Beschreibung:

Three leaves from a finely illuminated English Sacramentary, Use of Sarum, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [England, c. 1220] Three single leaves, each with at least one single slender gold initial with coloured penwork picking out acanthus leaves in its infill and surround, smaller initial variegated in red and green with similar penwork, or simple red or green with contrasting penwork (some with baubles mounted within the thinnest parts of their strokes), red rubrics, important text ruled through in red, capitals touched in red, single column of 16 lines of a formal and visually appealing English early gothic hand, written above top line, one leaf (that numbered 'I') cut down at margins (most notable at top and inner with losses to edges of initials there), small flaking from gold in places, some cockling and small spots and stains, else good condition and on fine and supple parchment, complete leaves: 330 by 220mm., the cut down leaf: 300 by 200mm. Provenance: 1. Written, decorated and finely illuminated in England in the early thirteenth century, doubtless for an important individual or ecclesiastical institution. 2. Apparently already fragmentary by the early twentieth century: these three leaves most probably in a German collection together at that date (acquired in two batches in Germany over a decade apart, but with 'I', 'II' and 'III' at their upper outer corners in single hand of that date). Two further leaves appeared in Quaritch, cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V (1991), no. 55 (one marked up 'IV' in same hand: see photograph there). 3. First two leaves here acquired in German trade in 2007 (leaves numbered 'II' and 'III'), the third in Hargesheimer Kunstauktionen, Düsseldorf, 19 September 2018, lot 2855 (numbered 'I'). Text: From an opulent Sarum Sacramentary, the precursor to the expanded Missal. These leaves containing Votive Masses from the Common of Saints followed by Votive Masses for the days of the week. Those in Quaritch were identified as probably for the week of Ash Wednesday, and the present leaves include part of masses for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and prayers for the Common of the Vigil of Many Martyrs, a Confessor, Many Confessors, and for Many Virgins. Only one Sarum Sacramentary was recorded by W.H. Frere (also thirteenth-century and modified for Exeter: Dean and Chapter Library, Exeter, MS 3510: see Bibliotheca Musico-Liturgica: A Descriptive Hand List of the Musical and Latin-Liturgical MSS., 1932, II:12, no. 597).