Buffalo & Erie County Public Library

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library

Book of Hours, FOL 47

Portion of a prayer to the Virgin (Sancta Maria dei genetrix mitissima per amorem unigeniti filii tui . . .). Text is consecutive with leaf held by the Cincinnati Public Library.

Digitized images of manuscript on parchment. 1 folio,14 lines. Recto is ruled in red with text in Northern Gothic script, below top line. Verso is entirely blank except for ruling (outlining fourteen lines for text and rectangle at left margin for decoration).

On recto, brown staining visible at top left corner, small round dark brown stain visible at top right corner, and minor staining in lower right margin. On verso, adhesive tape consistent with typical Ege mounting visible at upper right corner and lower right edge near corner, with minor discolorations in right margin and at upper and lower left corners.

Decorative border at the outer side margin of the recto features a design of red and blue chevron-shaped panels with acanthus decoration over a background of gold with floral sprays.

Made for a francophone female user: see French rubrics (Ohio University recto and verso, University of South Carolina verso) and multiple Latin phrases referring to the speaker in the feminine (“pro me peccatrice” and "adiuva me miseram" earlier in Sancta Maria dei genetrix, see line 4, University of Toronto, Massey College, verso and line 10, Cincinnati Public Library, recto; "ego miserrima peccatrix" in O intemerata, see line 1, Wadsworth Athenaeum recto).

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Sancta Maria dei genetrix mitissima per amorem unigeniti filii tui, devotional text of the Roman Catholic Church. The section represented on this leaf is identified as text #71 in Henri Barré, Prières anciennes de l'Occident à la Mère du Sauveur: des origines à saint Anselme (Paris: P. Lethellieux, 1963).

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library

Late 15th century, northern France or Low Countries

Katherine Philbin

Images of this item are reproduced by permission of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, New York.

In accordance with the permissions agreement, images of this leaf will appear on this site through August 5, 2021. For more information or to request further access to the images, please contact the library's Rare Book and Map Librarian at (716) 858-7118 or at http://www.buffalolib.org/content/contact-us.

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Latin

Text

RBR MSS. F54 1100

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illuminated manuscript
18 x 13 cm

Transcription 

-plo praesentasti quaeque in carne aspexisti et audisti predicantem salutem. Ave quae filium dei vidite [sic] in cruce suspensum pro redemptione nostram. Ave quae vidisti mortuum et sepultum pro nobis. Ave quae vidisti resurgentem a mortuis. Ave quae vidisti ad caelos ascendentem ad patrem cum carne illa quam [sic] ex te immaculata virgine assumere dignatus

Translation 

presented [in the tem]ple and who looked upon [him] in the flesh and who heard [him] proclaiming salvation. Hail, [you] who saw the Son of God hanging on the cross for our redemption. Hail, [you] who saw [him] dead and buried for our sake. Hail, [you] who saw [him] rising up again from the dead. Hail, [you] who saw [him] ascending to the heavens to the Father with that flesh which, from you, immaculate virgin, [was] considered worthy [for him] to assume.

Notes 

The opening words of line 1 complete a phrase that began at the end of Cincinnati Public Library, verso: "Ave quae filium dei in templo praesentasti," or "Hail, she who presented the Son of God in the temple."

On line 4, "vidite" appears to be an error for "vidisti".

At the end of line 12, the syntax of the sentence appears to call for "quae," the feminine nominative form of the relative pronoun. However, the manuscript shows an abbreviated form of "quam," the feminine accusative (see Capelli, Dizionario di Abbreviature Latine ed Italiani, p. 303).  This discrepancy can be explained by the transmission history of the text; for a complete discussion please see New Additions: 2016-2017.