Item MS116 - Antiphonal and Breviary Miscellany

Item consists of six groupings of texts, Fragments A-G, removed from one or more antiphonals and one breviary. These original books likely originated in the vicinity of Catalonia and Aragon, were perhaps associated with the Franciscan or Dominican orders, and were probably produced during the sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries. The fragmentary nature, haphazard selection and non-chronological arrangement of the removed texts suggests that, in their current state, they were not arranged for liturgical use.

The scribal hands are in Gothic textura rotunda. Fragments A, D, and F, in which the letterforms are less rounded and more vertical than in the other fragments, come from a single codex, with the same hand and illumination style. One portion of text in Fragment C has been erased, with the same text rewritten over it in a later hand, dating to the eighteenth century. The quality of lettering varies between fragments. There are several illuminated or historiated initials, but in general the scribal and illumination work is often simple, rough or incomplete, especially in Fragments B and C.

The covers consist of contemporary wooden boards covered with deteriorated leather, fitted for five cords. Nothing remains of the spine, but remnants of the cords and traverse spine linings are extant. A metal clasp hinge remains on the front cover at the centre of the foreedge, and a wooden boss is nailed to the back cover in the same spot.

Folio format. The fragments are generally disbound and were likely not ever bound to the present covers. There are remnants of an original seven-cord binding on the spine edge of many gatherings, and wear on the leaves is also inconsistent with the present boards, which might have been employed more as an unattached protective case than as a binding proper. Fragments B and C are affixed to each other by an adhesive at the spine, as are Fragments E and F. A group of leaves, from part-way through Fragment B to the end of Fragment C, have been bound more recently at the upper margin with metal wire. Ink has transferred from portions of text on the first leaf in Fragment A and the last leaf in Fragment F to the front and back covers respectively, and black residue from the covering leather has been deposited on the same leaves, showing that the fragments have been kept in the present arrangement within the unattached boards probably for a considerable time. Some leaves have been cut or otherwise damaged, especially in the leaves bound by the wire, which have a cut from the spine edge inward into the text. The fragments have not been foliated as a single item, but, for the purposes of this finding aid, they have been treated as such [fols. 1-14, 15-38]. Fol. 9 is detached, and fol. 15 is at present completely lacking.