P-BRad (Braga) Arquivo Distrital Ms. 657
P-BRad Ms. 657
Fols. 1r-6v: Calendar; fol. 7rv: Lessons of St. Alexis, Responsory for St. Anthony (added); fols. 8r-50v: Psalterium; fols. 50r-52v: Old Testament Canticles; fols. 52v-53v: Te Deum; fols. 53v-61v: Hymns for the Temporal and Sanctoral; fols. 61v-63v: Office for the Dead; fols. 64r-163r: Temporale; fols. 163r-172v: Late Offices (addition); fols. 173r-176v: General rubrics and Saturday Office BMV; fols. 177r-304v: Sanctorale, from St. Stephen to St. Thomas apostle; fols. 304r-306r: Dedication of the Church; fols. 306r-318r: Common of the Saints; fols. 318r-324v: Varia.
A few highlights:
Fol. 183, Translation of St. James (Compostela); fol. 196v, Clunisian Office for St. Paul; fol. 205v, St. Martin of Dume (patron of Braga); fol. 212, St. Fructuosus of Braga; fol. 236v, Office for St. Mary Magdalene; fol. 247v, Transfiguration of the Lord; fol. 253v, Assumption BMV; fol. 262, Nativity BMV; fol. 280, St. Martin of Tours (double Office); fol. 294r, St. Gerald, Archbishop of Braga.
Blue or red initials with red or blue filigree designs.
Initials and secondary initials in red or blue.
Rubric in red, some in black underlined with red ink.
«342» (in red pencil, initial guard leaf 1v, top left corner)
«339» (in red pencil, f. 1r top right corner)
«Pertinet ad conventum de Populo / Bracaræ Augustæ» (black ink, f. 1r bottom margin)
«Criada a / data que de-/veria ser / D lx´ix (599)» (pencil, f. 206r right margin)
«Biblioteca Publica Braga» (stamp in black ink, several folios)
Good. Some folios have water stains, are wrinkled, or the ink is quite smudged, wich can make the text difficult to read. Some margins are torn, but there is no loss of content.
Cover: 265 x 210 mm.
Folio: 250 x 204 mm, written surface 180-190 x 135 mm, two columns, 42 lines (average).
326 folios. Modern foliation in pencil added at top right corner.
34 gatherings: 10 with 4 folios, 1 with 4 and a half, 20 with 5 folios and 3 with 6 folios.
Leather over boards.
"Breviário de Soeiro" is the name by which the breviary is best known, given by Pedro Romano Rocha on account of the note, written in 1590 on the last folio, stating that the book was formerly owned by Álvares Fernandes Soeiro, who was a canon in the Braga cathedral, beginning in 1400.
The date found on the f. 206r («Bracare celebra / ta fuit. in. Ẽ. ḋ . iẍ . iẍ .») should be DLXIIII. See Avelino de Jesus da Costa, “S. Martinho de Dume”, p. 322.
Avelino Jesus da Costa, “S. Martinho de Dume - XIV Centenário da sua chegada à Península”, Bracara Augusta vol. 2, n.º 3 (1950): 288–337.
Pedro Romano Rocha, L’office divin au moyen age dans l’eglise de Braga: originalité et dépendances d’une liturgie particulière au moyen âge, Cultura Medieval e Moderna 15 (Paris: Centro Cultural Português, 1980).
Pedro Romano Rocha, “Les sources languedociennes du Bréviaire de Braga”, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 17, no. 1 (1982): 185–207.
Pedro Romano Rocha, “O Ofício Divino na tradição bracarense”, in IX Centenário da dedicação da Sé de Braga: Congresso Internacional : actas, vol. 3, 1 (Braga: Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Faculdade de Teologia, 1990), 81–102.