Paper, 7.375 x 5.25, ff. 223 + 12, 20 lines to a page.  15th cent.

    Old binding : circular stamps of pelican to L., seated bear to R., dog to L., Paschal lamb to L., fox to R., dragon to L., rose.

    Donor, T. C. S.

    Collation : a¹² 1¹⁰ (+ 2*) 2¹⁰ – 19¹⁰ (3 canc.) 20¹⁰ – 22¹⁰ 23^?(3).

    Contents :

                Classification of the Psalms in Nocturnes.

                Hier beghint war vor dat enen iegheliken ps. des souters goet

                   ghelesen is.  Die ierste nocturne    .               .               .               .         f.    iib

                Beatus uir.  Dattu in gods dinste moetes rijken.

                After the fifth nocturne,

                Kalendar with hardly any festivals, but with a number of entries

                   of obits               .               .               .               .               .               .               iv

                List of Psalms and Cantica continued              .               .               .               x

                xib, xii blank.

                Preces Invitatory and Hymn for Sunday Matins            .               .               1

                Dominicus diebus quando nocturnus seruatur.  Ad matutinas.

                2b blank.

                f. 3, inserted leaf with engraving of Christ at Bethany, described

                   and figured by Mr Bradshaw, Collected Papers, p. 247 sqq.

                Psalter and Cantica arranged for Church use  .               .               .               4

                Handsome initials to the principal divisions in red and blue filled

                   in with patterns in purple, red, etc., and with gold dots.

                Hymns, etc.,  for the Hours                .               .               .               .               146b

                Lessons, etc. ‘quando cenatur’         .               .               .               .               154b

                Antiphons, 155b.

                Cursus beatissime virginis marie       .               .               .               .               158

                Seven Psalms, etc.               .               .               .               .               .               168

                Litany     .               .               .               .               .               .               .               172

                Martyrs :  Poncyane, Nychasi, Lamberte, Dyonisi, Bonifaci, Mauriti,

                   Gereon.  Confessors : Augustine (first), Seruati, Huberte, Materne,

                   Willibrorde...Lebuine, Bavo, Odulphe, Trudo.  Virgins : Walburgis,

                   Genouefa, Gertrudis..Anna, Monicha, Elizabeth.

                Various Prayers and a series of Collects follow.

                f. 183b blank.

                Dit sijn die x psalmen die onse lieue, herre aen den cruce hanghende

                   sprack                 .               .               .               .               .               .               184

                Prayers for the sick and dying           .               .               .               .               185

                Inc. psalterium a b. augustino causa pie sue matris monice...

                   abbreuiat[ic]um quod potest dici in extremis, etc.       .               .               187

Domine deus pater omnip. rex eterne glorie.

A Litany follows, 191.

Vigilie defunctorum             .               .               .               .               .               193

Sequntur lectiones cotidianos(!).  In primo noct. lect. 1                .               200

Ne des alienis honorem.

Die comendatie vor alle gheloeinghe                .               .               .               202

Rubric of indulgence of Pius II (and Louis, Bp of Liège) for the

   prayer : Miserere mi domine animabus          .               .               .               211b

A devout Psalter.  Verba mea auribus              .               .               .               213

Preces maiores.  Ego dixi domine miserere       .               .               .               221

    The house to which this belonged was evidently an Augustinian nunnery.

    Mr Bradshaw gives the following account of the MS.:

   This MS. is a complete Psalterium arranged for church use ; followed by the Cursus B. Virginis, the Litany, and Vigiliae mortuorum, with the miscellaneous devotions usually found in the volumes of Horae.  Among these last are some prayers for which indulgences are granted by Pope Pius II. (+1464) and Louis de Bourbon, Bp. of Liège (+1482).  A Liège Breviary (which we do not possess) would show at once whether the Invitatories, and the Psalms with their Anthems, are those of the Ordinarius ecclesiae Leodiensis.  Prefixed is a Kalendar, containing besides a very few festivals (among which are Sts George, Servatius, Lambert, Remigius, Dionysius, Hubert, Leonard, Martin, Katherine, Nicholas, and Lucy), 206 entries of names evidently more or less closely connected with some sisterhood in the diocese of Liége, and 15 of them close relations of the owner, who must have been a lady of the family of van Heestert.  Willem and Odielie van Heestert, her father and mother, Ghisebrecht and Gheertruyt, her grandfather and grandmother, besides uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law, all find places here ; among them her aunt ‘Onse werde mater Suster Lysbeth van Heestert, ons lieue moye’, ought to afford a clue by which some Liège antiquary might identify the house.  The only names familar to me are the Bishop ‘Here Lodewijck van Borboen, onse groet here van Ludick’ (Aug. 29), and ‘Meester Jan Laet van Borchloen’ (Oct. 15), whose Prognostications for 1476, 1477, 1478 and 1481, are known, though perhaps less so than those of his successor, Jaspar Laet van Borchleon, from 1485 onwards.  I should describe the MS. as of the latter part of the 15th century, and the binding I should place without much hesitation in the last decade of the same century.

   In a later generation the book belonged to one ‘Suster Anna Puettaerst,’ who, from one or two entries which she has made in the Kalendar, seems to have been related to the original owner.  The next trace of ownership is the title written on the fly-leaf, ‘A Primer and Psalter with Dutch Rubrickes,’ in the familiar handwriting of William Crashawe, of St John’s College, whose books were bought by Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who died in 1624.