Layout: 1 column, 11 lines of text with accompanying music on 4-line red staves Script: Early Gothic book hand Decoration: Rubrics in red, 1-line initials in red and blue with contrasting penwork throughout, parted red and blue initials, equivalent to 1 line of text and music, with red and blue penwork at the beginning of feasts and some important texts; scrolling line-fillers in green or red on every page. On f. 152 a line-filler in the shape of a dragon-like creature in red. Decoration: Text in colored roundels in margin throughout. Fifteen large painted foliate initials, equivalent to 3-5 lines of text and music, in blue or pink with white highlights, with birds, animals, and mythical beasts: f. 1, f. 11v, f. 13, f. 58v, f. 72v, f. 86, f. 89, f. 94, f. 111v, f. 133, f. 146, f. 148, f. 156, f. 159, f. 162v Binding: Seventeenth-century binding of dark leather over pasteboard, blindtooled with simple fillets, spine with six raised bands, with bookmarks laced into the top and bottom of the spine. Slight cracking of joints and upper board somewhat scuffed. Two clasps on front cover now missing. Original foliation in red roman numerals on the upper outer margin on the verso of the opening; modern foliation in pencil on the top outer corner recto. Missing two leaves from the third quire and one or more quires at the end. Quires signed in roman numerals on the last leaf (some trimmed). Ruled in lead, full-length vertical bounding lines. Some initials rubbed or smugged, stains and water damage, numerous signs of use throughout with paper corrections and additions pasted to the parchment. Provenance: The style of the script and decoration and the liturgical contents suggests a date in the mid-13th century in Northern France. There is an early ownership note on f. 58v from the Cistercian Abbey of Barbeau, "liber sancte marie de sancto portu." Provenance: The Gradual includes both St. Bernard and William of Bourges. It was certainly copied after 1239 (St. Denis is included on f. 163) and perhaps c. 1255, since the text lacks a mass for St. Dominic, but a note about his feast was added on f. 152. Provenance: The gradual continued in use into the seventeenth century, as indicated by "Ex choro Prioris" in large red letters on the backpastedown, with "1666" in black ink. Provenance: Modifications and additions to the text and music were written on paper glued onto the parchment. Sold at Sotheby's December 8, 2009, lot 50. ff. ii-iii: Detailed liturgical index added in ink in a seventeenth-century hand; arranged in the order of the calendar, with folio references to texts within this volume (f. i is almost completely missing). ff. 1-111v, Dominica prima in adventu domini, Temporal from the first Sunday in Advent through the 25th Sunday following Pentecost, with two folios missing following f. 19v; ff. 111v-165, Sanctoral from Andrew to Katherine, with ff. 127 and 134 a bifolium added in the 17th century; f. 165v, Pro defunctis. The gradual is now lacking the end of the Pro defunctis as well as the Common of the Saints. The quality and style of the initials suggests that they are the work of a professional artist, perhaps in Sens or elsewhere in Northeastern France. Previous shelfmark: Barbeau Gradual
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