{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin", "value": "First half of the 11th century, perhaps as early as the fourth quarter of the 10th century. England.

As with the place of origin (for which, see below), there is no clear agreement about the date of origin of this manuscript. Neil Ker (1957) proposed the mid-11th century, which, in Pam Robinson's analysis, appears to be confirmed by the inclusion among the apostles in the litany of St Martial, bishop of Limoges, whose apostolate was proclaimed by the bishop of Limoges in 1029, placing the copying of the manuscript at some point after that date. However, more recent studies have increasingly pushed the date of origin back: Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi (2011) to the first half of that century, and David Dumville (1991) to the early 11th century, and Michael Lapidge (1992) still further to not much later than 1000 but potentially as early as the fourth quarter of the 10th century (and more specifically 975-992, a period in which Germanus, formerly abbot of Winchcombe, and monks from that house were resident at Ramsey Abbey). <\/p>

There is no definitive evidence for the place of origin for this manuscript, however various theories have been advanced on the basis of art-historical or text-historical bases. The manuscript has commonly been attributed to Winchcombe Abbey in Gloucestershire, on the grounds that the name of St Kenelm is picked out in the litany in rubricated rustic capitals (f. 274v<\/a>): Kenelm was the son of the abbey's founder, Coenwulf of Mercia, and both were buried there.<\/p>

However, Michael Lapidge has pointed out that other liturgical books of this period contain similar emphases in their commemorations but have no evident connection to Winchcombe: for example, Orléans, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 127, whose origin was English but otherwise remains uncertain; and the Metrical Calendar of Ramsey (Oxford, St John's College, MS 17) and the Ramsey Psalter / Oswald Psalter (London, British Library, Harley MS 2904<\/a>), both of which are 'indisputably linked' with Ramsey Abbey in Cambridgeshire. Furthermore, the litany in MS Ff.1.23 contains saints that point to an East Anglian origin: Æthelthryth, Seaxburh/Sexburg and Eormenhild, each of whom was connected with Ely, and Tova, who was venerated at Thorney, all of whom are found in demonstrably East Anglian liturgies in other manuscripts (such as Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 296<\/a>, from Crowland Abbey; and Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS Reg. lat. 12<\/a>, from the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds). Wenburg (spelt 'ƿenburga' in this manuscript) is also included in Harley MS 2904. Other links with Ramsey arise from the inclusion of Breton saints Samson, Machu and Budoc - the last of whom occurs only in MS Ff.1.23 and the Metrical Calendar of Ramsey.<\/p>

Both Dumville and Lapidge have pointed to the religious career of Germanus (d. c. 1013) - who moved between houses at Fleury, Westbury (Gloucestershire), Ramsey, Winchcombe, back to Fleury, and then as abbot of a new foundation at Cholsey (Oxfordshire) - as possible explanation for the particular combination of saints in the litany in this manuscript. It may be that monks transferred from Ramsey to Winchcombe, and returned to their place of origin in 975, retained some of their west-country liturgical identity while adopting some of that belonging to their place of exile.<\/p>

This may not mean, however, that the manuscript was copied at Ramsey. The exemplar for the Old English text in this manuscript is not identified or has not survived, but its closest relative is that found in the Vespasian Psalter (London, British Library, Cotton MS Vespasian A.i<\/a>), which was at Canterbury by the later medieval period and presumably there when additions were made by Eadwig Basan in the early 11th century. Obligations owed by Germanus to Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, and his successor Ælfric, may have given rise to 'cultural affiliations' between Cholsey and Canterbury, leading Dumville to conclude that this manuscript (and another, Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.32) 'may have been written at Canterbury or Cholsey, but...belong palaeographically to the Canterbury orbit, as well as having textual and liturgical links with that city'. Michael Lapidge also considered Canterbury a possibility, specifically St Augustine's abbey, 'however, the evidence of palaeography squares poorly with that of liturgy', since the litany 'in no way reflects the liturgical use of that house, for it omits St Augustine of Canterbury from its list of confessors'. If it were written at St Augustine's, it must have made use without adaptation of an exemplar from elsewhere, but on the balance of evidence it seemed to Lapidge more likely that the manuscript was made during the seventeen-year period in which Germanus and his Winchcombe monks resided at Ramsey.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "England." }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "

