folio in two, they ranged from small folio, through 4to. and 8vo. sizes, to the duodecimo. I speak of them as we now would, not of their signatures, which commonly ran in eights.

Here, as I am upon the size of the Breviary, seems to be the proper place to speak of the "Portiforium :" with its various English names, of Porteau, Portuary, Portuis, Portuasse, Porthoos, and Portfory. There can be no doubt that the printed Breviary in folio of the Use of Sarum is of the highest rarity. Such books naturally would be so they were intended for the public use of churches, and in almost every case having been purchased by them, would have been less likely to escape the severe edicts which so frequently were aimed not merely at their mutilation, but total destruction. Neither Herbert nor Gough mentions an edition in folio, and therefore we must conclude knew not of the existence of any one. This might account somewhat for the error of the latter, where he says, that the Portiforium" like the Breviary, was a commodious portable abridgment of the service." Such certainly are all the editions less than the folio, although it must be remembered that those in small folio (so-called) or thick 4to. are sufficiently bulky.

But Gough quotes Du Cange, who says nothing of the sort for which he is appealed to. The one lays down that the printed Portiforium was a portable book, the other that it was so called from having perhaps originally been so. He "Vocis etymon ab eo quod foras facile portari possit accersendum opinor." Here I fully agree with this very learned

37

says,

37 Glossarium. Verb. Portiforium.

writer, and that the word, as time went on, was changed from its original signification, until it came to be nothing more or less than a synonym of Breviary.

Portiforium, or, as sometimes spelt, Portiphorium, appears to have been adopted only in England. At least, in the catalogue of Breviaries given by Zaccaria, 38 in which he says he has added to the already long list compiled by Fabricius,39 no such title is quoted of any foreign Use. The authorities also of Du Cange are all English: his first, Ingulphus, is remarkable, as it shews that as soon as the name of Breviary is to be found abroad, so early also is the title Portiforium at home.40 The book is often spoken of in works of the xv th and xvith centuries, is not an unfrequent item11 in

41

38 Bibl. Ritualis. Tom. 1. p. 121-134.

39 Bibliotheca med. et inf. Latinit. Tom. 1. p. 274.

40 Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, was born A. D. 1030, and died in 1109. His words are, from the Historia Croylandensis, "Restituit monasterio nostro unum Portiforium de usu nostræ ecclesiæ, et unum Missale, &c."

41 I think it worth mentioning that in the complete list of service books, once belonging to the royal chapel at Windsor, the word "Breviarium" does not occur: but "Portiforium "five times: among which is," item unum magnum portiphorium, in duobus voluminibus." Dugdale. Monasticon. Vol. vi. p. 1363.

In the Will of Bishop Langley,

monastic inventories, and forms a special gift in many ancient wills. As a late authority, let me quote the instance of the unfortunate Queen Mary of Scotland, who, immediately before she was barbarously murdured, whilst the Dean of Peterborough gave the sanction of his presence and was offering up some long extempore prayer, which he thought suited to such an opportunity, "performed her own private devotions, out of her own Portuary, sometimes in the Latin, and sometimes in the English tongue."2

I have given a table of the contents of a Salisbury Breviary in the preface to the English Prymer, in this work and I think it only necessary here to add, that the Breviaries of the churches of Hereford and York were also printed.

In the statute cited above (p. xvj.), of Quivil, Bishop of Exeter, are enjoined three service books not mentioned in Winchelsey's constitution: viz. the "venitare," " ymnare," and "collectare." Of these the second only was printed: and I know not whether the others are any where extant in manuscript. In the absence

ham:""Catalogi Veteres :" and "Wills and Inventories." The learned editor of the Catalogues has not ventured himself to explain what the books are, which occur so often in his volume, but quotes a History of North Durham, by the Rev. J. Raine, who has given (it seems) a short account of them there. It is to be lamented that this has been done; for such explanations as the following are worse than useless. They repeat the mischievous errors

which I have spoken of already at some length. "Ordinarium. The Book of daily or Common Prayer." "Portifer, Portiforium: a book of the same nature as the Ordinarium above, only of a smaller and more portable size." Preface to Catalogi Veteres, p. xliv. Such extracts are unworthy of that learned Society, by way of illustrating really useful compilations.

42 Gunton. Hist. of Peterborough, p. 76.

therefore of actual copies of these books, to some extent we must have recourse to conjecture. Du Cange quotes the synod of Exeter," which is the only authority he gives, and explains the "Venitare" to be, "Liber ecclesiasticus, in quo descriptus psalmus cum notis musicis, Venite exultemus Domino, &c. quo Matutini incipiuntur." There can be little doubt that the Invitatories were in this book, and I cannot but think that other parts of the canonical Hours might occasionally have been written in the same volume, which nevertheless continued to retain its early name: in the same way as in the antiphoner and the Gradual were respectively much more than the antiphons, strictly so called, and the graduals. Had it not occurred in a statute providing for the service of parish-churches, but in a list of books belonging to or used by some great religious establishment, we might at once have settled the Venitare to have been what Du Cange explains it, and nothing more: for we know that monasteries and cathedrals, for the greater splendour of their services,

43

choro." p. 273.

About fifty years after Bishop accendi aliæ etiam candelæ pro Quivil's time, we are indebted to Oliver. Monast. Exon. the same diocese of Exeter for another example of a Venitare or Venitarium. It occurs in the Statutes of Bishop Grandisson for S. Mary Ottery. "In inceptione vero ultimæ pulsationis ad matutinas, quando de nocte dicuntur, unus de clericis ecclesiæ unam candelam in sconsa vel boetta accensam ponat super gradum chori cum libro Venitario, ita quod ante inceptionem invitatorii lumen sit ibi semper paratum unde possint

It is a proof of the very unfrequent occurrence of the title Venitare, that the learned editor of the Exeter Monasticon, than whom few men now living have read and examined more documents written in or relating to the middle ages, has inserted in his copy of this Statute, a conjectural and unnecessary emendation; "(invitatorio?)"

divided the office, whether of the Hours or of the Mass, among very many volumes. But such would have been impossible, if not ridiculous almost, in small parish-churches.

Again, it would have been possible that by the Venitare the Antiphoner under the name of one of its constituent parts might be meant: but the Antiphoner is ordered also in the same statute. From an instance, among the very rare ones which remain, of a Venitare in actual use, it is certain that other parts of the service were joined with it: this is among the books which, in K. Edward the first's reign, were in the church of S. Faith, beneath S. Paul's: and although called a Venitare, it began with the legend of S. Faith, and contained also a hymnal."

For one reason, I am under the same difficulty in explaining the "Collectare:" viz. that it has not been printed, and I do not remember to have seen such a book in MS. I mean a copy about which there can be no doubt. For example, in the library of the British Museum 45 is a volume, the first part of which is a Martyrology (I believe of Sarum Use): and the second contains a large number of collects of Matins,

44 Dugdale. Hist. of S. Paul's, p. 233. Edit. 1658. It is just possible, I merely would suggest it, that a most noble MS. in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge, is a Venitare: it contains (as appears from a very hasty examination which I was enabled to make) the Invitatories, some Responses, &c. of certain offices, fully noted. It is at least

to be admired for its great size: every letter is three quarters of an inch in length, and the initial, seven inches.

45 Bibl. Reg. MS. 2. A. xiij. The Harleian MS. 2961, contains a great number of collects, but also antiphons and capitula. At the end some hymns. Altogether, more miscellaneous. It is very early, of the x th cent.