The 8 Parts of the “St. Francis” Missal (Walters W.75): a library” of Christian drama

1) folios. 1r - 159v (passages #1 [f. 132v] Mark 10.21 and #2 [f. 119v] Luke 9.3): Temporale—the rituals and texts for all services sung for “moveable feasts,” whose dates vary every year based on when Easter Sunday falls.  These include Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, and the fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday—rituals include the Eucharist, and texts include “lessons” or teachings, often based on excerpts from the Gospels and on individual Psalms.
    Rubric: Dominica I de adventu (i.e., it starts with Advent Sunday, late November or early December, restarting the “liturgical year” leading up to Christmas)
    Incipit: Sequentia sancti evangelii (there follows the Sequences of the Holy Evangelists)

2) folios. 160r - 171r: Ordinary of the Mass—the text to which the main parts of every Mass are sung: the Kyrie eleison (“Lord have mercy”), the Gloria in excelsis Deo (“Glory to God in the highest”), the Credo (“I believe”—the Nicene Creed), the Sanctus and Benedictus (“Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini” / “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”), and the Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God” = “miserere nobis” / have mercy upon us, and “dona nobis pacem” / grant us peace. The Mass is celebrated on its own Sunday schedule, independent of Easter’s date.
    Decoration note: Full-page illuminated initial fol. 162v, half-page initial fol. 163r, and full-page Crucifixion/"T" fol. 166v

3) folios. 171r - 182r: Proprium de Sanctis—the “Proper of the Saints,” those texts celebrating specific saints’ feast days which happen on the same day each year, independent of Easter’s date (e.g., the Feast Day of St. Thomas à Becket, whose presence in the W.75 calendar helps us date the MS to after 1173 when he was canonized, is always on December 29).

4) folios. 182v - 244r: Sanctorale—the rituals and texts for feasts that always happen on the same day of the year, except for those whose feasts occur between Christmas season and Pentecost, recorded in the Proper of the Saints (lesser Saints’ feasts starting with St. Andrew [11/29] and including more familiar ones like Valentine [2/14] and Patrick [3/17]).

5) folios. 244r - 255v (passage 3 [f. 250r] Matthew 16.24): Commune Sanctorum—the “Common of the Saints,” texts and rituals common to all of certain types of saints such as martyrs, apostles, etc.  Includes Psalms and readings from Gospels routinely used for many feasts.

6) folios. 255v - 278v: Special Masses

7) folios. 279r - 279v: Mass for the Holy Sacrament  Written in a second scribal hand—possibly a later addition.

8) folios. 280r - 285v: Calendar (also possibly a later addition?)—a schedule, month by month, of saints’ feast days and other important major events in the Church year.



Adapted from “W.75, The St. Francis Missal, Latin (1180 - 1228 CE, Umbria, Italy),” The Digital Walters, http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W75/description.html