Winchester College Publication Treausry: Collections Bulletin 2019-2020 | Page 7

OBJECTS IN FOCUS Figure 7: WC 48, fol. 88v Endnotes: Figure 6: WC 48, fol. 68v resurrectio et vita’ (I am the resurrection and the life) on fol. 93r. As we have argued elsewhere, we believe this may be a representation of David. 7 In several instances, the portrait includes a branch coming forth from the man’s mouth indicating, we believe, the sound of music (fig. 7, fol. 88v). WC 48 is a magnificent volume, well repaying hours of study. Although it is not one of the named, highly illuminated medieval books of hours, it offers an opportunity to study the many ways in which a book of hours could be visually animated and lead the reader into deeper and richer devotion. It offers its priestowner a large archive of prayers to reflect on and pray to God, Jesus, Mary, and the saints. It reminds him of his sacred duties before the altar. It offers a feast for the eyes both in the richness of the openings of each section and in the whimsical cadels in the Office of the Dead. Thank you, John Lant, for putting this volume into the safe keeping of the Winchester College Fellows’ Library! Anne Bagnall Yardley and Jesse D. Mann (Drew University, Madison, New Jersey) Find out more about WC 48 in the authors’ recently published article, ‘The Prayer Life of a Fifteenth-Century English Priest: Winchester College MS 48’, Sacris Erudiri: Journal of Late Antique and Medieval Christianity, LVIII (2019), pp. 221–51, and their forthcoming article ‘Facing the Music: The Whimsical Cadels in a Late Medieval English Book of Hours,’ Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, vol. 8. 1 We are indebted to Richard Foster for information on Lant including the fact that he was a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford. Lant also owned a gospel lectionary originally commissioned by Cardinal Wolsey, which he bequeathed to Christ Church. 2 For a full description of the manuscript and its contents see Neil R. Ker and Alan J. Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, Volume IV: Paisley–York (Oxford, 1969), pp. 632–34. 3 The presence of the music drew us to the manuscript initially. To date we have located just 11 15 th -century English books of hours with musical notation. For a thorough discussion of the implications of the contents of the volume see Yardley and Mann, ‘Prayer Life’, pp. 221–51. See also our forthcoming article ‘Facing the Music’. 4 Fol. 148v. For a complete transcription of the poem and further commentary, see Yardley and Mann, ‘Prayer Life’, pp. 226, 249–50. 5 For a more complete discussion of the possible unica in this manuscript as well as transcriptions of them, see Yardley and Mann, ‘Prayer Life’. 6 Peter Beal defines a cadel as ‘a decorative flourish on certain lettering in medieval or later manuscripts, characterized by the extension and elaboration of the pen-strokes on letters, usually at the beginning of particular lines. The more convoluted examples include features such as human heads or other figures and designs.’ Peter Beal, ‘Cadel’, in A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450–2000 (Oxford, 2008), accessed 22/7/19. 7 See ‘Facing the Music’. Winchester College Collections 2019 – 20 7