BERGENDAL MS 68

MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS
ET ORDO PRO DEFUNCTIS SEPELLIENDIS

Abbey of Saint Lawrence, Novara, Italy     s.XIV¼

General description: Manuscript in Latin on vellum.
39 folios collating 1-2¹⁰, 3⁶, 4⁴, 5⁸, 6¹.
Page size 260 x 190 mm with a writing space of 175 x 130 mm.
One column of 175 x 130 mm with 15 lines to folio 23r. From 23v on there are 5 or 6 lines of text each with four lines of music notation.

Written by four scribes below the top line in dark brown ink in bold gothic rotunda liturgical script with headings in red. About 45 two-line initials alternating in red and blue, some with ornamental penwork. One four-line initial in red and blue also with penwork. On folio 11v there is a quarter page miniature of the Crucifixion being in effect an eight-line initial T at the beginning of the canon of the mass. Foliated in pencil.

Ruled in lead with vertical bounding lines extending from top to bottom of page. Guiding lines run between vertical lines. All lines are quite faint and guiding pricks have not survived.

Sections are not numbered and no catchwords survive.

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Condition: One folio would appear to be lacking before folio 39. Apart from that the codex seems complete. There are signs of much use as lower margins are well thumbed and in places the script is worn and faded. On folios 27r and 27v the text has been rewritten in a later and less professional hand. All the same the vellum is generally sound and well preserved

Binding: The bevelled naked wooden boards are likely original. When acquired the leather spine was defective and the bands were broken. This was replaced with a new leather spine with five raised bands using original holes in the wooden boards. The pastedowns and vellum flyleaves were removed to form MS 105, which see.

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Text: We have here the rite for the burial of the dead including both the mass for the dead and the anniversary mass for the dead. Somewhat surprisingly from folios 27r to 37r we are given the rite for Palm Sunday blessing of palms, the Asperges me Domine, and the prayers for the consecration of a church. At folio 37v prayers for the dead resume with the Libera me Domine de morte aeterna. The contents are as follows:

Provenance:
1) A most unusual feature of this manuscript is the inclusion, in the Communicantes prayer of the Canon, of the names of the following saints: Gaudentius, Agabius, Julius, and Julianus. These same four plus Saint Lawrence are very surprisingly also found in the Libera nos prayer after the Pater Noster. While it is accepted custom to include the names of what might be called local saints into a litany, to insert the names of such into the ordinary of the mass is virtually unheard of. The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that the five saints in question enjoyed particular veneration where the manuscript was prepared and used. There is but one place where that could be and that place is Novara, a diocese and town some forty kilometres to the west of Milan. It is recognized that Saint Lawrence introduced the Faith to that part of the world. The first bishop of Novara in 397 was Saint Gaudentius while the second was Saint Agabius. Then Saints Julius and Julianus both assisted Saint Gaudentius in the conversion to the Faith of the people of Novara. More particularly use of the manuscript by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Saint Lawrence is indicated by the inclusion also in the Communicantes of Saint Benedict and by noting the word fratres on folios 19v and 21r.
2) Sale by Hoepli and Kundig, Geneva, November 20th, 1947, lot 79.
3) Acquired through Sotheby's, their sale December 11th, 1984, lot 43.

References:
1) Collectio Rituum, New York, 1964, pages 230-257.
2) Any Roman missal prior to 1970.

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