Breviary (Breviarium) [leaf from Ege medieval manuscripts]
Date
1275
Date approximate?
yes
Creator
Ege, Otto F.
Subject headings
Manuscripts, Medieval -- Specimens;Illumination of books and manuscripts -- Specimens;Illumination of books and manuscripts;Manuscripts, Medieval
Place
Greensboro (N.C.)
Description
Breviaries were seldom owned by laymen. They were service books and contained the Psalter with the versicles, responses, collects and lections for Sundays, weekdays, and saints' days. Other texts could be included. A Breviary, therefore, was lengthy and usually bulky in format. Miniature copies like the one represented by this leaf are rare. The angular gothic script required a skilled calligrapher. It would be difficult for a modern engrosser to match, even with steel pens, the exactness and sharpness of these letters formed with a quill by a 13th century scribe. Green was a decorative color added to the palette in the late 13th century in many scriptoria. The medieval formulae for making it from earth, flowers, berries, and metals are often elaborate and strange. This manuscript was written on fine uterine vellum, i. e., the skin of an unborn calf. It evidently had hard use, or may have been buried with its owner.
France: Breviary. Illuminated. Late 13th C. Latin text; Angular Gothic script.
Type
Text
Original format
manuscripts
Original publisher
[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Language
la
Contributing institution
Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection
Fifty original leaves from medieval manuscripts: Western Europe XII-XVI century Ege Descriptions
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES. This item has been determined to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The user is responsible for determining actual copyright status for any reuse of the material.
Object ID
Z6605.L3 E44_16
Digital master format
Image/tiff
Digital publisher
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304
