A remaining puzzle
In the course of this project, Ege FOL 47 has been identified as a Book of Hours once owned by Estelle (Mrs. Milton E.) Getz, listed as number 7 in her collection in the first volume of Seymour DeRicci's Census of Medieval Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (13). Before the completion of DeRicci's work, Mrs. Getz offered her collection for sale through Anderson Galleries in New York, as described in DeRicci's addenda (Volume II, 2240-1). Getz MS 7 (lot 1059) was purchased by Otto Ege on November 24, 1936 (Schoenberg record 23057), becoming number 70 in his collection as listed by DeRicci (Volume II, 1948). The detailed description of the manuscript's decorative elements provided in the Anderson sale catalogue makes it very clear that this Book of Hours is the one that became FOL 47 (American Art Association 302).
One detail lacking from the Anderson catalogue entry is the liturgical "use" of the manuscript. This has also been difficult to identify from the leaves of FOL 47 that are available as digital images.
For example, Prime and None of the Hours of the Virgin, which display well-studied regional variations (Plummer 149), are both largely missing from the present reconstruction of FOL 47. Nor can we examine the liturgical calendar or the later pages of the litanies, which might have included the names of regionally popular saints.
The available text includes only two of the responsories of the Office of the Dead, for the first and ninth readings of Matins. Alone, this information is of limited value, although it does seem clear that FOL 47 conforms to a truly localized or specific "use" rather than to the more widespread Use of Rome or Use of Paris (Clements and Graham 208; Plummer 149):
The responsory after the first reading of the First Nocturn of Matins (lines 5-9 at left) is "Credo quod redemptor . . . ", which is common to many versions of the Office of the Dead (Ottosen).
The text of the versicle following this responsory in FOL 47 (lines 9-13 at left) is as follows:
Reposita est haec spes mea in sinu meo quia rursum circumdabor pelle mea. Et in carne mea videbo deum salvatorem meum.
This is drawn from the same verses of the Book of Job (19:26-27) as the versicle found in the Use of Rome, but the details differ considerably:
Quem visurus sum ego ipse, et non alius, et oculi mei conspecturi sunt. Et in carne mea videbo Deum salvatorem meum (Gunhouse).
By contrast, the responsory after the first reading of Matins in the Use of Paris (as outlined by Wieck, based on Walters Art Gallery 109) is entirely different, beginning "Qui Lazarum . . .", with "Qui venturus . . ." as the versicle following (Wieck 167).
The page at left shows the end of the Third Nocturn of Matins and the beginning of Lauds, with the expected opening of Psalm 50: "Miserere mei deus . . .".
The abbreviated responsory "Libera me, domine" (#38, #40, or perhaps even #42 in Ottosen) can be seen at the end of line 4. The preceding text is not found in the Use of Rome (Gunhouse), although it does appear in the Use of Paris (Wieck 167). David Foster has noted that it also appears at this location in the Office of the Dead in the Dominican Rite, the set of texts that had been formally adopted by the Dominican Order in the 13th century to provide liturgical consistency among Dominican religious houses (Smith 75). The full text of the versicle is as follows, with the portion represented at left on lines 1-4 in bold:
V. Creator omnium rerum, Deus qui me de limo terrae formasti, et mirabiliter proprio sanguine redemisti, corpusque meum, licet modo putrescat, de sepulcro facies in die judicii resuscitari: exaudi, exaudi me, ut animam meam in sinu Abrahae patriarchae tui jubeas collocari. (Office of the Dead According to the Dominican Rite).
The version appearing in FOL 47 adds "et animas omnium fidelium defunctorum" to the text used in the Dominican Rite, so that the speaker is praying for "the souls of all the faithful departed" in addition to her own.
The opening antiphon of Lauds, given here as "In iniquitatibus . . . ", departs from both the Use of Rome and the Use of Paris, since both would use the antiphon "Exultabunt domino . . . " (Gunhouse, Wieck 167). The Dominican Rite appears to dispense with an antiphon at the beginning of Lauds altogether (Office of the Dead).
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In short, the textual information available here is intriguing, but it does not yet allow us to establish the liturgical use of FOL 47. Study of additional (undigitized) leaves of the manuscript may be helpful in advancing this inquiry. Identifying the liturgical tradition of this Book of Hours might, in turn, help us to identify the original user's home region.