Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1980, Side 37
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b) Reykjavik Lbs. fragm. 22 (see J. Benediktsson, p. 6).
Fragment of a leaf from the same missal. The recto is partly
illegible; the verso contains 11 lines with musical notation in the left-
hand column and 22 text-lines in the right. The rubrics and the initials
are written in red. The broad outer margin with prickings for ruling has
been conserved. See Plate 5.
Contents:
F. (1 )rv = Stockholm fragment: [Sabbato post Dominicam III. in
Quadragesima (Dan. 13, 15-54)] sicut heri et nudiustertius cum
duabus solis puellis... Nunc ergo si uidisti eos die sub qua (lac.)
F. (2)r = Reykjavik fragment: [Dominica Resurrectionis... . Resur-
rexi.. . (the collect and the epistle are partly legible) Gr. H$c dies.. .]
F. (2)v, first column: et frtemur in ea. Confitemini domino...
Alleluia. Pascha nostrum... Epulemur. .. et uefritatis]...
F. (2)v, second column: [Secundum] Marcum (16, 1-7). JN illis ’
Maria magdalene et maria iaeobi et salomee emerunt aromata. .. Sed
ite dicite discipulis eius et petro: (lac.)
There is nothing unusual about the contents of this missal. The
script, on the other hånd, seemed so unusual that expert advice was
taken. N. R. Ker wrote ‘I don’t believe that script like that of your
missal could have been written without the example of the Christ
Church, Canterbury, script of the first half of the twelfth century.2 But
your man has not got all the rules quite right. A Canterbury scribe
would not, I think, have used this form of s bending round to the left
and a heavy tongue instead of a hair line terminating e. Dodwell3 has a
good many plates which show little bits of the script, but you won’t
find these features in any of them.’
Consulted on the musical notation of the missal, Dom G. M.
Beyssac, O. S. B. ( t 1965), wrote ‘La notation est franchement
irlando-bretonne ou copie fidele d’icelle. Comparer avec celle du
Graduale Sarisburiense publié par le Dr Frere’.
Ireland seems to be the home of our missal.
2 See N. R. Ker, English Manuscripts in the Century after the Norman Conquest
(Oxford 1960), pp. 25 sqq.
3 C. R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination 1066-1200 (Cambridge
1954).