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Detailed record for Additional 10628
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| Author |
John Somer |
| Title |
Calendar (ff. 1-10), Kalendarium of John Somer and astronomical texts (ff. 10-34) |
| Origin |
England, S.W. |
| Date |
c.1383-1384 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
A full-page diagram of Zodiac Man in brown and black (f. 25). A full page diagram of the palm of a hand with symbols in red, blue and brown (f. 34). Circular volvelles (f. 34*). Circular eclipse diagrams in red, brown, blue and yellow (ff. 28-30v). Tables and circular diagrams (ff. 26v, 32) in brown and red. A puzzle initial in red with penwork decoration in brown (f. 10). KL initials in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
275 x 180 (210/30 x 135/50) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 175 (+ 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning + an unfoliated half-sized folio inserted after f. 34 [f. 34*]; f. 31 is lacking; ff. 37-174 are paper leaves from a printed book and f. 175 is a medieval parchment leaf used as a paste-down to the inside lower binding) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
16th-century English bindng (Oxford or London), brown leather with tooling including the letters R.H.M.I and traces of former clasps. |
| Provenance |
The Benedictine priory of St George, Dunster, Somerset.: entry in the calendar for 23rd April' 'S[anc]ti Georgii i[n] alb[is]. S[ecundum] usu[m] eccl[esi]e de du[n]st[er] i[n] 4 cappis' (f. 2v).
Added entries to the calendar in the 15th century, probably made by a secular owner (there are 9 lectiones for some feasts), perhaps in Wales: the feast of Sancte Nonite (St Nonita), mother of St David is entered in the calendar for 3 March (f. 2) (see Wormald, English Kalendars (1939), p. 145).
Bought by the British Museum from Thomas Rodd the younger (b. 1796, d. 1849), London bookseller, 7 January, 1837. |
| Notes |
The medieval manuscript is bound together with an early printed book of 137 pages containing the Kalendarium Romanum magnum, printed by Jac. Kobel, Oppenheym, 1518.
John Somer (d. 1409 or 1419), a Fransiscan friar of Bridgewater, Somerset, produced the Kalendarium in 1380, and dedicated it to Joan Holland (d. 1442), mother of Richard II. The prologue describes him as warden ('guardianus') of the friars of Bodmin but does not give his name: 'Kalendarium Domine Johanne Principisse Wallie…matris Ricardi....quod sibi composuit quidam frater Minorum in Cornubia Bodminne Gardianus…ad meridiem universitatis Oxoniae, anno domine millesimo trecentesimo octogesimo' (f. 10).
This is perhaps the earliest surviving copy of the Kalendarium (Mooney, Kalendarium (1998))
J. B. Oldham, English Blind-Stamped Bindings (1952), names the roll SV.a(7) 930 and the individual tool A (4). The tools are illustrated on plates XIX and LVII.
David Pearson, Oxford bookbinding 1500-1640 (2000) includes a rubbing of the roll on p.113. |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), '1837', p. 6.
English Benedictine Kalendars after A. D. 1100, ed. by Francis Wormald, 2 vols, Henry Bradshaw Society, 77, 81 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1934-1939), I, 145-60 (an edition of the calendar).
J. B. Oldham, English Blind-Stamped Bindings (Cambridge, 1952), plates XIX, and LVII.
Lynn Thorndike, ‘Eclipses in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries’, Isis, 48 (1957), 51-57 (p. 52).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 60.
The Kalendarium of John Somer, ed. by Linne R. Mooney (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998), pp. 6-7, 57-58.
David Pearson, Oxford bookbinding 1500-1640 (Oxford 2000) p.113. |
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f. 2v
April |
f. 20v
Kalendarium |
f. 25
Zodiac Man |
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f. 28
Eclipse diagrams |
f. 34
Compotus manualis |
f. 34
Volvelles |
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