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Detailed record for Royal 2 A X
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| Title |
Breviary |
| Origin |
England, S. (St Albans) |
| Date |
2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century, before 1161 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Decoration |
1 initial in gold with penwork decoration, at the beginning of the breviary (f. 9v). Large initials in green, blue or red, sometimes with penwork decoration in green and red, and smaller initials in green or red at the beginning of verses. Easter tables in decorated frames (ff. 1v, 8). |
| Dimensions in mm |
180 x 125 (140 x 90), in one column |
| Official foliation |
ff. 220 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. |
| Provenance |
Made at and for the Benedictine Abbey of St. Albans, before 1161: the calendar includes: 'Festivitas reliquiarum' (27th January, f. 8), 'Sancti Albani Anglorum prothomartyris' in green (22nd June, f. 4v), 'Inventio Sancti Albani' in red, with octave (2nd August, f. 5v), the dedication of the church of St. Alban (29th December, f. 7), but does not include the feast of Edward the Confessor (canonised 1161), and the translation of Edward the Confessor (13th October 1163, f. 6v) or that of Thomas of Canterbury (7th July 1220, f. 5), which are later insertions; Alban is included in the litany immediately after Apostles and Evangelists (f. 59), followed by a response and verse 'De inventione S. Albani (f. 62), in hymns, 'in natali Sancti Albani. Ad vesperas' (f. 74v), in collects (f. 85) and in services (f. 201); inscribed: 'Hic est lib[er] s[an]cti Albani que qui abstulerit aut / titulum deleverit anathema sit. Amem', 13th or 14th century (f. 2), and inscription, 'De armariolo in choro', 14th century (f. 2).
Added two hymns for the Virgin, and four lections in the same hand, c. 1200 (ff. 1, 220v).
Added three lections for St. Faith, c. 1200 (ff. 8v-9).
Added lections, 13th century (ff. 124-125).
Added lection,13th century (f. 220).
Added obit of 'fr. Willelmus de Hextanton apud Lugdunum', 14th century? (1st March, f. 3).
J. Wardeyr, inscribed with his name, 16th century (ff. 1, 220).
Wallyngfforthe, inscribed with his name, 16th century (f. 220).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Includes a calendar with Easter tables (ff. 1v-8), noting the feast of the relics of St. Albans (27 January). |
| Select bibliography |
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, pp. 29-30.
English Benedictine Calendars after A. D. 1100, ed. by Francis Wormald, 2 vols, Henry Bradshaw Society, 77, 81 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1934-1939), I, 31.
The Monastic Breviary of Hyde Abbey, Winchester: MSS. Rawlinson Liturg. e. 1*, and Gough Liturg. 8, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, ed. by J. B. L. Tolhurst, Henry Bradshaw Society, LXV-LXXX, 6 vols (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1932-42), 6, p. 240.
Otto Pächt, C. R. Dodwell, and Francis Wormald, The St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter) (London: Warburg Institute, 1960), pp. 6, 24, 30, 277.
N. R. Ker, English Manuscripts in the Century after the Norman Conquest (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960) p. 35-36.
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), pp. 167, 362.
Francis Wormald, ‘The Monastic Library’, in Gatherings in Honour of Dorothy E. Miner, ed. by Ursula E. McCracken, Lilian M. C. Randall and Richard H. Randall, Jr (Baltimore, 1974), pp. 93-109 (p. 94).
K. D. Hartzell, ' A St. Albans Miscellany in New York', in Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 10 (1975), 20-60 (pp. 21-61, 23-24, 25, 34-36, 44, 52, 53-56nn).
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 859.
R. M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St. Albans, 2 vols (Woodbridge, 1982), I, p. 28, II, no. 25.
Linda Ehrsam Voigts, 'A Fragment of an Anglo-Saxon Liturgical Manuscript at the University of Missouri', in Anglo-Saxon England 17 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 85-92 (p. 87).
R. W. Pfaff, 'The 'Sample Week' in the Medieval Latin Divine Office', in Continuity and Change in Christian Worship, ed. by R. N. Swanson, Studies in Church History 35 (Woodbridge, 1999), pp. 78-88 (pp. 87-88).
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library. 2000), p. xxxvi, n. 48.
Kristine Haney, The St. Albans Psalter: An Anglo-Norman Song of Faith (New York: Peter Lang, 2002), p. 7.
K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 containing Music (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), no. 170.
Richard W. Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History (Cambridge: University Press, 2009), pp. 170-72. |
| Last revised: Thursday, September 17, 2009 |
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f. 2
January |
f. 3
Calendar page |
f. 9v
Illuminated initial |
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f. 50
Text page |
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