(155 x 100 mm). 302 vellum leaves. Modern pencil foliation 1-302 upper right corners rectos. Binding too tight for collation. Incomplete, lacks an undetermined number of leaves internally. Catchwords visible at random intervals throughout volume. Written in 2 columns of 33 lines by two principal hands, in several sizes of gothic Textualis in brown-black ink, extensive rubrics in red. Lines for text, and four horizontal and four vertical bounding lines ruled lightly in red (written area: 114 x 70 mm). Ten historiated initials (of seven-to-eight lines) on variegated grounds including burnished gold, in full borders consisting of slender bars of burnished gold with leafy extensions, medallions of knotwork and occasional grotesques, one similar border between columns extending into upper and lower margins without initial; hundreds of two-line initials in burnished gold on grounds of blue and mauve with leafy extensions into margins; one-line initials in blue flourished with red or burnished gold flourished with blue; blue and burnished gold line fillers (ff. 177r-238v); calendar in burnished gold, blue, and red. Some rubbing to one border, several borders slightly cropped by binder, small losses to text area (ff. 11, 173) and to blank lower margins (ff. 200, 225) otherwise in excellent condition. Binding: blind-tooled dark blue morocco over pasteboards, gilt edges, signed by Riviere & Son on lower front turn-in (slight scuffing to extremities), in a modern clamshell case.

Provenance: Additions in two different hands to the calendar for March and October for the feasts of St. David, St. Chad, Translation of St. Etheldreda, and The Deposition of] St. Frideswide (Fritheswithe), all of which are feasts introduced to the Sarum rite from c. 1398-1480, indicate early owners’ engagement with the book. The first two in March are written in a gothic Anglicana, a script characteristic of the British Isles of the late 14th century. Ownership of parts of the present volume in the 17th century is attested by two inscriptions: Adam Taylor 166[?] (f. 302v); and John Clement his book 1670 (f. 239r, with his initials or name scribbled on ff. 221r, 228r, 229r, and 230r); possibly C. L. Ricketts (1859-1941), sold in 1919 to: Wilfrid Michael Voynich (1865-1930), unpublished catalogue description in the Grolier Club.