Graduale, for use by the Franciscan friars

Graduale.

Choral music settings for ordinary masses and for special days in the church calendar, including masses of Clare, Corpus Christi and Gabriel. Initials in red and blue. Capital letters of the rubrics with red or yellow.

The gradual or graduale was a music book used in liturgy for the choral parts of the mass. This graduale was written for use by the Franciscan friars, probably in France. The evidence for this is that it follows the Roman rite, used only in Franciscan and Augustinian churches, while titles of feasts specific to Franciscans are noted in the margins. The only illumination is at the feast of St Francis, with a tiny drawing of the stigmatisation of the saint inside an intial O. It was probably not used in St Andrews.

Single item

By appointment with the Keeper of Manuscripts. Access to records containing confidential information may be restricted.

Presented to St Andrews University Library in 1894 by Stephen Williamson, MP.

Individual Manuscripts and Small Collections database available as part of Manuscripts Database.

Bound volume: 51 x 36cm

Binding: contemporary binding of wooden boards covered with white leather, repaired by Cockerells in 1963.

Description compiled by Maia Sheridan, Archives Hub project archivist, based on material from the Manuscripts Database

Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the Keeper of Manuscripts. Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents.

None

D Whitfield, 'A Mediaeval Choir book at St Andrews', Innes Review, 6 (1955), pp69-70

Fully noticed in N R Kerr and A J Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, Oxford, (1992), Vol IV (Paisley to York), pp249-250.