John Wickham Legg • 1915
The volume offers an integral edition of London, British Library, Royal MS 7.B.IV, which was first partly printed in Francis Aidan Gasquet & Edmund Bishop, Edward the Sixth and the Book of Common Prayer, Hodges, London, 1890.
A good deal of the MS is in the handwriting of Ralph Morice, secretary to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and there are prolific additions in Cranmer's own hand. The text amounts to Latin drafts, from the years 1543-1547 and in two distinct sections, of revised forms of Divine Office, of which the latter section appears heavily influenced by the two redactions of the breviary of Cardinal Quiñonez and is probably the earlier draft, while the first section approximates more closely to the form of Mattins and Evensong in the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. This section was probably drafted in the course of 1547, after the death of King Henry VIII.
Among other additional matter provided is a masterly introduction by John Wickham Legg and a synoptical presentation of the prefaces to the first and second Quiñonez breviaries, the Cranmer project and the First Prayer Book of Edward VI, showing clearly the development and influence.
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