Sherborne Missal
15th-century illuminated manuscript
The Sherborne Missal (London, British Library, Add MS 74236) is an early 15th-century English illuminated manuscript missal, one of the finest English examples of International Gothic painting. With 347 vellum leaves measuring 535 by 380 millimetres (21.1 in × 15.0 in), it weighs 20 kg. It has survived in excellent condition, and is usually on display at the Ritblat Gallery in the British Library. It has been described as "beyond question the most spectacular service
book of English execution to have come down to us from the later Middle Ages."
The Sherborne Missal was commissioned by Robert Bruyning, who served as abbot at the Abbey of St Mary in Sherborne in Dorset from 1385 to 1415. It was made for use at the abbey sometime between 1399 and 1407. The main scribe was a Benedictine monk of Sherborne Abbey, John Whas. Several hands worked on the illumination but the main artist was John Siferwas, a Dominican friar. Both of them, alongside Bruyning and his superior the Bishop of Salisbury Richard Mitford, are depicted and named in numerous miniatures.
The marginal decorations contain numerous high-quality drawings of British birds, including cormorants, gannets, moorhens, storks, European robins, chaffinches and mallards. According to William Brunsdon Yapp, it depicts the greatest number of identifiable bird species (40) of any medieval manuscript.
The public source identifies “Sherborne Missal” as 15th-century illuminated manuscript. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sherborne, Missal and 15th-century.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7494729. VIAF identifies the subject as 180191787. The Library of Congress control number is n00002133. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1385, 1415, 1399 and 1407.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sherborne Missal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.