A Romanesque Sacramentary
Leaf from a Sacramentary in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Germany or Austria, second half 12th century].
From a handsome example of a relatively rare liturgical text.

c.230 × 220mm. Most of a leaf, 21 lines in Romanesque script, incipit words in majuscules, rubrics and ornamented two-line initials in red, the text comprising the 13th to 18th Sundays after Trinity Sunday, foliated ‘36’ twice in modern pencil (f.34 was Christie’s 10 July 2019 lot 501, and f.38 was Sotheby’s, 22 June 2004, lot 3) (the blank lower margin cut away with no loss of text, slight staining to upper fore-edge corner).

Provenance:
(1) From the same manuscript as ten leaves described by Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, II (2019), no. 35, most of which were sold by London dealers in the 1990s.
(2) Colker MS 446; acquired in 1992 from Maggs.

A Sacramentary includes only the words said by the priest at mass; Missals are a far more common type of mass-book, they additionally include texts (and sometimes music) said or sung by other participants. The ‘winter’ part of the Church year (which includes Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, which all centre around a commemoration of Christ’s birth; and Septuagesima, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, which centre around a commemoration of his death) has many masses relating to these liturgical feasts. The present leaf comes from the ‘summer’ part of the Church year, from the end of the Easter-related feasts to the start of Advent.

This lot is offered without reserve.
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