[Beverley prayer book]
Contains records with digital mediaDetails
Type of record: Archive
Title: [Beverley prayer book]
Other titles: Book of prayers (Leeds University Library. Brotherton Collection MS 16)
Classmark: BC MS 16
Publication city: [Beverley, Yorkshire]
Date(s): [ca. 1425]
Language: English
Size and medium: 1 v. (viii, 131, iv leaves) (1 column, 13 lines; ruled)
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/37056
Collection group(s): Medieval Manuscripts
Description
Front flyleaves: [i-ii] modern vellum, i-iv paper, [vii-viii] modern vellum. Rear flyleaves are modern vellum. Catchwords for each quire are in scroll cartouches.
Decoration: 3 full-page coats of arms on first and last pages. 5 large (3- to 5-line) armorial initials in colours on rectangular grounds in burnished gold and within full borders of double-bars decorated with ivyleaves, trumpet flowers and acanthus leaves in colours and gold. The initial on f. 9r is decorated with the royal arms of England (possibly to recognise Robert Tyrwhit's office of royal justiciar). 2-line initials throughout in blue with red penwork and marginal flourishes. Versal initials alternately in red and blue.
Written in textualis quadrata.
Each office appears twice, once for the Use of Sarum, and once for the Use of York. Principal contents: ff. 2r-7v Calendar; ff. 9r-21v Penitential Psalms; ff. 22r-31v Litany (Use of Sarum); ff. 31v-42v Litany (Use of York); ff. 43r-102v Office of the Dead (Use of Sarum); ff. 103r-106v Office of the Dead (Use of York); ff. 107r-127r Commendation of Souls, with additions (Use of York) ff. 127r-v; ff. 127v-130v O intemerata.
Purchased at Sothebys 13.6.1983.
See for a fuller description Sothebys Catalogue 13.6.1983.
Features
Bindings
Current binding of red morocco over wooden boards, four double cords and thread head bands by Cockerell, 1984. A part of the earlier 17/18th-century blind-stamped calf binding is kept with the manuscript.
Provenance
Written probably in Beverley or York for the use of the Collegiate Church of St. John of Beverley (Beverley Minster). Obits: Thomas Habtreholme "persone collegii sancti Johannis Evangeliste Beverl'" on 16 June 1484 (f. 1, with a coat of arms), Robert Habtreholme, burgher of Beverley (Calendar, 13 July), four members of the Tyrwhit family of Beverley (f. 8v: Adam d. 1354, John d. 1375, Adam the younger, and Robert d. 1427 [1428]), and Robert FitzHugh, bishop of London [1431-1436] d. 15 January 1436 (f. 42v). Late medieval ownership inscription on f. 130v: "Iste liber constat Willelmo pavyll generoso". 18/19th-century inscription "J. R. Sharpe" on flyleaf.
Access and usage
Access
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