Canaday Gradual, 1475 - 1499

Parchment is brittle and much repaired, the first two leaves have the lower third of the page cut away with some loss of text; a poor-quality yellow parchment has been sewn and glued on as a repair. Further crude repairs with no loss of text recur throughout.

Parchment support.

Contemporary brown leather over oak boards. Top board split, leather in poor repair, particularly on spine. Large fretted brass bosses, corner pieces, clasps missing. Paper label on spine illegible. On front cover in black ink: "2o".

ff. 136, 528 x 393 (437 x 262) mm

Seven five-line staves on each page. Remains of prickings visible at outer margins.

Late, liturgical gothic hand, written by several scribes

Five-line initials begin each major text division, either a bright blue initial on a decorative red ground or a red initial on a decorative dark blue ground. Lesser text divisions are marked with 5-line black initials, each initial made by intertwining two or three black lines. Staves are red with square black notes. Rubrication throughout. Guide letters for rubricator visible next to painted initials.

Contemporary foliation in red Roman numerals in the upper right, recto, above the top stave; eighteenth-century foliation in black, written in the lower right-hand margin. Contemporary foliation includes missing leaves, but the later foliation is continuous, taking no account of the lacunae; double vertical bounding lines, full length, in hardpoint or ink