DPL Reed MMF52

Breviary, Latin. England, ca. 1300

Part of two leaves (bifolium). 157 by 107mm. Double column, 36 lines, ruled in brown ink, written space 128 by 82mm; gothic hand.

Text: Part of the Offices for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and for the feast of St John the Evangelist (27 December). The occurrence of nine rather than twelve readings suggests secular and not monastic use.
Decoration: Rubrics in red, some underlining in red; 1- and 2-line initials 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 1056 (1985), no. 66.
References: Manion, Vines, de Hamel no. 114; Reed Early Bibles no. 32.
Shelfmark: RMM Fragment 52.

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).