Breviary, c. 1400, Toledo, Spain.
A breviary contains all the services of the Liturgy of the Hours, including the prayers, hymns, readings, and Psalms read during the daily service. This manuscript is written in Gothic hand in several sizes on red and black, in double columns. There are six pages with complete illuminated borders: elaborate floral designs, with birds, animals, grotesques and occasionally angels and putti. Also in the borders and historiated initials are representations of God, the resurrection, and King David. There are approximately 600 illuminated initials with floral designs containing birds, flowers, and grotesques.
Gradual, Germany, 15th century.
Graduals contain the music sung by the choir during the Mass. This 15th century gradual is in a large format which would be legible when placed in front of the choir. There are only 35 leaves in this manuscript, which contains the vespers, kyriae, and sequences composed by Notker Balbulus, a 9th-century monk of the abbey of St. Gall in eastern Switzerland. This gradual is illuminated with initials in red, black, and blue. The music staffs and liturgical directions are written in red. The music is written with a square notation called “hufnagelschrift,” or “horse-shoe nail notation,” because the notes look like hobnails.
Regimen Animarum. England, 14th century.
The Regimen Animarum (or The Direction of Souls) is an anonymous English mid-fourteenth-century manual for parish priests. The work was also popular with cathedral clergy and mendicant friars. It covers such topics as teaching and preaching, administering the sacraments, and canon law.
Exultet Roll. Italy, 11th century.
Facsimile of an illustrated manuscript scroll produced in Benevento, Italy, now held by the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. The text of the scroll is the Exsultet, a hymn of praise sung during the Easter Mass.
Das Berthold-Sakramentar. Germany, ca. 1215.
The Berthold Sacramentary is a missal – a book containing the texts and instructions a priest would need to celebrate Masses. Produced at the beginning of the 13th century for Berthold, the Abbot of Weingarten, this manuscript is famed for its rich decoration, including full-page miniatures, silver and gold illumination, and a jeweled binding.
Vita Adelelmi, Spain, 14th century.
St. Adelelmus (d. circa 1100) was the first abbot of the monastery in Burgos, Spain, and became the town's patron saint. This facsimile reproduces a manuscript made at the monastery in the 14th century which contains both the story of the life of Adelelmus and the liturgical music written to celebrate his feast day.
Missale Hervoiae ducis Spalatensis Croatico-glagoliticum. Croatia, 15th century.
This missal was produced under the patronage of Hrvoje Vukcic Hrvatinic, the duke of Split and governor of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Bosnia. The manuscript is written in Church Slavonic in the Croatian Glagolitic script. The original manuscript was looted during the Turkish invasion, and now resides in the Topkapi Palace museum in Istanbul.