Physical Description
Description and Contents
Parchment, iv modern parchment flyleaves + 309 fols. (foliated I-XIII, 1-296) + iv modern parchment flyleaves, 190 x 140 mm (125 x 95 mm), 18 long lines, ruled in plummet, quire and leaf signatures in quires 18-27, catchwords, fols. 292-296 added in the 14th century were previously bound at the beginning of the volume, two leaves missing after fol. 64, two more missing before fol. 227, one leaf missing before fol. 242 and another one after fol. 291.
The Calendar text is written in gold and blue, the main text in iron-gall ink and its rubrics in vermilion red.
Ornamentation of the Hours of the Virgin, Matins
This type of gold and black initials and line fillers on blue and pink grounds characterise the work of the most skilled assistant (Hand 4). This is the only quire (17) with red and blue pen-flourished ornamentation added in the upper and lower borders. This is the work of another assistant, who was also responsible for the pen-flourished verse initials and ‘justification’ on the right side of the text, which appear in this and other quires. Quire 17 contains the beginning of the Hours of the Virgin and the additional ornamentation signals the importance of this text.