| Description | Two vellum leaves from an antiphonal. Possibly two halves of a bifolium. Text contains chants for St Elizabeth of Hungary, St Celia and St Clement. Musical notation is a German Gothic style on a 4-line stave with a red F line and yellow C line. The red lines are clearly visible but the other lines are faded. The text was black (now faded to brown) with red and blue capitals, black and red decorated initials and red highlights and rubrics.
Folio 1
The recto begins with the chant for Elizabeth of Hungary, beginning "O lampas ecclesie rivos fundens olei medicina gracie nutrimentum fidei". This continues on the verso and is followed by the beginning of the chant for St Cecilia. This continues on folio 2, although a small portion of the text appears to be missing between the two leaves. Folio 1v ends with the words "Expansis manibus" and folio 2r begins "domino decantabat". However, there does not appear to be enough text lacking to suggest that there is a whole folio missing between these. There is paper stuck to the verso which severely affects the legibility of the text.
There is annotation on the verso perpendicular to the main text in a later hand but which appears to be underneath the remnants of paper, indicating that they pre-date its use as a binding fragment. The annotations seem to be a list of names, possibly German. Both the recto and verso have other small annotations, decorations and graffiti in ink. Also a large 'B' has been written across the medieval text on the verso.
Folio 2
The recto continues with the feast of St Cecilia and moves on to the feast of St Clement, which begins: "Oremus omnes ad dominum", and continues on the verso. The text on the recto is heavily obscured by remnants of paper although most of the text is visible with a light box. Using a light box it is also possible to see the number "36" in the top right corner of the recto, underneath the paper.
There is an annotation in the top left corner on the verso which is very faded but appears to be in Latin. The numbers "1381" are just visible above it. Both are in a later hand than the main text so 1381 may be the date of the annotation.
On the top and bottom edges of the recto, fragments of another text and red and black line rulings are just visible. These run perpendicular to the main text and are in a similar but slightly different hand.
The feast days of Saints Elizabeth of Hungary, Cecilia and Clement are the 19th, 22nd and 23rd of November, respectively. |
| AdminHistory | This manuscript probably originated in Germany as it has annotations in German, and features Gothic musical notation and text for Elizabeth of Hungary. This also means that it cannot date from before 1235 when she was cannonized. |