Liturgical Miscellany with Prayers, Office of St. Catherine, Mass of the Virgin, and Biblical Readings, etc., 1475 - 1500
Abstract
This is an Italian manuscript from the fourth quarter of the fifteenth century that contains miscellaneous liturgical texts including: various prayers, both in Latin and Italian, including a prayer by Thomas Aquinas and prayers at the Elevation of the Host; the Office of Saint Catherine; The Mass in honor of Mary; the Beginning of John's Gospel; and the Athanasian Creed. There are five full illuminated borders (fols. 1, 12, 51, 70v, and 71) probably added in the eighteenth century. An early ownership inscription inside the front cover suggests that the manuscript was owned by a Florentine woman, "Nanna," possibly the wife of Giovan Battista Corbinello.
Dates
- Creation: 1475 - 1500
Extent
1 volumes
Language of Materials
Latin
Italian
Custodial History
The contents provide the strongest evidence of the original owner of this manuscript, but the evidence is not without ambiguity, and further study is certainly called for. It may have been copied for a lay owner with strong ties to the Dominicans (possibly a member of the third order, or a lay confraternity), but it also seems possible that it was copied for a Dominican Friar or nun (feminine forms used in the prayer on f. 13v); certainly its owner was both devout and learned, given the presence of lengthy vernacular prayers, numerous Latin prayers, and more formal liturgical texts including texts for Masses for the Virgin, an Office of St. Catherine, and the beginning of St. John’s Gospel (in Latin).
Early ownership inscription, inside front cover: “Questo si e uno librizino in lo quale se contene molte bene et diuote oratione a onore de dio de la gloriosa Vergine maria et de molti sancti del paradiso. Lo quale librizino e de me Nanna donna de Iohane Baptista Corbinello de Firenza.” This inscription tells us that this “little book that contains many good and devout prayers” was owned by a Florentine woman, “Nanna,” possibly the wife of Giovan Battista Corbinello, who was vicar of Pescia and Pieve S. Stephen, as well as Commissioner of Pistoia, c. 1499-1502 (SIUSA, Online Resources); its script suggests that it was added soon after this book was copied, probably in the early sixteenth century. The Corbinello family, documented in Florence since the late thirteenth century, by the fifteenth century was one of the Republic’s wealthiest families, active as wool merchants, landowners and merchant bankers.
Other related names
- Corbinello, Nanna, former owner
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased for Bryn Mawr College Library from the Howard Lehman Goodhart Memorial Fund.
Physical Description
This is an important collection of prayers, together with formal liturgical texts, in both Latin (approximately sixty-nine texts) and Italian (seventeen prayers). The texts exemplify the range of medieval devotional life. The vernacular prayers, many of which are remarkably lengthy in contrast with the Latin prayers, are likely to have been composed by contemporary fifteenth-century figures (including the Franciscan peacher, Cherubino da Spoleto (1414-1484) on ff. 11-12v, and a certain “Ser Pace patre de sancta felicita,”on ff. 16-19v). Dominican connections seem important, seen for example in the inclusion of the prayer by Thomas Aquinas on ff. 14v-15v, the lengthy rubric detailing a story about St. Thomas and Virgin on f. 69, and the litany of Mary “composuit frater Margaretus OP,” on ff. 51-53. The prayer on ff. 20-23v includes a series of noteworthy allusions to Old Testament figures. An example of a prayer verging into the area of a magical charm can be seen on ff. 41-44v where the names of the three magi are copied at the end. The inclusion of texts for more formal or public liturgical occasions is noteworthy as well, in particular, the Office of St. Catherine of Alexandria, ff. 36v-39 in Latin, prayers at the elevation of the Host on ff. 47-50, and on ff. 57v-59, the Mass in honor of Mary. Finally, the presence of a passage from the Bible, the beginning of John’s Gospel on f. 59rv, is of interest in this context of texts that are for the most part private and devotional in nature.
Description based, with thanks, on the description provided by Les Enluminures, Ltd.
Parchment support; i (paper pastedown, reused from earlier binding) + 78 + i (paper endleaf) on parchment.
Eighteenth-century (?) brown leather over pasteboard, with the original (Italian, fifteenth-century) front and back covers laid down, tooled in blind with a border of two sets of five fillets, a chain pattern between them, forming a rectangular center panel of three rope-interlace medallions, rounded spine with two raised bands.
i+78+i; 135 x 95 mm bound to 145 x 104 mm
Single column, nineteen lines, ruled in brown ink with full-length single vertical bounding lines; written area: 101 x 65 mm.
Humanistic script.
Majuscules within text slashed with red, rubrics, all in the same ink used for the text, often copied in capitals highlighted with red diagonal slashes, or in the case of longer rubrics copied in text script and then outlined in red (reducing legibility), one- to two-line red initials throughout, some with simple red pen decoration.
Five illuminated borders, certainly added, probably in the eighteenth century: f. 1, full border of small red and purple flowers with thin stems and leaves, interspersed with small gold ball; a peacock and coat of arms of the French royal family (azure, three fleur de lis or) in the lower margin; f. 12, similar full border with bird in the lower margin and a grass hopper in the inner margin; f. 51, full border of red, blue, green and gold acanthus; ff. 70v-71, double-page opening, both pages with full borders of red and green acanthus, on f. 70v, with a spray of purple flowers, and on f. 71 an Angel playing an instrument.
Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Genre / Form
Temporal
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