Support: Parchment

Extent: 245 leaves; lacuna of unknown length (perhaps 2 leaves) at beginning; lacuna after the first responsory of Matins for Easter Sunday (perhaps 3-4 leaves); lacuna before Laurence (perhaps 2 leaves); lacuna at end of unknown length; insertion of three leaves after the summer histories; all lacunae and the insertion predate the numbering of the folia

Format: 45.5 x 31.4 cm

Foliation: in pencil in modern Arabic numbers, upper-right-hand corners of rectos

Collation: approximately 30 gatherings with 8 (or 10) leaves in each; insertion at ff. 157-159

Page layout: principal writing-space 34.0 x 24.0 cm; 13 four-line red staves with music notation per side with text in the intervening spaces; height of staff is approximately 1.2 cm; height of text is approximately 0.6 cm; distance between ruled lines is not uniform (ranges between 1.2 and 1.5 cm); large, decorative initials are 5.8 cm tall; frame and guide-holes generally not visible (although guide-holes are visible on ff. 23-24 and ff. 227-236, for example)

Musical notation:

• square notation
• neumes in brown/black ink

Binding: wood with dark-brown leather covering; 47.2 x 33.5 cm; approximately 15 cm thick; covers are each approximately 2 cm thick; leather is tooled on front cover with a decorative cross and X in a frame, and back cover has X and decorative frame; worn at corners and edges of spine; binding not made for this manuscript; remnants of two clasps on exterior of back cover; 4 round and 2 star-shaped metal bosses on front cover; 4 round metal bosses on back cover; no front flyleaf; small sections remain of both front and back pastedowns (these contain unidentified text in a cursive script)

Origin of the manuscript: This manuscript is identified as Franciscan according to its incipit (see f. 4r) and the inclusion of the Offices for Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua. Mitchell has compared the rubrics with those of the earliest Franciscan liturgy as edited by van Dijk (The Ordinal of the Papal Court, 1975) and has determined that Fribourg Ms. 2 is representative of the first Franciscan Office liturgy, not that revised by Haymo of Faversham in the 1240s, as indicated by Leisibach. Since this manuscript contains the Office of Anthony of Padua (canonized 1232) in the original hand and in its proper position (June 13), it can be dated to the later thirteenth century. (Haymo’s revised ordinal of 1243-44 does not include this Office, but it is included in the Franciscan capitulary thought to have been issued in 1251.) Mitchell notes that there is no evidence of a lacuna where the Office for Clare (canonized 1255) would fall if included in its proper position (August 12). Even so, the manuscript was probably copied after 1260 since the first antiphon of Matins for the Office for Francis contains a wording ordered by a General Chapter of that year (statute edited in van Dijk, 1963, vol. 2, p. 420).