A Dissertation Upon the Ancient Service Books of the Church of England [By W. Maskell]. (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882. Excerpt: ... 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 (socalled) or thick 4to. are sufficiently bulky. But Gough quotes Ducange, 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. Ducange says, "Vocis etymon ab eo quod foras facile portari possit accersendum opinor."46 Here I fully agree with this very learned 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 a term adopted only in England. At least, in the catalogue of breviaries given by Zaccaria,46 in which he says he has added to the already long list compiled by Fabricius,47 no such title is quoted of any foreign use. The authorities also of Ducange are all English: his first, Ingulphus, is remarkable, as it shows that as soon as the name of breviary is to be found abroad so early also is the title portiforium at home.48 The book is often spoken of in works of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is not an unfrequent item49 in 45 Glossarium, verb. Porti-land, was born A. D. 1030 and forium. died in 1109. His words are, 46 Bibl. ritualis, torn. 1. pp. from the Historia Croylandensis, 121-134. "Restituit monasterio nostro... 47 Bibliotheca med. et inf. La-unum portiforium de usu nostrae Unit. tom. 1. p. 274. ecclesiae, et unum missale," &c. 48 Ingulphus, abbot of Croy-"I think it worth mentioning monastic inventories, and forms a special gift in many ancient wills. As a late authority, let...