Marston MS 233     Northern Italy, s. XII med
Cistercian Order, Statutes

1. f. 1r-v  De negligentia sacrificij.  Si per negligentiam euenerit ut
perlecto canone et peracta consecratione...alter alterius onera portate.

J. Leclercq, "Manuscrits cisterciens dans des bibliotheques d'Italie,"
Analecta sacri ordinis cisterciensis 5 (1949) p. 100.

2. ff. 1v-2v  Qualiter commemorationes sanctorum agantur per totum annum.
In die sancti stephani...Scolastice uirginis.  Quinque prudentes.
veniente sponso [followed by erasure].

Leclercq, op. cit., pp. 98, 101.

3. ff. 2v-111v  [List of 122 chapters:]  Incipiunt capitula ecclesiasticorum
officiorum.  i  De aduentu domini./  ii.  Quomodo per hyemem priuatis
diebus ad uigilias diuidantur responsoria./...cxxi  De portario et solatio
eius./  cxxii  De versu refectionis.  [text, f. 5r:]  Incipiunt
ecclesiastica officia.  De aduentu domini.  capitulum .i.  In aduentu domini
dominica prima ysaias incipiatur ad uigilias...hec adbiberes  Largitor
omnium bonorum.  benedicat potum seruorum suorum.  Amen.

Liber usuum; C. Noschitzka, ed., Analecta sacri ordinis
cisterciensis
6 (1950) pp. 38-124.

4. f. 112r-v  [Text added, s. xiii:]  Quomodo legantur libri ad
vigilias.
In prima dominica aduentus domini.  Incipitur ad vigilias ysaias propheta.
prima dominica aduentus domini. Incipitur ad vigilias ysaias propheta.
et legitur tam priuatis diebus...in crastino persoluantur [large portion
of concluding lines badly rubbed].

J. Leclercq, op. cit., p. 100.

Parchment (yellow and darkly speckled on hair side), ff. iv 
(paper) + 112 + vii (paper), 226 x 160 (152 x 105) mm.  23 long lines.  Single
vertical and upper horizontal bounding lines.  Ruled very faintly in hard
point.  Remains of prickings in all margins except inner.
I-XIV 8.  Quires signed with Roman numerals center of lower margin, verso,
in brown and red with decorative dots and squiggles.
Written in a neat late caroline minuscule; art. 4 added in inelegant
gothic bookhand.
Nice initials, 12- to 3-line, in red with simple medium blue designs and
vice versa; designs on parchment in body of initials.  1-line initials and
initials for list of chapters in art. 3 alternate blue, red and dark yellow.
Headings and initials strokes in red.
Binding:  England, s. xx.  Rigid vellum case with a gold-tooled title on
spine:  "Liber usuum ordinis cister."  Bound by F. E. Stoakley, Cambridge.
The brown, blind-tooled calf cover of one early board (much worm eaten) is
attached inside back cover.  Rust stains from five bosses on f. 112v.

Written in the middle of the 12th century in Northern Italy, possibly 
at the Cistercian abbey of Chiaravalle in Milan (founded in 1135; Cottineau,
v. 1, cols. 768-69) to which it belonged in the 14th century (two
inscriptions, erased but visible under ultra-violet light, f. 111v:
"Iste est liber de Careualis de sancte marie" and "Item liber iste est
Sancte Marie").  Purchased from Lathrop C. Harper in 1958 by Thomas E.
Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  sancti Thome

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 91, no. 233.
Leclercq, 1961, p. 164.

Barbara A. Shailor