Material: Vellum of good quality. Written space 802 X 501mm ruled throughout in leadpoint in single bounding lines.
Script: Gothic littera formata.
Pagination: modern, pencil pagination.
Contents: A liturgical calendar (folios 1r-12v)
Short extracts from the four Gospels: John 1 (Ff.13r-v) Luke 1: 26-38 (Ff.14r-15v) Matthew 2:1-12 (Ff.15v-17r) Mark 2 (Ff. 17v – 21r) The Hours of the Virgin (Ff. 22r – 116v) A Litany of the Saints (Ff. 116r-119v) The Hours of the Cross (Ff. 119v - 125v) The Office for the Dead (Ff.140r – 196r)
Decoration: Folio 22 ‘O Intemerata’ prayer to the Virgin with pink, five-line capital ‘O’. The prayer is surrounded by a dark green border of scrolled ‘heartsease’ (Viola tricolor) over which is drawn a tree. The branches are inhabited by a monkey (above whom smudging is visible) and two birds (of different plumage), the lower of which swoops down towards a bright green frog that occupies the bottom left-hand corner of the bottom border. These same branches are used as line fillers in the Litany and elsewhere in the manuscript. In the calendar key dates are in gold, and saints’ names alternate between red and blue. Binding is calfskin over oak boards. The binding is blind stamped with a dentelle of ‘statant’ or standing lions.
Provenance: Acquired by Bangor University (then the University College of North Wales) in 1890 through the bequest of Dr Evan Thomas, Manchester. Prior to this the prayer book was in the private collection of Victorian Railway magnate, Sir Edward William Watkin (1819-1901) of Manchester whose personal bookplate is pasted into the volume along with the purchase price of £3.10 paid by Watkin. ‘Arthur Luff’ is inscribed on folio 1. References: David Roberts, Bangor University 1884-2009 (Cardiff: Cardiff University Press, 2009), p. 8; A Catalogue of the Library of Sir Edward W. Watkin, Bart, M.P., Rose Hill, Northenden (Manchester: Henry Blacklock & Co., 1889).
The manuscript is described as ‘an illuminated manuscript service-book in good condition. We have no information of its date of history’ (The Magazine of the University College of Wales (XXXX), p.21)."