DPL Reed MMF46

Missal, Latin. England, fourteenth century

Single leaf. 295 by 202mm. Double column, 22 lines, ruled in brown ink, written space 212 by 160mm; gothic liturgical hand.

Text: Part of three Masses for the dead, the second headed ‘Missa generalis pro vivis et defunctis’ and the third ‘alia pro vivis et defunctis’. Prayers added in a fourteenth-century bookhand at foot of verso.
Decoration: Seven 2-line initials in red or blue with simple contrasting penwork; rubrics in red.
Provenance: From an album of fragments from Oxford bindings and elsewhere compiled by Philip Bliss (1787–1857). It sold in his sale, Sotheby’s, 21 August 1858, lot 100, and entered into the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872). The album (probably Phillipps MS.15659) was lot 390 in the Phillipps sale, Sotheby’s, 24 April 1911, bought by E. H. Dring (d. 1928), managing director of Quaritch. This fragment and others were inherited by E. M. Dring (d. 1990), who donated some to the Bodleian and sold the remaining manuscripts to Quaritch. These binding fragments were mostly dispersed by Quaritch in 1984 and 1985. Purchased from Quaritch catalogue 1036 (1984), no. 18.
References: Manion, Vines, de Hamel no. 108; Reed Early Bibles no. 38.
Shelfmark: RMM Fragment 46.

Description reproduced from Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections (London, 1989) by permission of the authors (Christopher de Hamel, Margaret Manion, and the family of Vera F. Vines).