Office of Corpus Christi: MS McClean 59

Titles

Office of Corpus Christi

Entities

• Other

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, ii paper flyleaves (foliated i-ii, recto of fol. i pasted onto yellow silk) + 32 fols. + ii paper flyleaves (foliated iii-iv, verso of fol. iv pasted onto yellow silk), 105 x 77 mm (62 x 46 mm), 15 long lines, ruled in plummet, one extant catchword (fol. 22v)

BINDING: Nineteenth century, green velvet over wooden boards, yellow silk doublures, diamond-shaped centre piece and four metal corner pieces with embossed foliage and small bosses on each cover.

CONTENTS
fols. 5r-14r Matins and Lauds of Corpus Christi
fols. 15r-16v Prime of Corpus Christi
fols. 17v-18v Terce of Corpus Christi
fols. 19v-20v Sext of Corpus Christi
fols. 21v-23r None of Corpus Christi
fols. 24r-25v Vespers of Corpus Christi
fols. 26v-27v Compline of Corpus Christi
fols. 29r-30r Two hymns for Matins and Lauds of the Passion
fols. 30v-32r Three prayers (additions): Domine iesu christi qui voluisti per redemptione mundi, Adoro te domine iesu christe ascendentem in cruce, Doce ergo me Deus facere voluntatem tuam

DECORATION: Nine full-page framed miniatures as frontispieces to the Hours of the Office of Corpus Christi in wide framed borders containing acanthus, foliage, flowers in dark green, purple-red and blue, gold balls and penwork ornament on plain parchment background: fol. 2v Two putti supporting a shield, perhaps repainted, with the arms of Inghirami and a nineteenth-century inscription, Figurate per me Franciscum a libris anno d[omini] mcccclx beneath; fol. 3r Gethsemane; fol. 14v Christ before Pilate; fol. 17r Mocking of Christ; fol. 19r Flagellation; fol. 21r Crucifixion; fol. 23v Pietà with St John the Evangelist and St Mary Magdalene; fol. 26r Entombment; fol. 28r Christ stepping out of the Tomb.

Historiated initial in pink on gold ground with full framed border identical to those of the miniatures: fol. 5r Matins of Corpus Christi, [D, 9 ll.] Two three-quarter figures of saints.

ORNAMENTATION: Red, blue and purple pen-flourished initials [1-2 ll.]

Notes

History note: Inghirami family of Florence and Prato, their shield of arms on fol. 2v, argent a tree proper, on a chief azure an estoile or; Guglielmo Libri (1803-1869); his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 28 March 1895, lot 735; no. 250 in an unidentified sale catalogue of 1895 (catalogue cutting pasted inside upper cover)