CONSUETUDINARY OF ST MARY'S, YORK

MRJ number
102
College classmark
D.27

    Vellum, 8.75 x 6, ff. 262 + 1, 30 and 28 lines to a page.  14th-15th cent., clearly written.

    Given by Th. Hutton, Nov. 14, 1638.

    From St Mary's Abbey, York.

    Collation: 18 28 (wants 4, 5) | a quire gone | 38 - 102 (wants 2) 118 - 138 (wants 8) 148 - 198 (wants 1; 5 canc.) 208 - 338 34 (three), 1 flyleaf.

    Contents:

        Inc. prologus in Consuetudinarium Monasterii b. Marie Ebor.      .             f. 1

        Generis humani misera condicio nesciens se abstinere a uetitis …

           Thomas igitur permissione diuina Ebor. archiep. etc. per commis-

           sarios suos ad correctiones Magistros Johannem de Newton legis

           ciuilis doctorem et Th. de Walworht Bacallarium utriusque iuris

           ac Canon. eccl. Cathedral. S. Petri Ebor. xxxmo die mensis Maii

           a.d. mo. cccmo nonogesimo de scientia et consensu Abbatis et

           tocius conuentus in domo capitulari hora consueta patres

           Johannem de Esyngwald priorem Mon. ac sacre pagine pro-

           fessorem Ric. Thornton Thomam Mauleuerer Thomam de

           Helmyslay seniores et Johannem de Strensall precentorem cum

           consilio et auxilio predicti domini Abbatis et confratrum quos

           dicti deputati de conuentu uoluerint euocare ad dictas ambi-

           guitates elucidand. etc. etc. prout in uisitacione ordinaria eiusdem

           reuerendi patris xvi die eiusdem mensis anno quo supra … fuerat

           compertum deputauit, etc. etc.

        De disciplina psallendi.  Ubique credimus diuinam esse pre-

           senciam   .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         1b

        De officio diuino, 2b.  De thurificacione et antiphonis terminandis

           cum neuma         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         7b

        De numero oracionum in missa et conclusione earum, 8b.  Music

           begins on f. 9.

        After f. 16 (Dom. 1, aduentus) a quire is gone.  The next leaf (25)

           relates to Maundy Thursday.

        De dormitorio, f. 31.  De silencio, 32b.

        De matutinis, 33b.  De hora prima, 44b.  De prima de domina, 48b.

           (English form of confession, 49.)  De missa familiari, 50.  De

           tabula, 52.  Missa in galli cantu. m. de luce, 56b.  De m. matu-

           tinali, 58.  De perliamento, 68b.  De hora ante magnam missam

           et processione, 69b.  De magna missa, 76.  De officio sacerdotis

           in missa, 78b.  (De off. diaconi), 90.  De subdiacono, 95.  De

           thurifero, 99.  De ceroferariis, 100b.  De obseruancia chori in

           missa, 102.  De hora sexta, 105.  De cotidiano pauperum man-

           dato, 105.  De ebdomadario magne misse, 106.  De quibusdam

           dubiis, etc. in missa, 106.  De prandio, 109.  De hora nona, 118.

           De vesperis, 118b.  De cena, 119.  De secunda feria, 120b.  De

           placebo et dirigie     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .            124

        De II dominica aduentus, 125b and so on through the feasts.

           Dedicatio ecclesie is in octave of Epiphany, 157b.  Corpus

           Christi, 243b.  De historiis .         .         .         .         .         .         .            246b

        After Dominica xxv:  De officio sine exequiis mortuorum    .          .           258

        De tricenalibus ibid.  De anniuersariis precipuis  .         .        .          .          258b

        Lists of the principal obits      .         .         .         .         .         .         .           259b

        Lists of services owed to other monasteries       .         .          .         .            261b

        De fratre languente in extremis        .         .         .         .          .         .          264b

        Visitacio mortui recentis ad sepulcrum per xxx dies      .          .         .         271

        De modo dicendi exequias defunctorum     .         .         .         .         .          272

        De breuiatoribus, 274b, ending f. 275a: sed cantor faciet ea scribi.

        Scribbles of the names Robert, John and Thomas Barnard on verso.

        On last leaf: Ordinale Monasterii D. Marie perten. ad Capellam

           domini Abbatis.

     The book has been examined by various scholars, but not printed. 

Manuscript extra information

 

 

Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.
Gilbert Reaney (ed.), Manuscripts of polyphonic music 11th-early 14th century, RISM B; 4, 1 (Munich, 1966), p. 482.

The text has been edited by the Abbess of Stanbrook and J. B. L. Tolhurst for the Henry Bradshaw Society, vols 73, 75 and 84, and portions have been published in the Trustees Society 148 (1933).

 

Mother Thomas More, 'The practice of alternatim: organ-playing and polyphony in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with special reference to the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris', Journal of ecclesiastical history 18:1 (1967), 15-32.

 

Iain Fenlon (ed.), Cambridge music manuscripts 900-1700 (Cambridge, 1982).

 

P.R. Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c.737-1600 in Cambridge libraries (Cambridge, 1988) vol. I, pp. 86-7, no. 299; vol. II pl. 186 (fol. 15).