ABSTRACT

The Hereford missal of 1502 and the breviary of 15051 belong to a small group of early printed service-books intended for British use, of which single editions only were produced. Included in this group is the Aberdeen Breviary of Bishop William Elphinstone printed at Edinburgh by Walter Chepman in collaboration with Andrew Myllar, 1509-10,2 with supplementary officium novum for the Compassion of the Virgin, c.1520.3 In addition, there were two important works from lay ateliers associated with English monastic foundations, which will be considered shortly. These limited and rare editions contrast significantly with the huge quantity of Sarum books produced mainly on the Continent from the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Dominating the market were the missals, breviaries, books of hours (horæ) or primers, manuals, and processionals, which underwent successive reprints into Marian times reflecting the widespread popularity of this most famous and influential of medieval English liturgical uses. The less common Sarum books were the ordinal, or directorium sacerdotum, known generally as the pica, or pie (1477, 1503, 1504, 1508);4 diurnal, or journal (1512, 1528);5 legendary (1488, 1518);6 antiphonal (1519, 1520);7 and the gradual (sometimes called the grail), or graduale (1508, 1527, 1528, 1532).8 In particular, the functions of the diurnal containing the day hours (horæ diurnæ) of the office (lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, and compline), together with the legendary and antiphonal, could be performed by the breviary. This

1 For the Missal and Breviary (respectively STC2 16163 and 15793), see Chapter 4, The sources/II Printed/Missals, Breviaries, with references.