A fascinating 14th century calendar, a fragment from a Breviary for the Use of Cologne, full of detailed entries and showing continued use in the 15th century.
Text:
The text is written with one month per page, with an entry for almost every day of the year. Each month is headed by a red ‘KL’ monogram (for the kalends, the first day of each month); a note in red on the length of the calendar and lunar month (e.g. ‘Januarius habet dies xxxi, luna xxx’); and a line underneath concerning the unlucky, or ‘Egyptian’ days (e.g. ‘Iani prima dies et septima fine tenentur’), on which it was considered unwise to start a journey, undergo a medical operation, etc. Major feasts are in red, secondary feasts have a notation to their right in red stating that the office of the relevant saint has nine lessons (‘ix l.’), the rest are in plain brown with no grading. To the left are the usual columns of Golden Numbers, Dominical letters, and the date according to the Julian calendar (kalends, nones, and ides).
Among the major feasts in red are Sts Gereon and Severin (10 and 23 October), to whom two of the churches of Cologne are dedicated, a third is the 10,000 Virgins (21 October), who were believed to have been martyred at Cologne, and on whose supposed grave-site the Cologne church of St Ursula was built. Feasts with 9 lessons include the Three Kings, whose relics are in Cologne cathedral (23 July), and several archbishops of Cologne, including Heribert (16 March), Agilolphus (9 July), Maternus (13 September), Evergislus (24 August), Kunibert (12 November), and ‘Annonis archiepiscopi Colon.’ (4 December). Other 9-lesson feasts include the dedication of Cologne Cathedral, ‘Dedicacio ecclesie maioris’ (27 September), and saints to whom other Cologne churches are dedicated, e.g. Columba (31 December).
There are a number of 15th-century additions, testament to the manuscript’s continued active use throughout the later Middle Ages. One of these, ‘Dedicacio Aquens(is)’ for July presumably refers to the cathedral of Aachen, about 45 miles / 70km west of Cologne.
Provenance:
1. Doubtless written for use at Cologne. Adapted for use at Aachen. 2. Folio Society price in pencil, ‘£12. 10. 0.’, from whom purchased in 1968 (Folio Society catalogue 54, item 262 (£12.10)) by 3. James S. Dearden (1931– 2021), MBE, eminent Ruskin scholar and bibliographer: with his printed ‘Ex Libris J. S. Dearden’ book label inscribed in pencil ‘MS 33’ (front pastedown).