Illuminated Latin manuscript on vellum, Mammotrectus. [Italy, early 14th century.]
188 leaves, 33-40 lines per page, in brown ink in a small cursive bookhand, index at end in double columns, written space 108 x 74 mm, headings and running titles in red, capitals touched in red, lemmata underlined in yellow or red, approximately 36 decorated initials of 6-lines or more in red, blue and purple with penwork infilling. Large inhabited initial on first page depicting the author in a Franciscan habit and holding a book, full-length leafy border. Period limp vellum wrappers made from a fragment of canon law manuscript. General thumbing, margins trimmed closed with text occasionally cropped (primarily to index), inkburn with small loss on f.7, few other small holes, binding worn and ties partially lacking.
Provenance: Schøyen Collection of Oslo and London (MS 117, sold at Sotheby's, June 21, 1988, lot 74).

Early and attractive manuscript of the Mammotrectus an important Franciscan reference work, here in a portable version. Biblical words are defined book by book and are then followed by the dictionary of the Sunday office (f.93v), hymns (f.95v), lives of the saints (f.102v) and Sunday sermons (f.138v).