A leaf from a Sacramentary in Latin, in an exceptionally fine hand likely from Lambach late C11th or early C12th

A leaf from a Sacramentary in Latin, in an exceptionally fine hand likely from the Lambach Monastery late C11th or early C12th

A fragmentary leaf, lacking extremities, c.260 x 204 mm, written with 19 line per page in a very fine late Caroline minuscule bookhand (the vertical stroke of ‘f’ and tall ‘s’ descending slightly below the others; round ‘s’ appears only occasionally, at the end of words; ampersand used for ‘et’; the ascender of ‘d’ is always upright), with rubrics and elegant capitals in orange-red; the text is from the Friday and Saturday (“Sabbato”) before Passion Sunday, with four alternate readings for Passion Sunday, “Dominica in passione domini”, itself: “Estote imitatores dei …” (Ephesians 5:1–2), with three alternate readings from Hebrews, each headed “Aliud”: “Christus assistens pontifex …” (cf. Hebrews 9:11–12), “Christus emandavit conscienciam nostram …” (cf. Hebrews 9:14), and “Christus novi testamenti mediator est …” (Hebrews 9:15); recovered from use as a book-cover, with consequent creases and some staining, but still a nearly complete leaf of very handsome script.

This leaf compares to two fragments from Lambach Abbey illustrated in R. G. Babcock et al., Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, IV (2004), pls. 24 and (especially) 26.