Beinecke MS 464               France, s. XVIII^^1
Prieres de la Messe

ff. 1r-48v  Prayers in French to be said at various times during the Mass;
divided into groups:  f. 1r Prieres de la Messe; f. 10v A L'evangile; f. 14r
A L'offertoire; f. 19v A la Preface; f. 23r Au canon; f. 35r Au Pater; f. 38r
A L'agnus; f. 43r A la Communion; f. 46r Au dernier Evangile.  Each group is
subdivided by rubrics; the section on the Communion, for example, contains the
headings apres la communion and a la Benediction.  Composed by
Paul Pellisson-Fontanier (1624-93), according to the Firmin-Didot
catalogue (see Provenance); we were unable to find a printed text, although one
is recorded by J. B. Souchay, ed., Oeuvres diverses de M. Pellisson (1735;
repr. Geneva, 1971) p. 23.  ff. 1v-2r and 22r blank

     Paper, ff. iv (contemporary paper) + 48 + iv (contemporary paper), 173 x 109
(108 x 61) mm.  Written in 13 long lines, including running headings.  Single
vertical bounding lines, ruled in lead; written space framed by narrow black
and gold line.
     Bound too tightly for accurate collation.
     A characteristic work of the master calligrapher Jean Pierre Rousselet, a
follower of Nicholas Jarry, active in Paris between 1677 and 1736; very
similar in style and format to a Recueil...des Opera de M. de Lully, H. P.
Kraus, Cat. 159 (1981) no. 21, and a Preces Missae, Brussels, Bibl. Roy.,
cited by Kraus without number.  R. Portalis (Nicolas Jarry et la calligraphie
au XVII^^e siecle [Paris, 1896] p. 130) lists a Prieres de la Messe
which appears to be the Yale manuscript, and attributes the miniatures to J.
Restout.  Portalis also lists 23 other manuscripts written by Rousselet
(pp. 126-33), one of which, a Liber Evangeliorum, is owned by
H. P. Kraus,
Cat. 159, no. 23.  To Portalis' list can be added:  Kraus, Cat. 159, no. 22,
a Liber Epistolarum (recently sold), and L. Witten, Cat. no. 18,
no. 51, a Pontificale, and a Prieres de la Messe in Malibu, J. Paul
Getty Museum, Ludwig MS V.8 (formerly Kraus, Cat. 85 [1957], no. 102); for
bibliogaphy concerning and other manuscripts by Rousselet, see A. von Euw and
J. M. Plotzek, Die Handschriften der Sammlung Ludwig [Cologne, 1979] v. 1,
pp. 253-56 with pls. 166-69 of the Getty manuscript).
Two full-page miniatures and nine historiated headpieces in gouache, all in
frames best described as resembling the frames of 18th-century mirrors; the
frames blue and purple with white highlights and gold side-pieces decorated with
red flowers in diamonds; floral swags at bottom.  Full-page miniatures on f. 2v
Adoration (Prayers) and f. 22v Crucifixion (Canon).  Smaller miniatures:  f. 3r
Seven cherubs adoring apocalyptic lamb on book with seven seals (Prayers), f.
10v Christ before Pilate (Gospel), f. 14r Flagellation (Offertory), f. 19v
Veronica on the road to Calvary (Preface), f. 23r Nailing to cross (Canon), f.
35r Agony in the garden (Pater Noster), f. 38r Carrying of the cross
(Agnus Dei), f. 43r Disciples laying flowers on Christ's shroud (Communion), f.
46r Ascension (Gospel).  Tail pieces with swags, as above and filled with gold,
on f. 48v with the Holy Spirit as a dove.  3- and 2-line initials, blue with
white highlights on gold; 1-line initials in red.  Titles in gold, red and blue
capitals; running headings and rubrics in red.
     Binding:  s. xviii-xix.  Black goatskin, gold-tooled.  A red label and salmon
pink doublures and flyleaves.  Gilt edges.

Written in France during the first half of the 18th century by J. P. Rousselet
(note in pencil on f. ii recto:  "Execute par J. P. Rousselet"; cf. U. Thieme
and F. Becker, Allegemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kuenstler [Leipzig, 1935]
v. 29, p. 119); apparently decorated by J. Restout (see above). Acquired from
Armand Bertin by Ambroise Firmin-Didot (Catalogue illustre des livres manuscrits et
imprime...bibliotheque de M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot [Paris, 1882]
pp. 45-46, no. 25).  Autograph of William Augustus White (1843-1927), with date
15 April 1903, on f. i verso; listed in the card index of his manuscripts at the
Grolier Club, New York (H. C. Bartlett, comp.) as a Marie copy.  Bookplate of
Ray Livingston Murphy, by whom it was bequeathed to Yale in 1954.

Barbara A. Shailor