ABSTRACT
There are offices in 1505 for the Transfiguration and the Holy Name,7 both of apparent Sarum origin,8 though curiously neither feast is included in the calendar, perhaps as the result of a printer’s oversight. Both are likewise omitted from the calendar of 1502, which, unlike the breviary, has no propers. Thus, by inexplicable arrangement these two important observances had offices but no masses, apparently leaving the lesser festa of St Sixtus with his companions (6 August) and St Donatus (7 August) alone to have masses on these days, unless provision was made from separate sources to fill the void. The later addition of masses for the Holy Name in 78A and 48243,9 both of Sarum derivation, is an indication of the way in which such deficiences in the printed missals might have been met. It cannot be assumed on the basis of 1502, therefore, that there were no masses for these important late festa, since their established offices suggest otherwise. The office of the Holy Name owes its origin to the Lady Margaret Beaufort,10 countess of Richmond and Derby, renowned for her devotion to the feast. Significantly, 1505, which includes this office, was dedicated to her as patron by its Rouen publisher Inghelbert Haghe.11 Under her influence the feast became widely observed during the three decades preceding her death in 1509 and continued to be celebrated in the Hereford, Sarum and York rites until their cessation later in the century.12
