Life of St. Francis : with office : in Latin

Item Information

Title:
Life of St. Francis : with office : in Latin
Title (alt.):
Vita Beati Francisci
Officio Sancti Francisci
Office, Saint Francis of Assisi
Author:
Bonaventure, Saint, Cardinal, approximately 1217-1274
Author:
Catholic Church
Former owner:
Franciscan Convent (Montepulciano, Italy)
Date:
[1235–1260]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Italy
Manuscripts, Medieval--Italy
Edge titles
Gothic scripts
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Subjects:
Francis, of Assisi, Saint, 1182-1226--Early works to 1800
Places:
Italy
Extent:
168 leaves : parchment ; 161 x 110 (106 x 75) mm bound to 17 cm, in box 20 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/bc38bg161
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States icon No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[Italy]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1-160v: Legenda maior: Incipit prologus in vita beati francisci/ Apparuit gratia dei salvatoris nostri.../ Incipit vita beati francisci et de conversatice eius in havitu seculari/ Vir erat in civitate asisii.../...per merita servi sui francisci ad laudem et gloriam unius dei et trini. Qui vivat et regnat in secula seculorum amen./ Expliciunt miracula post transitum beati francisci ostensa.
2. fol. 161-168: Officio sancti francisci (originally with the pre-1260 form of the antiphon "Hic vir in vanitatibus" (fol. 162, see provenance below)): In festivitatibus beati patris francisci.../Franciscus vir catholicus.../...nos conducas et inducas ad cenam agni providi. Amen.
3. fol. 168v: originally blank, now with 15th-century inscriptions (see provenance note).
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in northern Italy, between 1235-1260. Possibly produced for the Franciscan abbey of Montepulciano (their 17th-century ex libris on front edge). The Office of St. Francis is that composed by Julian of Speyer around the year 1235, and, as recorded in this manuscript, originally gave the following text of the first responsory of Matins (fol. 162): "Hic vir in vanitatibus nutritus in decenter/ plus suis nutritoribus se gesset insolenter" ("He was raised shamefully, amid all sorts of folly, and as he grew up he surpassed those who raised him in even worse folly"). Because it was felt that this text reflected poorly on the Saint, the second line was altered in 1260 by decree of the head of the Order to read "...divinis carismatibus praeventer est clementer." (...but by God's grace he mercifully kept himself free of contamination). Although this manuscript has always been thought to have been written after 1260 because of the use of the altered text (see BPL quarterly, p. 82), the original text is in fact visible under ultraviolet light, indicating that the manuscript must have been written before 1260 and altered after that date.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: 15th-century annotations on fol. 168v. Ca. 17th-century collation note on fol. 168: "Carte--168/ quinterni--16".
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by BPL in 1948.
Notes (date):
This date is inferred.
Notes (citation):
Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 211
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: Ideoque alterius amici...
Collation: Parchment, fol. 168 ; 1-16¹⁰ 17¹⁰⁻² (last two leaves cancelled) ; catchwords partially trimmed, lower center margin of final verso each quire. 15th-century (?) roman numerals in black ink, upper center margin of each recto, fol. 1-160 only (as i-c and i-lx).
Layout: 1 column, 18 lines. Bounding and writing lines in blind.
Script: Written in a southern gothic textualis libraria in brown ink with red rubrics (chapter numbers in upper outer corner rectos in original brown arabic numerals, partially trimmed).
Decoration: Two- to three-line initials in colors on fol. 1, 4v and 117; two-line red with blue filigree into margin or vice versa throughout, at chapter incipits, smaller initials in same scheme on fol. 3v-4; three-line historiated initial in same color scheme of a Franciscan holding a book, fol. 112.
Binding: 14th- or 15th-century half calf over bevelled boards, blind-tooled covers, spine heavily rubbed, clasps lacking, 17th-century writing on front edge of book block reads "13/ Legenda S. Francisci/ Frantella Monte Pulciano" (near Siena). Housed in cloth clamshell case.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Boston Public Library Quarterly III (1951): 79-82.
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_018674
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Med.102
MS 1529 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999091846475