Beinecke MS 530
Germany, s. XIII/XIV
Cistercian Gradual

1. ff. 1r-113r	Temporale, incomplete at the beginning due to the loss of  five quires: from the 
Saturday before the third Sunday of Lent through the 24th Sunday after Pentecost.

2. ff. 113r-114v	Dedication of the church.

3. ff. 114v-183v	Sanctorale, from Stephen (26 Dec.) to Andrew (30 Nov.). Incomplete at 
the end due to the loss of one leaf. Ends in the Gradual for the feast of St. Andrew: ... Dilexit  
Andream Dominus //.

Among the feasts added in the margins: Pantaleon, Bruno, Severinus and Cunibert.

4. ff. 184r-185v	Common of the Saints, incomplete. Begins with the Introit of a mass for a 
Martyr non Bishop: [om]//nes recti corde. Alleluia. ... Posuisti, Domine, super caput eius coronam 
de lapide precioso; and ends with a mass for various Martyrs: Sapienciam sanctorum narrant 
populi ... laus eius in ecclesia sanctorum. Alleluia //.


The manuscript was brought up to date between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries as the  
numerous alterations and additions in the margins demonstrate.

Parchment, ff. III (paper) + 185 + III (paper), 340 x 255 mm. Original foliation in Roman 
numerals in red ink in the middle of the outer margins of the recto pages, valid for the recto and 
the facing verso. They start on f. 1r with "XLVII", showing that the preceding 46 ff. are lost. 
They continue up to "CLX" on f. 114r and start again with "I" for the Sanctorale, in the middle 
of the same quire XII (f. 115r). In this series f. "LXX" is missing between ff. 183 and 184.

I-XVIII 10 (ff. 1-180), XIX 6 (- 4, ff. 181-185). Quire-marks in red ink in the middle of the lower 
margin of the last page of the quires, of the type "I 9", "II 9", etc.; in the first quires trimmed off 
but preserved starting f. 60v ("XI 9"), they show that at the beginning of the book five quires are 
missing, numbered I-V. The actual quire XVIII carries the quire-mark 
"XXIII 9".

Idiosyncratic ruling in red ink for music and text in one column and 8 staves per page, with single 
bounding-lines, 231 x 160 mm. Pricking is preserved in the inner margins only: a vertical row of 
41 pricks in 8 sets of 5 at equal distances, separated by a space double so wide, and an additional 
prick at the same double distance at the bottom. The corresponding horizontal ruling 
consequently has 41 traced lines, the text being disposed between lines 5-6, 10-11, 15-16, 20-21, 
25-26, 30-31, 35-36, 40-41. Lines 6, 11, 36 and 41 are through lines. 4-line staves (width: 14 
mm.). The staves are not interrupted for initials. 

Written by one hand in Gothica Textualis Formata. Notation ??

The majuscules are heightened in red. Numerous 1-stave flourished initials alternately red and 
blue. One-stave flourished initials in the same colours but with full "J-borders" in the left margin 
at the opening of all Introits. Two-stave foliate initials with foliate extensions in the left margin in 
gold and colours, turning over in the upper and lower margins and sometimes decorated with 
drolleries: f. 47r (Easter); f. 64r (Ascension), with hybrids with male and female head 
respectively; f. 68r (Pentecost), with bird;  f. 75r (Trinity Sunday), with hybrid with male head; f. 
137r (Annunciation); f. 168v (Assumtion), with a hybrid with a bearded man's head, a lady's 
head and a bird; f. 179v (All Saints), with dog and interlace ending in animal's head.

Binding s. XVI: pigskin over cardboard (previously over wooden boards), blind-tooled with 
rolls, rebacked. Red edges. On the front flyleaf there is a modern note: "The 16th century German 
binding has evidently been taken from another volume".

The manuscript was made for a convent of Cistercians; in the liturgy of Good Friday the role of 
the "fratres" appears repeatedly in the rubrics. The feasts added in the margins point to a Cologne 
provenance. According to the former owner?? Sir Sydney Cockerell its provenance is the 
Cistercian nunnery of Senan in Alsace, West of Strasbourg. Cora Lutz rightly believed it more 
likely to be Sion, a monastery of Cistercian nuns in Cologne. The additional feasts indeed point 
to that city. Meant is the abbey Sancta Maria in Sion or Speculum Beatae Mariae in Senen, 
founded 1215-1221, abolished 1802. See Gallia Christiana, v. 3, 798 and, for the surviving 
manuscripts, Kraemer, Handschriftenerbe, v. 2, p. 445.[But why this nuns' convent??]. In the 
lower margin of f. 161r a nineteenth-century German hand wrote in pencil the names  "J. 
Gladbach", H. Bollez ff.",  "G. Cupper ***".
Sold at Sotheby's 19 May 1903. E. Stainton of Barham Court, Canterbury. Sotheby sale, 27 July 
1920, lot 552. Note by Sydney C. Cockerell , Cambridge, at the same date on the first front fly-
leaf recto, and a long note on this manuscript in another hand in English on the second fly-leaf 
recto. Acquired by B. Adams, Edmint??, 24 Sept. 1964.  Purchased 23 February 1973 from 
William Salloch Rare Books, Ossining, New York, on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund.

Albert Derolez

Updated 29.11.2007