Matthew Parker (1504-1575), archbishop of Canterbury: partial pagination in characteristic red/orange crayon. Annotation in same crayon on front pastedown<\/a> 'to ye<\/sup> Lord Keper', indicating Parker's intention to give the manuscript to Sir Nicholas Bacon (1509-1579), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. The manuscript is recorded as a bequest to Bacon in Parker's will of 1575 (TNA PROB/11/57/423<\/a>) - where it is described as 'Librum Psalterii Dauidis cum glosa Saxonice pulchre scriptum et Ligatum' - but it was evidently in Bacon's possession before that date and by 1574 at the latest (see below for further details).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex: iii + 278 + iii leaves. Leaf height: 270 mm, width: 160 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "First half of the 11th century, perhaps as early as the fourth quarter of the 10th century." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.1.23" }, { "label": "Donor(s)", "value": "Bacon, Nicholas, Sir, 1509-1579" }, { "label": "Additions", "value": "

Sixteen Old English glosses added in black ink later in the 11th century (see ff. 27v<\/a>, 29r<\/a>, 204v<\/a>, 227r<\/a>, 237r<\/a>, 243v<\/a>, 244r<\/a>).<\/p>

The red ink on ff. 5v-11r<\/a> has faded in places and been retouched.<\/p>

Quire numbers added in pencil by an unidentified 20th-century hand to the lower right-hand corner of the recto of the first leaf of each quire. <\/p>" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Psalters; Latin language--Translating into Old English" }, { "label": "Associated Name(s)", "value": "Douglas Cockerell and Son (Firm); Pink, H. L." }, { "label": "Format", "value": "Codex" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library<\/i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press)." }, { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Sixteenth-century binding (no later than 1574) from the 'Morocco Binder Group'. Fine brown leather over boards, gold-tooled frames and floral panels, with raised split cords and endbands, oval medallions above and below painted arms of Matthew Parker (1504-1575), archbishop of Canterbury (sable a fess argent<\/i>). Gilded and patterned fore-edges (not currently digitised). Two clasps gone. Mark of Cambridge University Library chain-stapling on the lower part of the fore-edge of the front cover.<\/p>

Repaired by Douglas Cockerell and Son, Letchworth, July, 1959 (see note by H.L. Pink on f. 1r<\/a>). Materials retained after the repair, including former spine labels bearing the manuscript's classmark, have been pasted onto the rear pastedown<\/a>.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Condition", "value": "

The quality of the manuscript's parchment is very variable. It is occasionally thick and yellow, sometimes very thin and brittle, as evidenced by the shine-through on f. 233r<\/a>. There are numerous instances where the parchment is torn or damaged, most of which appear to have occurred before copying, with the text written around tears, holes and repairs (see, for example, ff. 28<\/a>, 33<\/a>, 117<\/a>, 251<\/a> and 252<\/a>). The manuscript has been trimmed at rebinding, with several initials (f. 224v<\/a>), border decorations (ff. 4v<\/a>, 88r<\/a>, 171r<\/a>) and even text (f. 108r<\/a>) being partially cropped as a result. The fore-edge of f. 206r<\/a> was repaired in the 16th century with a strip of parchment.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Script", "value": "

Apparently copied by a single scribe (a 'large and clumsy hand': Ker (1957)), the text of both the Old English and Latin versions of the Psalms and of the other contents is written predominantly in Insular minuscule<\/i>. However, for the opening leaves, up to part-way through f. 6v<\/a>, the scribe used Caroline minuscule<\/i> for the Latin text. <\/p><\/div>

Rubrics written in rustic capitals<\/i>, in green ink, perhaps by the same scribe.<\/div><\/div>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

Produced around the first half of the 11th century or perhaps as early as the last quarter of the 10th century, and evidently conceived from the outset as a bilingual Psalter, this manuscript is notable for the parity that it accords the Old English and Latin versions of the text. Far from merely providing a continuous interlinear gloss, the Old English text, which is related to that found in the Vespasian Psalter (London, British Library, Cotton MS Vespasian A.i<\/a>), has been properly ruled and written in a script the same size as the Latin. (Part of the Canticles - the Te Deum, Nunc dimittis, Gloria, Pater noster and Credo - have been spaced like the rest, but the gloss has not been entered: see ff. 267r-270r<\/a>).<\/p>

