The Calendar

Due to the various additions the Guild made to Egerton 2572, the oldest part of the manuscript begins on fol. 44r with the calendar. Neatly written but not decorated, except for some flourishing in red ink, the calendar shows one month to each page and is of York use. The borders of the pages have been left blank but are wide, as is the case with all of the late medieval folios containing text. Wider borders meant more parchment was required and the design gives an impressive mise-en-page. However, leaving the pages largely unadorned demonstrates a compromise being made when commissioning a manuscript that was both high-status in appearance but affordable to produce.

Using a calendar as evidence for the location of a manuscript's production can be problematic. There are many fifteenth-century examples of books for an English market having been manufactured on the Continent, whilst a calendar of Sarum use could be adapted to include local saints and give the impression of a different regional provenance. What can be said about the calendar in Egerton 2572 is that all of the entries have been written in the same hand and it is apparently as close to being a perfect example of York use as one could expect to find. Janet Backhouse identified the presence of certain saints’ feasts as being indicative of York use, assigning particular emphasis to John of Beverley (7 May, translation 25 October), William of York (8 June), Paulinus of York (10 October) and Wilfred of Ripon (12 October), all of whom are named in the guild book. Matthew Salisbury, in his analysis of the York use, adds to this list entries for St Everildis (9 July) and the Feast of the Relics, commemorating all of the saints whose relics were said to rest in York Minster (19 October). Both are found in the guild book's calendar, as too are the four saints – Germanicus (19 January), Babillus (24 January), Pelagia (8 October), Hilarion (21 October) – which Richard Pfaff states are found as a group only in York manuscripts.

In addition to identifying the calendar as York use, it is important to consider it in the context of the Guild's activities.