| Description | Leaf from a noted breviary, parchment. Lessons and chants with musical notation in Germanic neumes. Main body text in brown in a single column with initial capitals, rubrics and highlights which were all originally red. Written in a sloping Gothic textualis rotunda in a single column in brown ink, using a smaller size for the chants which are interspersed with the main text. The edges of the leaf have been cut but no text appears to be missing.
The texts are for the veneration of particular saints, in chronological order. The recto begins with the last line of a lesson from the Book of Ecclesiasticus followed by a chant: "Beatus laurentius dum in craticula superpositus...". Both texts are from the feast of St Lawrence (10 August). This is followed by a short chant for St Tiburtius (11 August).
The next section is the feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August), beginning with the lesson at Matins, Ecclesiasticus 24: "In omnibus requiem quesivi et in hereditate...". The texts for this feast continue to the bottom of the page with a sermon attributed here to Pope Leo, which begins: "Sollempnitas hodierna quam colimus fratres...". Then there is the beginning of the chant "Vidi speciosam sicut columbam...", which is also from the feast of the Assumption and is based on the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon).
The text on the verso continues the chant from the end of the previous side. The first visible line here is "...ascendentem desuper rivos aquarum cujus inestimabilis odorum erat...", indicating that no text is missing even though the top and bottom of the folio have been cut down. The prayers and antiphons for the Assumption continue on the rest of the verso.
There is an annotation on the right hand margin on the recto which has been damaged by water and is almost illegible. The portion that remains appears to be in a hand contemporary with the main text and refers to the Virign Mary. Part of another annotation in the same hand is visible in the left hand margin. There is a pencil annotation, "Maria", at the bottom of the recto.
There are three annotations on the verso: "1554" has been marked on the top right corner. In the bottom right corner there is a faint annotation in German(?) in a 16th/17th century hand. There are also very faint traces of writing in the left hand margin around lines 20-23 which may be an annotation or correction to the text, the hand here is similar to the annotations on the recto. |