This Cistercian missal was written in England around 1200, possibly
at the Cistercian abbey St Mary the Virgin at Waverley (Surrey):
the abbey, founded in 1128, was the first Cistercian monastery in
England. The missal’s size indicates that it was probably
intended for use at the high altar. The manuscript appears to be
missing a section since the collects for the feast of St Thomas of
Canterbury at the beginning of the book to which are referred on f.
125r (‘Require proprias collectas in principio libri’) are now
lacking.Contents: ff. 1r-111r: Temporale , beginning with the first
Sunday of Advent. ff. 111v-121r: Preface for the feasts of the
Nativity, Epiphany, Easter Sunday, the Ascension, Pentecost, the
Trinity, Apostles, feasts of the Virgin Mary, and the Holy Cross;
the Preface of the Apostles, Common Preface and the Canon of the
Mass. ff. 121r-207r: Sanctorale , St Stephen-Thomas the Apostle.
ff. 207r-226v: Collects and Secrets, sometimes with lections, for
the dedication of a church, all saints, the pope, king and queen,
souls of the dead, and the ill, imperfect at the end.[ff. [8a]r,
171v, 180v are blank].The manuscript contains a number of later
additions: f. 111r: The hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo , added in a
(?) 14th-century hand. f. 172v: A hymn for St Bernard of Clairvaux,
‘Caritate vulneratus castitate dealbatus verbo vite laureatus est
Bernardus sublimatus in gloria’, added in a (?) 15th-century
script. f. 227r: A section of four prayers for a votive mass for
those who are in tribulation (‘pro illo in tribulacione’),
added by one or two 14th- or 15th-century hands. f. 227v: Latin
prayers (some faded), added by 14th- or 15th-century hands.
Decoration:3 large initials in blue or green, with red penwork
decoration, or in red with blue penwork decoration, at the canon of
the mass (ff. 115v, 116r [2x]). 1 large initial in blue with
penwork decoration in the same colour (f. 1r). Large initials in
red, green, or blue, some with penwork decoration in the same
colour, 3 with decoration in another colour (ff. 32v, 150r, 180v).
Small initials in brown. Small (one-line) initials highlighted in
red (ff. 116r-120r). Rubrics in red.
