Marston MS 22     Oxford [?], s. XIII med
Book of Hours, Sarum use


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1.  f. 1r [Added:]  Christe qui lux es et dies noctis tenebras detegis.
lucisque lumen crederis. lumen beatum predicans...Memento nostri domine in
graui isto corpore qui es defensor anime adesto nobis domine.

RH 2934.

2.  f. 1v [Added:]  Cultor dei memento te fontis et lauacri rorem subbisse
scantum [?] te crismate innouatum...Groria [sic] et honor deo. summo
vero regi spiritu paraclito et nunc et in perpetuum Amen.

RH 4053.

3.  ff. 2r-91r Hours of the Holy Spirit beginning defectively and Hours of
the Virgin, Sarum use (worked in after the office of the Holy Spirit, except
that matins and lauds of each appear to be copied straight on); after lauds 
of the office of the Virgin, suffrages of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist
(beginning defectively), Peter and Paul, John the Evangelist, Andrew, Many
Apostles, Stephen, Laurence, Edmund king and martyr, Thomas of Canterbury
(cancelled), Many Martyrs, Nicolas, Edmund confessor, Benedict, an
unidentified confessor (Benedict again? breaks defectively), and unidentified
virgin (? begins defectively), Susanna, Many Martyrs, relics, All 
Saints, for peace, the Virgin; loss of leaves throughout, as follows:  ff. 2r-5v 
HS matins, defect. beg. (and possibly a leaf missing after f. 3 as well?);
ff. 6r-17v BVM matins, defect. beg.; ff. 17v-43v BVM lauds, defect.
between ff. 31v-32r, 38v-39r; ff. 43v-46r HS prime; ff. 46r-54r BVM prime; ff. 
54r-57r HS terce; ff. 57r-61v BVM terce, defect. end; ff. 62r-63v HS sext,
defect. beg.; ff. 63v-67v BVM sext, defect. end; f. 68r-v HS nones, defect. 
beg., end; ff. 69r-72v BVM nones, defect. beg., end; f. 73r-v HS vespers,
defect. beg., end; ff. 74r-81v BVM vespers, defect. beg.; ff. 81v-84r HS
compline; ff. 84r-91r BVM compline.

4.  ff. 91v-92v [Added:]  Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui es sine fine et
principio qui creasti omnia ex nichilo ad cuius imperium...vt huic famule
tue [an initial?] grauide pregnanti interueniat pietatis tue auxilium vt
prolem tibi gratam sine mortis periculo valead [sic] producere....

Prayer for safe delivery in childbirth.

5.  ff. 93r-107v Penitential Psalms, beginning defectively, and litany
including Alphege (14), Thomas (15; not cancelled), Alban (16), Edmund
(17), and Oswald (18) among 18 martyrs; Paulinus (8), Cuthbert (9),
Dunstan (10), Swithun (11), Benedict (14), and Botulph (17) among 17 confessors;
Mary Magdalen (1), Radegundis (2), Osyth (3), Scholastica (11), Juliana (12),
and Etheldreda (14) among 14 virgins; ends defectively.

6.  ff. 108r-112r Gradual Psalms [?], beginning defectively and ending
imperfectly (Pss. 119-126 no longer present; cues only, as normal, for
Pss. 127-130; Pss. 131, 132, as normal, written out in full; Ps. 133 not
copied), followed straight on by Ps. 150, Kyrie, Pater noster, Requiem and
several prayers for the dead:  Inclina domine aurem tuam ad preces nostras
quibus misericordiam tuam suplices [sic] deprecamur...[HE, p. 101]; Deus qui 
nos patrem et matrem honorare precepisti...[HE, p. 111]; Miserere quesumus
domine animabus omnium benefactorum...[HE, p. 101]; Fidelium deus omnium
conditor et redemptor...[HE, p. 101].

7.  ff. 112r-113r Dampne deu sire pere ihesu crist isi uerraiement cume
nus creumus et ueirs est. que cu seint sacrefise est icel uerrai cors...de
moi cheitive pecheresse....

K. V. Sinclair, French Devotional Texts of the Middle Ages:  a
bibliographic manuscript guide (Westport, Conn., 1979) 2687 (p. 40).

8.  ff. 113r-114r Beu sire deu si uerraiement cume uus preistes iceste
chariti sacre de la uirgine marie et en cu char nasquistes....

