Western Medieval Manuscripts : Fragmentary Psalter

Western Medieval Manuscripts

Samuel Sandars (1837-1894) was one of the most important benefactors of Cambridge University Library in modern times. As well as providing funds for the acquisition of early printed books and manuscripts for the Library, Sandars was an important collector in his own right. As David McKitterick relates in his history of Cambridge University Library, Sandars' actions in both regards were cultivated and guided by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), University Librarian 1867-1886, and his successor-but-one Francis Jenkinson (1853-1923), University Librarian 1889-1923. At his death, Sandars bequeathed the funds that established the eponymous <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/sandars'>Readership in Bibliography</a>. The Sandars Lectures given by the holder of this position take place each year and continue to this day. In addition to this, Sandars left his entire collection - amounting to some 1,600 printed books and close to a hundred manuscripts - to the University Library. The richly illuminated Psalter shown here was among these donations. Its 74 leaves are, however, only a portion of the manuscript's original extent, and they are, moreover, arranged out of their proper sequence. Their appeal to Sandars was certainly their decorative rather than their textual contents - an interest reflected in the rest of his collection, the majority of which is illuminated. Sandars acquired these leaves for £43 at auction on 25 May 1893 (with Bernard Quaritch acting as his agent). The under-bidder was the Arts and Crafts pioneer William Morris (1834-1896), who, according to a note by Sandars on f. [i] verso, 'asked me to let him have it', a request that Sandars evidently declined.The leaves had previously been part of the large archaeological and antiquarian collections of Thomas Bateman (1821-1861) of Youlgrave, Derbyshire, whose bookplate may be seen on the <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>front pastedown</a>. Suzette van Haaren has suggested that it might be Bateman who was responsible for tracing in pencil the outlines of some of the decorative motifs on the other side of the leaves on which they are found (see, for example, ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(33);return false;'>14r</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(43);return false;'>19r-20r</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(52);return false;'>23v</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(60);return false;'>27v</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(65);return false;'>30r</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(67);return false;'>31r</a> and elsewhere). Bateman is known from another manuscript - Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4166 - to have either made or commissioned a tracing of an otherwise unattested prayer or creed in Old English. As Rebecca Rushforth observed, 'The fact that the prayer was traced rather than simply transcribed shows some interest in the form of the artefact itself rather than in the text alone, which accords with Bateman's collecting habits.' It may be, van Haaren has speculated, that these leaves may have likewise served Bateman as a collection of specimens of medieval decoration and script.The earlier provenance of the leaves remains obscure. They had presumably been extracted from their parent manuscript after the addition of antiphons to several margins by a 17th-century French hand, and perhaps before they were acquired by Bateman in 1840. It is known that the binder, James Hayday (1796-1872), was given business by the source of Bateman's purchase, the bookseller William Pickering (1796-1854), and moreover was introduced to potential patrons by him. However, without further evidence it is unclear whether Bateman acquired the leaves already bound or in unbound form and was subsequently guided by Pickering to employ Hayday to bind them. As to the origins and medieval ownership of the manuscript, there is little certain information. In an unpublished description of the manuscript (now <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/90597'>UA ULIB 7/3/74/75</a>), M.R. James remarked, 'I am reminded of the MS B.11.22 at Trinity College, which is certainly Flemish.' Both this manuscript and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/B.11.22'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.11.22</a> do indeed contain many similar border decorations, including hunting scenes, games, musical activities, and human, animal and hybrid forms, some of which are suggestive of satirical comment on the adjacent text, and James's observation has informed the subsequent localisation of the manuscript's production and its dating to the end of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th century. Among these marginal decorations is one clue as to the manuscript's original or early ownership, recorded in unpublished notes (now <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/820706'>UA ULIB 7/3/72/25</a>) but not reported in subsequent published descriptions. On f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(80);return false;'>37v</a>, a human-animal hybrid figure is battling a beast, wielding a sword and shield bearing the design azure, a lion rampant argent, the arms of the Montalt family. Dr James Freeman Medieval Manuscripts Specialist Cambridge University Library