and grotesque inclusions; for example, the large blue jay (f.4), the lion (f.4v) and the large-headed backward-looking bipeds: Sandler, nos 30 & 31.
The narratives of the historiated initials may extend into inhabited illuminated borders that accompany them, all but the final two also contain unrelated figures, birds or creatures. The central religious subjects of the initials are as follows: Christ in Majesty f.1; Isaiah f.4; Angel Gabriel, with accompanying prophet (?Isaiah) in the margin f.4v; Nativity in one initial and an Angel of the Annunciation with a shepherd in another, the star and another angel in the margin f.37; Christ seated f.57v; Three Magi, warning angel in the margin f.68; Resurrection of Christ f.155v; Christ displaying his wounds f.191v.
There are further illuminated birds in the borders of ff.12 and f.55v and larger-than-usual drawn figures independent of the terminal flourishings as follows: harpist f.13, stag of St Eustace f.13v; psaltery player f.15; grotesque f.19, monk playing bagpipes f.19; dog biting its testicles f. 25; grotesque f.32. The harpist and psaltery player are larger drawn versions of the figures in the lower border of folio 1.
154 x 97mm. iv + 256 + iii leaves, ruled space: 110 x 62mm. Two-line initials with flourishing the height of the text extending into the lower margins as human and animal heads, foliage, drolleries or birds, some margins with additional drawings of deer and musicians, and with painted birds, two large initials in burnished gold with foliate sprays, NINE HISTORIATED INITIALS with painted foliate extensions forming WHOLE OR PARTIAL BORDERS inhabited with drolleries, angels, animals and naturalistic birds (some rubbing with loss to pigment, text to opening leaves affected by damp, five marginal vellum repairs, inner margins strengthened on final versos of gatherings). Chestnut morocco gilt by Douglas Cockerell (1870-1945) for the W.H. Smith and Son Bindery (WHS monogram stamped on lower turn-in) with spine titled 'PORTIFORIUM AD USUM SARUM. TEMPORALE'.
THE LONG-LOST COMPANION VOLUME TO MORGAN M.329
PROVENANCE:
(1) Style, measurements and content are all consistent with this manuscript being the sister volume of a manuscript in New York (Morgan Library and Museum, M.329), a Sarum breviary containing Calendar, Psalter and Canticles, Sanctoral, Vespers of the Dead and the Common of Saints — the elements that complement and complete the Temporal of the present manuscript. The Calendar of the New York volume contains one feast uncommon in a Sarum calendar — the Cornish saint, Petroc (4 June) also venerated in Devon — and various early obits that suggest an origin or use in the West Country. The presence of the feast of St Eustace in red in M.329 has been taken to indicate that it was intended for use in a church with that dedication, most likely St Eustace in Tavistock. The manuscript also contains a suffrage to Eustace and the stag of St Eustace appears twice in the margins. The stag with a cross between its antlers also features in the lower margins of ff.13v and 166 of the present manuscript. Obits added to the Calendar of the Morgan volume indicate ownership by a member of the family of Nicholas de Meoles (Moels) of Somerset, his death on 24 January 1316 is recorded, as is that of his wife’s brother, Hugh de Courtenay, Earl of Devon. Hugh’s son John was Abbot of Tavistock. The Morgan volume was owned by Richard Sterne (1596-1683, Archbishop of York and great-grandfather of Laurence Sterne), who signed the verso of the paper fly-leaf. The fly-leaves of the present volume offer no evidence of its early provenance as they belong to the Cockerell rebinding. The Morgan volume has been dated to c.1320-25 on the grounds that it contains the feast of Corpus Christi, only introduced into England in 1317. Yet the death of Nicholas de Moels in 1316 was an addition to the Calendar so the manuscript may be earlier; the Corpus Christi cult was likely widespread by 1318: E. Antoaneta Ciobanu, The Spectacle of the Body in Late Medieval England, 2012, p.111. In the present manuscript the knight emerging from the lower painted border on f.68 carries a spear and a shield, gules two chevrons or. These could be the arms of Simon de Fawsley (or Falvesley) of Northamptonshire, d.1333. In three other instances, ff. 72, 121 and 246, the conical hats on pendrawn heads in the lower margin are also decorated with two chevrons. Perhaps this is significant for the original ownership of the manuscript or the origin of the illuminator: the style would accord with a formation in the Midlands. (2) Bernard Quaritch Ltd, cat.no 328, A catalogue of rare and valuable books, January 1914, no 580, illustrated.
CONTENT:
Breviary, Temporal, from Advent to Trinity ff.1-256v.
ILLUMINATION:
The lively drolleries peopling the illuminated borders that mark the major openings and the profusion of humorous figures and heads drawn in the margin of almost every page make this a highly appealing and delightful manuscript. Entertaining details — such as the huntsman with a duck tied round his waist (f.1) or men playing hockey (f.37) — are excellent examples of the genre inclusions which flourished in English manuscripts in the late 13th to early 14th century. The disparities of scale, variety in technique – fully painted surfaces alongside outline drawing — juxtaposition of naturalistic details with stylised narratives and the fantasy hybrids are characteristic features of English illumination and they reappear throughout the 14th century (L. Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 1986, p.16). Although differing in format, quality and border forms there are broad similarities with the Pabenham-Clifford Hours (formerly Grey-Fitzpayn Hours: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Mus. MS 242) and the Vaux Psalter (London, Lambeth Palace Library MS 233) in the manner in which the disparate elements are brought together, and quite precise similarities in some of the naturalistic and grotesque inclusions; for example, the large blue jay (f.4), the lion (f.4v) and the large-headed backward-looking bipeds: Sandler, nos 30 & 31.
The narratives of the historiated initials may extend into inhabited illuminated borders that accompany them, all but the final two also contain unrelated figures, birds or creatures. The central religious subjects of the initials are as follows: Christ in Majesty f.1; Isaiah f.4; Angel Gabriel, with accompanying prophet (?Isaiah) in the margin f.4v; Nativity in one initial and an Angel of the Annunciation with a shepherd in another, the star and another angel in the margin f.37; Christ seated f.57v; Three Magi, warning angel in the margin f.68; Resurrection of Christ f.155v; Christ displaying his wounds f.191v.
There are further illuminated birds in the borders of ff.12 and f.55v and larger-than-usual drawn figures independent of the terminal flourishings as follows: harpist f.13, stag of St Eustace f.13v; psaltery player f.15; grotesque f.19, monk playing bagpipes f.19; dog biting its testicles f. 25; grotesque f.32. The harpist and psaltery player are larger drawn versions of the figures in the lower border of folio 1.
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