Missal (Use of Beauvais)

Abstract

This leaf comes from the third volume of a three-volume Missal that was written for use in the liturgy of Beauvais. It was given to Beauvais Cathedral by a former canon, Robert de Hangest, shortly before his death on 3 November 1356 so that he would be commemorated every year on the date of his death. The Missal formed part of the Cathedral Library for several centuries until the Napoleonic period when the Missal and other works and relics were removed. While the first and second volumes have yet to surface, the third volume of the Missal (comprising 308 leaves) has passed through several hands of ownership. It was dismembered in 1942, with a portion being sold to Otto F. Ege. He contributed 42 leaves from the Missal to specimen sets he compiled and marketed as "Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts". It is listed as no. 15. This leaf came onto the market in 1981, sold by Maggs Bros, London, to the Friends of the Australian National University Library. Lisa Fagin Davis has reassembled 111 surviving fragments to date of the Beauvais Missal as a test case of the Broken Books project under development at the Center for Digital Humanities at Saint Louis University. Show more