As mentioned, most of the usual updates are going through Twitter, @cokldb, but Chigi D.V.71  from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana  is far to complex to explain in 280 characters.  First some numbers, this is the 18th MS from the BAV, and it was made in Toulouse, though liturgical Use of Rome, circa 1335-42.   After the January and February calendar pages there are Latin passages, written in red, on calculating the date of Easter.

The calendar is unusually large in several measures.  Each entry takes 2 ruled lines, with the dominical letter, golden number and roman number on the first line and the roman part stretched across both, sometimes even three.  The stretched Roman part is not unusual, but the double-line entry is unique.  This layout means that each month takes 2 full folios, 4 sides, leading to a calendar 24 pages long.  The decoration is rather sparse, but standard mid 14th Century, with a border and a few leaves on the first face of the month and nothing on the other three.  This layout allowed the scribe to load the calendar with saints, there are approximately 480 distinct feasts, with 9 dates carrying three.  August 22 has four distinct feasts: the Octave of the Assumption(469), and three distinct martyrs, Thimothy(478), Hippolytus(471), and Symphorian(477).  For context, a fully populated calendar has between 365 and 380 saints, and the previous MS with the densest calendar hit 401.  Not surprisingly, this calendar has a number of hapax saints, 30 new saints and 48 unidentified ones.

The calendar decorations are less unusual, rod borders with sparse foliage, some of in intruding into the text block.  There is no KL to start the page, in its place there's a small miniature of the labor of the month, backed with burnished gold.  To ornament the dominical "A" there's some small amount of red or blue penwork.

Note that this MS makes approximately 250 devotional calendars added to the DB since December 2015.

(DB Id: 381)

With the addition of Vatican Reg.lat.165, we have verified that 4 saints in a single date now loads and processes correctly.  Taking a step backwards, this is a Use of Rome hours with a Calendar from Aquilla (probably) that may have been owned by Queen Christina of Sweden.  The calendar is either unfinished or the scribe was confused, each entry is missing the initial letter, eg. "pyphania do" for Jan-6, missing the initial "E".  For testing, though, August 22 (see f.6v below) is the critical date, having entries for Sts. Hyppolitus (471), Timothy (478) and Symphorian (477), and the Octave of the Assumption (469).  This was entered into the new 4-saint Excel template  and it loaded and displayed cleanly!

(DB Id: 149)

Another library joins the database with the addition of Ms.1185 from the Bibliothequè de l’Arsenal, located in Paris near the former site of the Bastille. This is a 15th C. Book from Cambrai, now in northern France. The book is in a very high quality bâtarde hand, with multiple flourished (nearly cadel) capitals in the calendar test. There are also illusionistic borders, with shell-gold backgrounds, on the outer edge of every page, both text and calendar, except for those with more complex decorative programs.

The text of the calendar is in French with some very specific-to-Cambrai entries, such as Bishop Gaugericus (feast in red on August 11 (370), Octave on August 18 (4007), elevation on September 24 (3803)).

An interesting variant is the indication of the Epiphany (January 6 (1488)) (see f.1r below). In French calendars this is usually spelled as La Tiphaine (or a varient thereof), however in MS.1185 it is spelled in hybrid La epyphanie n[ost]re s[iegneu]r. The article is never seen in Latin calendars, but neither Epyphanie nor vocal variants, are seen in French Calendars. The closest match to this entry, oddly, is the early 16th C. Ventian calendar in Houghton MS Typ.1000

(DB Id: 265)

Another early manuscript from the Walters Art Museum, W.37 is a early 14th C (1300-1310ish) Book made for the Use of Liege, probably for a Beguine living in Huy (Belgium, south-west of Liege). The manuscript has a series of full-page miniatures between the calendar and the Hours of the Nativity of the Virgin, and does not contain the standard Hours of the BVM.

The Calendar is rather bare, with only 160 entries in total. The entries are very accurate in content, none were unidentified and only 2 were on the wrong date, both by a single day. There are several unusual saints, mostly localized to Liege, including Count Mengold on February 8 (4244).

That is not to say that the calendar is without error, however, as there are two sorts of error present. The black entries were penned before the miniatures, and in multiple cases the miniature has over-painted the text. This is most obvious in the later months, in December(see f.8v below) the Nativity of the Virgin is missing the entire last word, due to the Labor of the Month. Additionally the red entries were done by a poor scribe, the hand is extremely shakey and inconsistant. This red-ink scribe neglected to include at least one feast, there is a Vigil for St. Laurence on August 9 (651) but no entry for the feast on the 10th.

