Manuscript, Missal known as the 'Saint-Denis Missal', attributed to the Remède de Fortune Master and assistants, Paris, 1350 and Tournai (?), 1473-1480.

Foliation: parchment (very thin). i (18th-century or 19th-century paper), ii-iv (late medieval parchment, foliated 1-3) + 436 (foliated 4-439) + 9 (late 15th-century parchment, foliated 440-448) + vi, vii (as f.i) ff.

Language: Latin.

Script: textura semi-quadrata (Gothic) bookhand.

Textual content:
f. 1r: Prayers (added to fly-leaves of the medieval binding, in a 15th-century hand).
f. 2r: Prayers against pagans (in a 15th-century hand).
f. 3r: Readings from Isaiah (in a 15th-century hand).
ff.4r-8r: Order for making Holy Water and to celebrate marriages.
ff.8v-9v: Tables for calculating dates such as Easter.
ff.10r-15v: Calendar. Based on the death mentioned, the manuscript is dated from 1350.
ff. 16r-234r: Temporale.
ff. 235r-241v: Canon of the Mass.
ff. 242r-303v: Proper of the Sanctorale.
ff. 304r-369v: Common of the Sanctorale.
ff. 370r-383v: Sequences for the Temporale.
ff. 383v-430v: Sequences for the feasts of the Sanctorale and the Common of the Saints.
ff. 432r-439v: Sequences and prayers for the blessing of candles and water, on the vigils of Easter and Pentecost, with litanies for those occasions.
ff. 440r-448v: Order for catechism added ca. 1473-1480.
Contains musical notation.

Decoration: integrated miniatures (ff. 235v, 236r, 256v, 261r, 289r, 296r, 299v) either in rectangular frames, partly painted in grisaille on gold, chequered or damask grounds, or grisaille miniatures without frames on natural vellum ground. Historiated initials (ff. 16r, 34r, 35v, 42r, 121v, 155r, 172v, 179v, 242r, 259v, 284v) illuminated initials (ff. 165v, 191r, 231v, 252v, 270v, 273r, 295v, 304r, 370r, 383v, 410v, 418r, 421r) and penwork flourishing. Minor initials. Some pages with full-frame borders made up of baguettes with sprays of ivy leaves extending into the margins. Narrative scenes in the bas-de-page (ff. 16r, 34r, 35v, 42r, 121v, 155r, 172v, 179v, 235v, 236r, 256v, 261r). In the margins are birds, grotesques, insects and narratives scenes (ff. 16r, 34r, 35v, 42r, 121v, 155r, 172v, 179v, 235v, 236r, 242r, 256v, 259v, 261r, 284v, 289r, 296r, 299v, 304r, 370r).

Artists: The Remède de Fortune Master has been identified as the main illuminator, responsible for the miniatures. His style is representative of mid-14th-century Parisian ‘naturalism’. The penwork flourishing is the work of Jacobus Mathey (active between ca. 1327-1345) or one of his successors.

Binding: 18th century, France. Red morocco over boards. Gold-tooled floral design in each corner. Spine in 5 compartments. Doublures of marbled paper sewn onto 5 hemp cords, false end-bands of white and green silk, edges of text-block gilded. In the style of Nicolas-Denis Derome le Jeune (1761-1788).

(1) Made c.1350 for the abbey of Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
(2) The folios added in the 15th century bear the arms of the Clugny familly and the motto of Ferry de Clugny (ca. 1430-1483). Evidence suggests these were added when he was bishop of Tournai (1473-1480).
(2) The binding suggests the manuscript was still in France during the 18th century when it was rebound by (or in the style of ) Derome le Jeune.
(3) Collection of William Horatio Crawford (1815-1888), Lakelands Library, co. Cork, Ireland: his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 12-15 March 1891, lot 464.
(3) Bought from Quaritch by the South Kensington Museum in 1891.

This manuscript was made for the abbey of Saint-Denis, North of Paris. It is a Missal, that is to say the liturgical book containing all the texts, chants and prayers necessary for the celebration of the Mass. The high quality of its execution reflects the prestige and importance of the commission. Indeed, the abbey church of Saint-Denis was one of the most important churches of medieval France. It was the burial site of the French monarchs and the repository of the relics of saint Denis.

The Missal has been dated to 1350 based on the evidence provided by entries in the calendar at the beginning of the manuscript. Indeed, the latest death recorded is that of Guy of Châtres, abbot of Saint-Denis, on 22 February 1350, and not that of the king of France, Philip VI, six months later, although the deaths of all other French monarchs from the 11th century onwards are mentioned. This implies that the manuscript was finished between 22 February and 22 August 1350.

Every page of the missal is teeming with lively bas-de-page scenes (in the space just below the text), and birds and animals painted in a pastel palette inhabit its borders. In the historiated initials as well as in the bas-de-page, figures are painted in shades of grey against a gold or colourful patterned background, highlighting the painters’ high level of craftsmanship. This technique, called ‘semi-grisaille’, recalls the work of famous Parisian illuminator Jean Pucelle, active in Paris between 1319 and 1334. The main artist at work in the Missal is commonly identified as the Remède de Fortune Master, a professional illuminator named after a manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris, BnF, MS Fr. 1584).

Several illuminations are dedicated to the life of saint Denis and the consecration of the abbey (ff. 256v, 261r, 295v, 296r). The vivid scene of Denis’s martyrdom, for instance, shows the saint kneeling in prayer against a red background with gold scrolls, as the executioner is about to behead him (fol. 296r).

The manuscript certainly was part of a set, as it evidently was produced at the same time as a breviary now in Oxford whose format, script and page design are the same, though the latter contains pen flourishing (Bodleian Library, MS Canon. Liturg. 192).

MSL/1891/1346