[LITURGICAL MANUSCRIT - Office of the Dead]. Agenda defuncto - Lot 44

[LITURGICAL MANUSCRIT - Office of the Dead]. Agenda defunctorum. Charming medieval devotional manuscript on parchment in portable format, combining neat Gothic, colored initials and Gregorian notation, preserved in a contemporary binding with the coat of arms of Dauphiné. S.l., circa 1480. Volume in-24 ( 90 x 60 mm) miniature, full dark-brown calf on wooden boards, decorated with straight fillets with cold-stamped Dauphiné arms (dauphin surmounted by a fleur-de-lys) in the center. Spine ribbed. Parchment, 182 pages. Spine cracked, restoration at bottom, corners pierced, binding missing. Notebooks a little out of order. Slight traces of handling. Attractive manuscript, in Gothic script with brown ink on parchment, initials painted in red and blue (alternating), barely visible rule, with in fine 17 pages of plainchant (Gregorian) notations on four-line red staves. This Office des défunts begins with the heading "Agenda defunctorum" ("What must be done for the deceased"), followed by : "Ad vesperas... antiphona Placebo". The text opens with Psalm 114: "Dilexi quoniam exaudiet Dominus vocem orationis meae..." ("I love the Lord, O Lord..."). ("I love the Lord, for he hears my voice, my supplications..."). The hymn begins with: "Credo quod redemptor meus vivit..." ("I believe that my Redeemer lives, and that on the last day he will raise me up, alleluia!"). The last five pages seem to have been written slightly later by another hand, in a humanistic type of handwriting, even cursive for the last words taken from the Angelus: "Versus. Ora pro nobis sancta Dei Genitrix. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. Oratio. Gratia tua..." ("Pray for us, holy Mother of God, that we may become worthy of Christ's promises. Let us pray: May your grace... [be poured into our hearts]"). A well-preserved copy in its original binding with the Dauphiné coat of arms.