(DB Id: 93)

After another 2 day visit to the Morgan Library, I am once again bulk-loading data.  The first three books from this trip are:

• M.487 - An English MS from the 1490s, probably made for a small child as there are many more educational texts than usual.  Saints are quite British, including David, Cedde, Richard and Cuthbert.  Unusually St. Edward, King, on March 18 is in red. (DB Id: 233)
• M.116 - A French MS from Cambrai, made in the 1490s.   It contains a fair selection of feasts unique to Cambrai, including Translation of St. Barbara on Feb 12, St. Waltrude on April 9 and St. Salvius (in red) on June 26th.  It also contains both the feast, on August 11, and the Octave, on August 18 of St. Gaugericus of Cambrai. (DB Id: 229)
• M.1089 - An Italian MS, probably made in the Veneto around 1425-1450.  The calendar is misbound, ff. 6-7 are first, then ff. 1-5 and 10-14, no folios are numbered 8-9.  The calendar is sparsely populated, only 116 entries, and very red, more than 50% of the entries.  There are a few entries that might indicate a Fransiscan influence and one unusual one, St. Daniel the Prophet listed on July 24, though his feast is July 21.  This is unique, so far, in the corpus. (DB Id: 106)

Walters Art Museum W.193 is a French book of hours, with an unusual liturgical use of Cambrai, dated to roughly 1450-1460. There is evidence that the initial owner live in Mons, Hainaut (now part of Belgium). The calendar has some light decorations on the recto, an outer-border of acanthus leaves, and has 200 dates populated, though a higher-than-usual number of errors in the dating of saints. There’s also an unusual case, Saint Germain on August 8(see f.11r below) is unidentified, but ranked high. So far no “Germain” or similar name has been found for that date, but hopefully future work can identify this high-importance saint.

(DB Id: 212)

The Walters Art Museum has revamped their website, which makes finding their digitized assets easier.  From the new website comes W.90, an early 14th Century Book from the area of St. Omer, France.  The most interesting part of the manuscript, for most people, comes after the calendar.  There are 7 full-page miniatures, depicting the beginning of Genisis, from Creation through the expulsion, contained within highly-detailed architectural frames. 

The calendar itself is not uninteresting, though.  It is an early example of a nearly complete calendar, 359 of the entries are populated.  There are very few in red, not even all of the Apostles get ranked, and many of the major feasts lack Vigils.  Both of these are more obvious at the beginning of the MS, the first vigil is June 23, Vigil for St. John, and there are only 10 red days through the end of May, but a total of 49. 

The feasts named are a grab bag, some are common, some are specific to St. Omer (Translation of St. Audomer in June 6, Octave of St. Audomar on Sept 16 and Dedication of the Cathedral of St. Audomer on October 17), and some seem to be scribal errors.  In this last category are some unusual errors, Mary of Egypt appears on August 4, where perhaps Mary ad Nives, usually Aug 5, was meant. 

(DB Id: 198)

From Goethe University in Frankfurt comes Ms Lat Oct 110, a Use of Utrecht, Latin, book of hours from circa 1465.  It's not the most beautiful of manuscripts, but has some interesting details.  The calendar is nearly full, 350 days are populated.  There are a number of Utrecht-specific saints, most obviously August 25 St. Gregory of Utrecht (see f.10v below), and there are also a unusual number of numeric saints.  In addition to the usual ones, the Four Crowned Martyrs, Seven Sleepers, Seven Brothers and 11,000 Virgins, there are:

• February 21 - 79 Martyrs (details unknown)
• March 9 - 40 Martyrs of Armenia
• March 14 - 47 Martyrs (details unknown)
• April 16 - 18 Martyrs of Saragosa, though the MS has it as 17
• June 22 - 10,000 Martyrs
• October 15 - 300 Moors
• October 30 - 220 Martyrs (details unknown)

The obsession with numbers continues in the dating information, the calendar contains both Roman and Julian numbers for the dates, which is uncommon.  Both of these are written in Hindu-Arabic numerals, which is, so far, unique.  The golden numbers are still in Roman Numerals

(DB Id: 195)

Now that the Morgan Library MS block is complete for now, I've added a British book, one with quite an impressive history, British Library Add MS 50001.  This use of Sarum book was owned by Queen Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII, and is actually inscribed to her on f.22r, "Elysabeth y[e] queene".  The manuscript is a bit of a mess, it was rebound by the BL recently and digitized un the unbound state. 

The calendar is very complicated.  There are many of the liturgical notes in the margins (the Keys of Easter, extremities of Advent, etc) and the Zodiac dates.  These are in blue ink, which is not elsewhere used in the calendar, excluding a single saint in August, until December, when they appear frequently, apparently used as a middle rank.  Many of the usual "Henry VIII" editorials are visible, 'pp' or 'ppe' erased and the feasts of Thomas Becket (dec 29th and July 7), struck through entirely.  The most interesting things about the calendar, however, are the mistakes.  In the month of August(see f.4v below), all of the entries in black ink, up to St. Rufus on the 27th are one day too early, however the red entries are accurate.  This suggests a phased approach to the scribe, with all of the black entries writted apart from the red ones, and perhaps that the black ones were done first.

And on a project note, this is the 100th Book of Hours to be entered in the DB!

(DB Id: 186)

Walters MS W.88 is a very early (1300-1310) French book of hours with some unusual quirks.  The text of the calendar is in Norman French, some characteristic words being "Veske" (Evesque) for Bishop and the article "Li".  It has some very specific saints to the area of Cambrai, such as both the feast and the octave of St. Gaugericus (August 11 and 18th -- f.11r below), and some more broadly "French" feasts, such as new-years day instead of the Circumcision.  Each month has two vignettes for the labor of the month, many a bit more clever than the average, like the drinking harvester at the bottom of 11r below.

(DB ID: 182)