Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Gradual

Other related names

• Davis & Harvey, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/132535129)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Lewis E 220
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1597601
• deRicci: 25

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Siena?, Italy

Summary

This manuscript contains texts and their musical settings for both the temporale (moveable feasts, on fols. 1r-36r) and sanctorale (saints' days, on fols. 36r-240v) cycles of the liturgical year. It was made in the north of Italy, perhaps Siena, towards the end of the fifteenth century. Its pages exhibit substantial evidence of a long history use, and many of its folios have been repaired and patched up with parchment and paper fragments – some from other medieval manuscripts. The text itself is simply embellished with colored initials, only occasionally elaborated with pen-work flourishes. There is one illuminated initial, on fol. 1r. Most remarkably, this book retains its original fifteenth-century calf-skin binding with metal fittings on thick wooden boards. The fittings are stamped with a variety of religious motifs including saints (John the Baptist, Bernardino of Siena, Catherine of Alexandria), the Lamb of God, Christ's Resurrection, and the letters IHS. This is a notable example of a rare medieval bookbinders' technique.

Notes

• Text and musical notation partially erased in places
   
• Text damaged by flaking
   
• Occasional marginal notes in near-contemporary and later hands
   
• Staves and text added in a later hand to fols. 219v and 239v
   

Extent

556 x 400mm bound to 600 x 426 mm

Foliation

Original foliation in ink, upper middle recto; modern foliation in ink, upper right recto

Collation

Model created

Support

Parchment

Binding

Original stamped brown calfskin; metal bosses and fittings stamped with various religious motifs including Saint Catherine, Saint Bernardino of Siena, etc.; evidence of clasps

Layout

One column of six lines; five-line staves in red, black, and yellow ink; written area: 397 x 271 mm

Decoration

One illuminated initial (fol. 1r); numerous colored initials, some with pen-work decoration

Script

Gothic--rotunda

Provenance

• Davis and Harvey Sale (Stan V. Henkel's Cat. 820 Jan. 30-31, 1899); bought by the Free Library in 1900; catalogue entry and typed description pasted onto the inside front cover
   

Related resources

• Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, originated by C. U. Faye, continued and edited by W. H. Bond (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1962), p. 452, no. 25.

Keywords

• Gradual
• 15th century
• Italian
• Italy
• Original binding
• Musical notation

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 220: Gradual are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E 220: Gradual. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Temporale, from with the vigil of the Nativity to the first Sunday after Epiphany
• fol. 36r — Sanctorale, beginning with the feast of Saint Andrew and ending with the feast of Saint Martin

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Print catalog clipping
• Inside front cover — Hand-written description in pencil
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Free Library of Philadelphia
• fol. 1r — Illuminated initial H
• fol. 1r — Punched library stamp, Free Library of Philadelphia
• fol. 49r — Punched library stamp, Free Library of Philadelphia
• fol. 240r — Punched library stamp, Free Library of Philadelphia