Shelfmark
MS 78
Title
Psalter [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: Psalterium cum canticis et hymnis
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL II: Psalterium, etc.
Publication, distribution, etc.
England, 1200-1225.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 261 x 191 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Tertio folio (due to damage to second folio): abiit.
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (FHHF).
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 133-140 x 190-195 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: iv + 161 + iv.
Note
Collation: 1 two (ff. 1, 2) 2⁸ (wants 2 + 1 leaf now missing before 1) 3⁸ 4⁸ (wants 2) 5⁸ (wants 6) 6⁸ (wants 8) 7⁸ 8⁸ (wants 3) 9-10⁸ 11⁶ + 1 leaf after 3 (f. 73) 12⁸ 13⁸ (wants 4) 14-17⁸ 18⁴ 19-22⁸ 23 two.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: none.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in plummet; no pricking visible.
Note
Mise-en-page: single columns (22 lines) written in a set script sitting just above the line and beginning above the first ruled line. The calendar and list of chants in the litany are organised in 5 and 2 columns respectively. Rubrics. Paragraph signs are used to separate missing text from the main text.
Note
Decoration: three large initials (8-10 lines) illuminated in gold, blue, pink, white and orange, filled with foliage scrolls and sometimes birds. Decorated arabesque penwork initials (3-9 lines) in red, green, light blue and occasionally yellow. The flourishes fill letter bowls and extend from shafts. Line fillers in red and blue penwork. Damage to the folios of calendar suggest that there likely were decorations (possibly miniatures) that have been cut out.
Note
Handwriting: northern littera textualis with some sine pedibus influences but not consistent. At least two scribes; a change occurs at f.152r. Ker also refers to "two very different hands [who] took turns at writing the March and April entries" in the calendar.
Note
Abbreviation and punctuation: no use of & or Tironian nota: "et" is always spelled out. Puncti and puncti elevati.
Note
Correction: the main scribe added missing text on the first available space on the lines above or below; they are introduced by a paragraph mark and justified to the right. Few corrections by a later annotator, amending text inter linea.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: an early modern annotator added signposts for biblical references. An Anglicana hand also adds brief corrections on a few occasions. This may be the same person adding a comment at f.8v regarding the line "eloquia domini eloquia casta". 15th-century additions to feasts in the calendar.
Formatted contents note
Contents: ff.1r-2v: calendar (March, April, November, December) ; ff. 3r-113r: psalms 1-151 (51 and 52 missing) from the Gallican psalter with Benedictine divisions ; ff.113r-123r: six ferial canticles (Te deum, Benedicte, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, Quicumque vult) ; ff.123r-127r: litany ; f.127v: blank ; ff.128r-r-153v: hymns ; ff.153v-161v: twenty-four monastic canticles (for Sundays, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter).
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 694-695
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), pp. 26-27
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 78
Provenance
Origin: England. Used at Christ Church Canterbury; Ker reports that Edmund Bishop "considered that the calendar was St Augustine's, adapted later for use at Christ Church" (p. 695).
Provenance
Provenance: inscription on f.1r: "Dedit Collegio B.M. de Etona Tho: Horne Soc. 1713" i.e. Eton Fellow Thomas Horne (d. 1720).
Binding
18th-century calfskin over paste/millboards. Covers decorated with double blind fillets and roll to form a border. Spine rebacked by R.L. Day; five raised bands, decorated with blind tools, gilt fillets and titling ("liber psalmorum"). Endpapers of modern undecorated paper; four flyleaves at both ends of the textblock.
Subject
Subject
Bible. Psalms Manuscripts.
Subject
Psalters Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Horne, Thomas, ? - d. 1720 former owner.
Added entry--name
Woodford, Samuel, 1636 - 1700 associated name.
Added entry--name
Day, R. L. binder.
Added entry--place
England Canterbury.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50006