Sinclair, op. cit., 2555 (p. 24; see also his 952, 1903, 1957,
2049-50, 2528).

9.  ff. 114r-115r Beu [a added in margin] sire ihesu crist que le uestre
beneit seintime cors. et uestre precius saunc dunastes en la seinte
uerraie croiz pur tut le mund sauuer....

Sinclair, op.cit., 2565 (p. 25).

10.  f. 115r-v Pericope from John (1.1-10), ending defectively:  "...uenientem
in hunc mundum.  In mundo//"

	Parchment (thick, fuzzy on hair side), ff. i (modern parchment) + 115
(modern pagination, upper right; modern foliation, lower right), 148 x 111
(112 x 60) mm. Ca. 13 long lines.  Double vertical and single or double
horizontal bounding lines; ruled in hard point or crayon (lead for ff.
93r-115v).  Row of prickings along outer vertical bounding line, f. 91
only.
	Precise collation impossible due to tight binding, repairs, and number
of missing leaves.
	Written in two styles of script:  large gothic bookhands, often with
only 3-4 words per line, by three scribes for ff. 1r, 2r-91r, 93r-115v,
respectively; Anglicana scripts for ff. 1v, 91v-92v (added prayers).
	The codex, now in fragmentary condition with no miniatures extant,
contains the following sequence of historiated initials, some badly rubbed
(L = large historiated initial; S = small historiated initial):  f. 5r
Head of Janus (S); f. 7r King David, head in profile (S); f. 17v
Annunciation (L); f. 18r Crouching naked man (S); f. 21r Head of woman in
profile (S); f. 26r Rooster (S); f. 28r Blessed Virgin Mary, portrait (S);
f. 32r Peter with keys, half-length (S); f. 37r Nicolas, head of (S); f.
43v Scourging at the pillar (L); f. 45v God the Father (S); f. 46r
Visitation (L); f. 46v Holy Ghost descending (S); f. 54v Carrying of the
cross (L); f. 57r Annunciation to the shepherds (L); f. 57r Holy Ghost
descending (S); f. 63v Nativity (L); f. 81v Three Marys at the tomb (L);
f. 84r Flight into Egypt (L); f. 94r Woman praying (S); f. 101r Man
praying (S); f. 112r Woman praying (S).  Large historiated initials, 3-line, 
pink or blue with white designs on blue square ground framed with gold; both 
initial and frame edged in black; figures on gold ground, often rubbed and 
flaked; elongated dragons extend into margins for ascenders, as in initial
D.  
Small historiated initials, 2-line, of similar designs and colors, but on 
cusped gold grounds.  Other text divisions marked by 2-line initials, pink, 
orange, blue with simple foliage motifs in the same colors and yellow, all with
designs in white and on square or cusped gold grounds that often extend
far into margins.  Initials on ff. 93-115 are somewhat more delicate in
appearance and presumably by a different hand than those on ff. 2-91. 
1-line initials in red with blue penwork designs alternate with opposing
color scheme.  Elaborate line-fillers, including fish and heads of
long-beaked beasts, for litany (art. 5).  Headings in red, ff. 2-91 only.
	Manuscript has been heavily trimmed with loss of marginal decoration;
staining, rubbing throughout affects illumination.
	Binding:  England, s. xix-xx.  Rigid vellum case with note on spine "MS.
Circa 1400."  Red edges.  Bound by Birdsell and Son (Northampton, 1792 and
later).

Produced in England, probably in Oxford, in the middle of the 13th
century, to judge from the style of decoration (for similar manuscripts
see N. J. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts 1250-1285 [London, 1988]
v. 1:  pp. 119-21, no. 73; v. 1:  pp. 123-24, no. 75; v. 2:  pp. 66-67,
no. 104; v. 2:  pp. 150-52, no. 158; this manuscript not recorded in J.
Backhouse, The Madresfield Hours [Oxford, 1975]).  Commissioned by an
unidentified woman given the feminine forms in arts. 3, 4 and 7.  The 
manuscript appears to have been made by two workteams, in view of the slight
differences in script and decoration exhibited by ff. 1-91 and 93-115, and 
the insertion of art. 4 on ff. 91v-92v.  Notes in pencil, on rear flyleaf:
"Bought of Ridler, about 1887."  Purchased from C. A. Stonehill in 1935 by
Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 67, no. 22.

Barbara A. Shailor