A fragment from a Missal
Fragment of a leaf from a Missal in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Italy, 10th century].
A fine example of 10th-century Caroline minuscule, from a manuscript formerly in a chained binding.

c. 290 × 160mm. Blind ruled for 32 lines, preserving the prickings, written in two sizes of Caroline minuscule script according to liturgical function with the priest’s texts in larger script, rubrics in orange rustic capitals and uncials, enlarged initials, the text comprising the end of a mass for the Sunday after Epiphany (Epiphany is 6 January), the Octave of Epiphany (13 January), and most of the mass for St Felix (14 January) (‘[pru]dentia et responsis eius […] [Luke 2:47–52] […] in octab. [Epiphan]iae […] xviiii kl Februarii sancti Felicis confessoris […] Vere dignum et confessionem sancti Felicis […] tuae fidei non relinquid per Christum dominum’) (probably recovered from use as a flyleaf, with consequent stains etc. and cropping of the inner margin with the loss of some text).

Provenance:
(1) A rust-stained hole at the top edge was perhaps caused by a chain-fitting, suggesting that the leaf was formerly in a chained (institutional) binding.
(2) Colker MS 304; acquired in 1982 from Maggs.

This lot is offered without reserve.
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