Antiphonal (1566)

Fols 1r-352v. Feasts of the Temporal, the Sanctoral and some parts of the Common of the Saints are presented in several sections which follow the Church Calendar.

The sections of the Temporal cover from the Vigil of Easter to the  twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost.

The Sanctoral sections begin in March and, with excerpts from the Common of the Saints, extend to 22November (feast of St Cecilia) with the addition of St Agnes on 21 January.

Fols 353v-390v. Hymnal.

Fols 391r- 395v. Canticles for the Sundays of the year and the feast of St Michael Archangel.

The Feast of St Bernard of Clairvaulx has been added by a different hand in the Sanctoral on fol. 218v, and in the Hymnal there appears on fol. 377r the entry: in festo sancti patris nostri bernardi.

One-line capitals in red or blue ink, and cadels in black ink, with heads in profile, occur throughout the text. Painted woodcuts of large gold or silver decorated initials, set in square frames  and surrounded by flowers, fruits, birds and insects, in red, blue, green, and black, articulate the text as indicated under ‘Program of Decoration’ below. Towards the end of the sequence six of these initials also contain biblical figures and scenes, but these seem to be simply a variation on the decorative infills of the other initials and to have no explicit bearing on the program. 

Program of Decoration

Eighteen large coloured initial woodcuts, described above, highlight particular feasts or sections of the text. They either introduce antiphons at first or second vespers or the first responsory at matins:

Fol.1r. ‘A ‘ The Vigil of Easter Sunday. Alleluia.

Fol. 25v. ‘P’ The Ascension. Post passionem suam.

Fol. 34v. ‘D’ Pentecost. Dum complerentur.

Fol. 45r. ‘G’ Trinity Sunday. Gloria tibi Trinitatis.

Fol. 55r. ‘L‘ Feast of Corpus Christi.  Laudate nomen Domini cuncti fideles.

Fol. 69v. ‘C ‘ First week after octave of Pentecost. Custodit.

Fol. 123r. F’ St Benedict. Fuit vir vite venerabilis.

Fol. 133r. ‘S’ Sts Philip and James. Stabunt iusti in magna constantia.

Fol. 140r. ‘P’ Vigil of St John the Baptist. Perpetuis nos domine.

Fol. 148r. ‘G’ Vigil of Sts Peter and Paul. Gloriosi principes terre…..

Fol. 242r. ‘F’ St Michael Archangel. Factum est silencium in celo (Moses and the Burning Bush).

Fol. 250v. ‘O’ St Ursula and Companions. O felices hostium forcium victrices (Jonah).

Fol. 269r. ‘H’  St Martin. Hic est martinus electus (Joshua).

Fol. 285v. ‘O’ Dedication of a church. O quam metuendus est locus isti (Jonah).

Fol. 305r. ‘D’ St Agnes. Diem festum sacratissime virginis

Fol. 347r. ‘D’ Feast of a virgin. Diffusa est gracia in labiis tuis.

Fol. 353v. ‘H’ Hymn at Vespers in Paschal Time. Hic est dies verus dei (Joshua).

Fol. 391r. ‘D’ Canticle for Sundays and for the Feast of St Michael. Domine miserere (David and Uriah).

K. V. Sinclair, ‘Quelques manuscrits cisterciens inconnus en Australie’, Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cistericiensis,  Vol. 20, 1964, p. 234.

K. V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia, Sydney, 1969, pp. 323-4.

Digital imaging and research on this manuscript were supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australia:Researching and Relating Australia’s Manuscript Holdings to New Technologies and New Readers. Substantial donations from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Catholic Church Insurance and the National Australia Bank are gratefully acknowledged. The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, The Network for Early European Research, and Newman College, The University of Melbourne, have also generously contributed to the project.

Chief Investigators (CIs) of the ARC project were Professor emeritus Margaret Manion (The University of Melbourne), Professor Bernard Muir (The University of Melbourne), and Dr Toby Burrows (The University of Western Australia). Graduate research assistants were Alexandra Ellem, Dr Hugh Hudson, Dr Elaine Shaw and postgraduate scholar Elizabeth Melzer (The University of Melbourne). Shane Carmody was the representative of the Chief Industry Partner (The State Library of Victoria). The following curators, conservators, photographers and computer specialists at The State Library of Victoria also contributed their expertise: Katrina Ben, Des Cowley, Ian Cox, Adrian Flint, Ross Genat, Jean Holland, Shelley Jamieson, Afsana Khan, Coralie McInnes, Monika McIntyre, Helen McPherson, Peter Mappin and Sarah Mason. Other contributors both in Australia and overseas are acknowledged in the relevant endnotes.

These detailed entries draw on the information in earlier catalogues and also update it. In particular, they are based on the following: K.V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia, Sydney, 1969, M. M. Manion and V. F. Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australian Collections, London, 1984, and B. Stocks and N. Morgan, eds, The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, 2008. Our debt to these pioneering publications and dependence on them are acknowledged here.

Margaret M.Manion, on behalf of the ARC team, October, 2013.