[Missale Ecclesiae Sanctae Gudulae Bruxellensis. Pars hyemalis.

Folio (36,0 x 25,0 cm): 157 ff. (part. and irreg. numb. in roman, ff. 7v, 110r, 106v and 157 blank), on vellum, in Latin, writing area over 2 col. of c. 26,2 x 7,0 cm each, gen. 30 lines per col., musical scores on 4 lines (traces of use, marg. damp stains at first ff. and in 2nd half of vol., some sm. perforations from which 1 at top of large miniature).

Mod. half pigskin with blind-st. Renaissance decoration, oak boards, spine with raised bands, 2 old brass clasps (spine rubbed, worm tracks).

Exceptional Brussels illuminated liturgical medieval manuscript with fully documented origin from which not only the date but also the names of the patron, scribe and illuminator are known through the archives. Winter part with the Temporel and the Canon for reading Mass during the first half of the Liturgical Year, from Advent till Easter.
Content/Text: Calendar (use of St Gudula); the Proper of Time or Temporel from the first Sunday of the Advent until the Vigil of Easter; Prefaces; Canon of the Mass (1 miniature); Communal Masses (with "Requiem"); Sanctoral from the Vigil from St Andreas (Nov. 29th) untill St George (April 23rd) with St Gudula; Common of the Saints; Sequences (with St Gudula). The calendar and the Canon as in the Breviary of St Gudula printed in Paris in 1516 (cf. Lefèvre).
Illumination: 1 full-page painting in an arch-topped compartment depicting a large Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John in a landscape (26,0 x 16,5 cm) within a full floral border (31,0 x 22,0 cm) with the blazon of the patron.
Decoration: 2 large initials, one "A" (6,5 x 8,0 cm) depicting King David praying, the other one "T" depicting the Elevation of the Sacred Host, 2 large three-quarter floral borders, numerous blue and red two-line initials.
Localisation/Origin: Brabant/Brussels, before the death of the commissioner Laurent Bruyninx in 1487, executed by friar Nicolas Tayman, scribe, and by friar Pierre from Wauthier-Braine, illuminator (see below).
Ref. Placide Lefèvre, "Le calendrier de Bruxelles avant la réforme liturgique du XVIe siècle", in: Archives, Bibliothèques et Musées de Belgique 13 (1936), pp. 15-38. - Id., "Un bréviaire bruxellois imprimé à Paris en 1513", in: Id. 14 (1937), pp. 91-104. - Two ms. notes, a postcard by the same and a photograph joined.
Prov. Commissioned by Laurent Bruyninx or Bruninck for the altar dedicated to St Lawrence (his patron), St Cosmas and St Damian (patrons of the medical doctors), situated under the tower ("sub turris") at the southside of the church of St Gudula in Brussels (see ms. entry by Guillielmus Fierens, canon, Aug. 20th 1576). Laurent Bruninck (+ 12/03/1487) was canon at St Gudula, titular holder of this altar and medical doctor to the Burgundian Court at the time of Charles the Bold (see the coat of arms of the Bruninck family in the border of f. 110). Lefèvre mentions in his notice that the testament of Bruyninx, which is held at the national archives, do mention the names of the scribe Nicolas Tayman and of the illuminator Pierre from Wauthier-Braine, both members of the Brethren of the Common Life founded by Geert Groote. - [Georges Petit].