Book contents
The Texts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 March 2023
Summary
1 Vespers and compline from the Little Office or Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary with added Commemorations from the Hours of the Cross
Deus in adiutorium meum intende
Isabel Ruddok's Hours
Bristol Public Library MS 14, fols 41r–45v
Latin prose and verse
Refs: for the expansion of psalms, Roman Breviary; for the expansion of prayers shared with the Mass, see Bruylants 1952, Vol. 2
The Little Office or Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary can be found with minor variations in most books of hours. Sections from the Hours of the Cross, or the entire Office, are often interwoven with the Little Office, especially in English books of hours. Most of the psalms at vespers and compline of the Little Office are taken from the Gradual Psalms, strongly associated with Mary by the popular tradition that she recited them as she ascended the steps of the temple on the occasion of her Presentation. The exceptions are psalm 12 and psalm 25 at compline. In Isabel Ruddok's Hours, a single commemoration from the Hours of the Cross is added at the end of each Hour of the Little Office. Compline, the last Hour of the day, is often followed by additional prayers, and by the anthem Salve regina, as it is here. Following the Little Office and its additional prayers and anthem, on fol. 46, there is written twice, on both sides of the leaf, perhaps in Isabel Ruddok's own hand: Da michi Issabelle Ruddok famule tue victoriam contra inimicos meos ‘Grant me, your servant Isabel Ruddok, victory over my enemies’. For Isabel's own prayer, see text 21.
Here begin Vespers
God, take heed to help me.
Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the father, [and to the son, and to the Holy Ghost,]
As it was [in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end].
Alleluia
Anthem
After giving birth [you remained an unspotted virgin].
Psalm [121 (122)]. Letatus sum
[I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, which is built as a city, which is compact together.
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- Information
- Women's Books of Hours in Medieval England , pp. 37 - 148Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006