Written in black and red ink respectively, the alternation of the Latin and Old English forms a pleasing balance on the manuscript page, underscoring the extent to which the two languages were seen as an equally valid means of presenting the holy text. The copying of the Old English text in red ink - typically reserved for rubrics in manuscripts - and its positioning on the line above the Latin text rather than below might furthermore imply something about the relative status of the vernacular version compared to the Latin. Indeed, errors in the transmission of the Latin Psalter in this manuscript confirm that either the scribe was copying from a faulty exemplar, was not sufficiently familiar with the text to correct them, or sufficiently attentive a copyist to avoid making them in the first place (or some combination of all three). The scribe also distinguished between the two versions - at least in the early stages - by the use of different scripts: Caroline minuscule for the Latin text, and Insular minuscule (a regional variant of Caroline minuscule) for the Old English. However, it appears that Caroline minuscule did not come to him naturally and part-way through f. 6v<\/a> he all but abandons this, copying the rest of the text in Anglo-Saxon minuscule (this shift is especially noticeable in his execution of the letters d, g, r and s).<\/p>

The manuscript\u2019s illumination, characterised by successive scholars as 'crude' (Kendrick (1949)) and 'mediocre' (Gameson (1995)) comprises full page miniatures and decorative initials that are yet engaging and inventive. Four miniatures preceding Psalms 1, 51, 101 and 109 show, respectively, David playing the harp (f. 4v<\/a>), the Crucifixion (f. 88r<\/a>), Christ in majesty (f. 171r<\/a>) and Christ trampling the beasts (f. 195v<\/a>). The Crucifixion miniature, which may be compared to other near-contemporary examples such as those in the Ramsay Psalter (London, British Library, Harley MS 2904<\/a>), the Aelfwine Prayerbook (London, British Library, Cotton MS Titus D XXVII<\/a>) and the Judith of Flanders Gospels (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 709<\/a>), shows John as an eyewitness to Christ\u2019s death, recording his account of the Crucifixion ('Et ego vidi et testimonium') on a writing tablet.<\/p>

The decoration of initials, which is abundant throughout the manuscript, is on occasion very innovative, showing a fluidity of form and execution that offers a counterpoint to the heaviness of the foliate frames used in the full-page miniatures. Initials made into the shape of acrobatic figures - as in the letter 'M' on f. 169v<\/a>, or the 'C' on f. 13v<\/a> - showcase an artistic ability to adapt the shape of the letters to a particular theme: the grace of the floating and tumbling bodies picked up in the arched backs of the angels above Christ's mandorla in the full-page miniature on f. 171r<\/a>. Elsewhere in the manuscript, and unusually, there are realistic attempts to depict human faces, as in that of a monk on f. 224r<\/a>.<\/p>

In addition to the Psalms, the manuscript contains two sets of prayers (ff. 4r<\/a>, 276r-281v<\/a>), Canticles (ff. 251r-274r<\/a>), and a Litany (ff. 274r-276r<\/a>). A table of incipits was added during the 16th century to binding endleaves at the beginning of the manuscript which themselves date to this period (ff. 2v-3r<\/a>).<\/p>

Though not the highest grade of work, either in script or artistic execution, the manuscript can still be counted amongst the most important illuminated Psalters of the late Anglo-Saxon period. Its relationship to other manuscripts produced during or after the Benedictine Reform, both artistically and in terms of liturgical content, remains a topic for further investigation, and promises to reveal much more about the production and reception contexts for late Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.<\/p>

Elizabeth Wright, University of York (2015)
Revised and expanded by James Freeman, Cambridge University Library (2022)<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Parker, Matthew, 1504-1575; Bacon, Nicholas, Sir, 1509-1579" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Bilingual Psalter in Old English and Latin" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Elizabeth Wright (June 2015), James Freeman (revised and expanded, August 2022)" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Parchment (HFFH<\/i>)" }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "

The manuscripts comprises 35 quires, all originally of eight leaves, as follows: