Processional (Dominican Use); In Latin, Illuminated Music Manuscript On Parchment -

BOOK DESCRIPTION: FOURTEENTH-CENTURY PROCESSIONAL FROM THE ROYAL ABBEY OF POISSY WITH SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ADDITIONS. In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, France (Poissy), c. 1330-1350; additions c. 1500-1520(?). Dimensions 150 x 95 mm., 66 folios, missing an undetermined number of leaves, some horizontal catchwords, I. Fourteenth century, ff. 1-40v: written in a formal gothic bookhand with square musical notation on red four-line staves, five or six lines of text and music on every page, II. Sixteenth century, ff. 41-66v: written in a gothic bookhand, square musical notation on red four-line staves, one-line blue or polished gold initials, TWENTY ILLUMINATED INITIALS, large white-patterned initials, extending into FULL-LENGTH BAR BORDERS. BINDING: eighteenth-century gold tooled dark brown or black leather, filigree tooled along the edges, spine with five raised bands, gilt edges, two leather strap closures with silver clasps (scallop shells). TEXT: This manuscript contains the chants and prayers that accompanied liturgical processions celebrated at the convent of Saint-Louis de Poissy, a Dominican convent for women of noble birth. PROVENANCE: Fourteenth-century Processionals from Poissy are not common, and the present manuscript is a fine addition to the corpus of Processionals from the Royal Abbey of Poissy, combining a very early example of a Poissy Processional, dating c. 1330-1350, with a later section in the characteristic "archaic" style of script and illumination practiced by the nuns at the abbey in the early sixteenth century, c. 1500-1520. Private ownership of the manuscript in recent times suggests it was among the books the nuns took from Poissy when they left the convent in 1790-1792, instead of relinquishing them to Revolutionary authorities; belonged to Jules Bonhomme (18??-19??), curé de Saint-Jean Baptiste de Grenelles, Paris, and chaplain to the Fort de l'Est, Paris, and collector of liturgical books; later note f. 66v, in pencil, "363" or "563." CONDITION: slightly trimmed (occasional slight loss of decoration), upper clasp and catches of binding missing, worn along the joints and spine, lower front joint cracked, overall in very good condition. Full description and images available. (TM 1084)