Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [c. 1380x1500]. (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
93 ff.; leaves have been cut out of every quire but one, perhaps 65 leaves in all :Parchment ;145 x 100 mm. (written space 100 x 60 mm.).Original binding, pink-stained whittawed skin (now darkened) over bevelled boards, on five bands, with remains of clasp.Many leaves wanting.Many leaves wanting.
Context area
Archival history
First owned perhaps in S. E. England and later, to judge by the additions of the post-1457 hand, in N. E. England. On f. 1 recto-verso in a hand of the fifteenth/sixteenth century are memoranda relating to tides in the Bristol Channel and bearings for navigating the Bristol Channel and Irish Sea, naming twenty landmarks, six in Wales. The names of John Byrkin, 1635, James Byrkin, 1651, George Byrkin of Awre [Gloucestershire, near the Forest of Dean] and Richard Byrkin, and reference to a debt due to Thomas Johnes, all seventeenth century, occur on ff. 3 verso, 89, 90 verso-2.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Sotheby's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 51; 3 July 1984
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A Book of Hours of the use of Sarum, [c. 1380x1400], in original binding but wanting many leaves. Contains: Kalendar (ff. 5-9 verso), Hours of BVM (ff. 10-39 verso), Penitential Psalms, Gradual Psalms and Litany (ff. 40-54 verso), Office of the Dead (ff. 55-78 verso) and Commendation of Souls (ff. 80-7 verso), with added prayers on f. 79, contemporary, and ff. 87 verso-9, after 1457. Illuminated initials, mostly 3-line, and borders, the dominant colours gold, blue and maroon, the initials on f. 25 (St Catherine) and f. 46 (face of Christ) historiated. From the workshop, probably in London, which produced, among other manuscripts, the Balknap Hours (J. R. Abbey Sale, Sotheby's 1 Dec. 1970, lot 2869) and Bodley MS 581 (after 1391). The Kalendar includes, in the original hand, Chad and Edward, the litany (all that survives, the Virgins) Ethelreda, Mildreda, Radegunde and Osyth. A hand of second half 15 cent. (which adds Osmund, canonized 1457) added to the Kalendar, in red, the feast and translation of Cuthbert and the invention of Oswin (relics at Tynemouth), besides other synodal Sarum feasts in black.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access to the original manuscript by authorised permission only.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Latin.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
The contents of NLW MSS 21701-22852 are indexed in greater detail in Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, vol. 8 (Aberystwyth, 1999).
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Text
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 22051A [RESTRICTED ACCESS].
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
GEAC system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
This description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English