POPELÁŘ`S BREVIARY

Central Europe, (Prague?), 1270–1290
Withdrawn from the auction due to the exercise of the state's right of first refusal. Size 16°, 11.5x8 cm. Unpaginated, in Latin. Manuscript on parchment, written in calligraphic Gothic minuscule (gothica textualis formata), in brown and red ink; decorative initials separating individual psalms are executed in red and blue. Sturdy leather rebinding from ca the 15th–16th century, spine with five raised bands, metal clasps with stamped minuscule inscriptions preserved fragmentarily. Popelář`s Breviary represents an exceptional manuscript source of Franciscan liturgy and spiritual life of the Middle Ages. It was probably created in the second half of the 13th century and was kept and used in the Minorite convent in Český Krumlov. According to an inscription on the front pastedown, it was purchased in 1945 by Dr. Bohumír Justin Popelář for 2,000 K. The inscription is accompanied by a drawing of Popelář`s personal coat of arms: a tournament shield executed in black ink with a red letter "P". The Breviary was intended for the regular daily prayers of members of a religious community. It contains a calendar of feasts (Calendarium), a psalter (Psalterium), antiphons, a hymnal, a temporal, and texts for the feasts of individual saints, as well as, for example, a collection of recipes for the preparation of medicines (Receptum medicum). Users inscribed personal notes and new feasts into it. Later feasts, added in the 14th century, are thus also recorded, e.g. the feast of Elzéar, a Provençal nobleman and member of the Franciscan Third Order, or the Stigmatization of St. Francis of Assisi (introduced in 1304 and for the Franciscan Order in 1337). The calendar thus documents specific Franciscan liturgical features, as well as the presence of local and order traditions. Of special significance are the hagiographic texts, particularly excerpts from the Vita prima sancti Francisci by Thomas of Celano from the late 1220s and the Legenda maior and Legenda minor of St. Francis by Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. These texts confirm beyond any doubt the Franciscan use of this breviary. Leaves browned, handled, with minor losses, bent corners, but overall the book block is in exceptionally good condition; the month of January is missing from the calendar section (and the title page, if there was one); binding worn, clasps fragmentary.