Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Three separate leaves from an Italian gradual
Parchment
No pricking visible. Lightly ruled in grey. Written space 219 x 155 mm. 8 lines + stave; 6 lines without music, i.e. rubrics and cues, occupy 1 line + stave.
Written in a roundish textura, proficiently, with minims 3.5 mm high. The interlined red cross-references have smaller guides in pale ink. Notation: staves 4-line in red.
Alternating red and blue initials with flourishing in red or blue (opposite colour to initial). Large illuminated initials (2 staves high): 2/1v - O in pale brown with red and green foliage within on a blue background. 2/3r D in pale brown and red on blue background.
Written in Italy, 15th century.
An accompanying printed label identifies these fragments as coming from a Gradual formerly at Bradford Academy (Bradford, MA) recorded in De Ricci, vol. 1, p.963 as 4976 (see Schoenberg database of manuscripts record 33781). It was said to have been acquired in the 19th century from a priest at Pistoia Cathedral. Another leaf is now Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Typ 959 - http://fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-2wsc
£300 written in pencil on 2/3, with the bookseller's code “hqroo”. Note from Peter Kidd (1 March 2018 https://manuscriptroadtrip.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/fragmentarium-a-model-for-digital-fragmentology/comment-page-1/#comment-1759) reports: The price-codes on Elliot MS 2/2 and 2/3 show it to have been bought by Maggs Bros. in August 1981, and Elliott 2/3 appears in their Bulletin No. 11 (November 1982), no. 52 and pl. XV, with the Bradford Academy provenance noted (priced £300, as inscribed on the leaf).
Deposited with Durham University Library in 1984 by Dr. George Ball Elliott (1918-1994).
End of First Sunday after Epiphany - Second Sunday after Epiphany starts mid-verso. Numbered in red half-way down the outer margin of verso [...]XXIII
Texts for Holy Saturday tracts ii-iv, with cues between ii and iii for prayers viii-x and lections ix-xi, and between iii and iv for prayers xi-xii and lection xii, followed by the rubric to tract iv “Hiis finitis descendendo ad fontes”. Numbered in red half-way down the outer margin of verso [...]LXXXVIIII
Texts for part 9th, whole of 10th and start of 11th Sunday after Pentecost. Numbered in red half-way down the outer margin of verso [...]CXXXIIII
Ricci, Seymour de, Census of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1935-1962)
Lippe, R., ed., Missale Romanum Mediolani 1474, (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1899)