Psalter, with added hymns, in Latin [France, c.1450-75 and early 16th century]

170×115mm, vellum, i+176 (foliated I-xii, 1-164)+i, apparently COMPLETE, 22 lines, 115×70mm, the first psalm with an ILLUMINATED INITIAL WITH A THREE-SIDED BORDER, the usual psalter divisions with large parted initials, some stains, thumbing, and cockling, with a few leaves torn at the fore-edge, not affecting legibility, a large part of f.161 torn out, plain brown 18th-century leather, rebacked and ‘repaired Oxford, Nov. 1936’


 

PROVENANCE

(1) The original owner was perhaps a monk or cleric: the canticles are followed by ruled leaves that were originally unwritten, suggesting that there was never a litany, and there is also no calendar, suggesting that the original owner of the book had access to other liturgical manuscripts. (2) The early 16th-century liturgical additions use punctus flexus punctuation, suggesting ownership by a Carthusian or Cistercian. (3) The top of f.ii is excised, probably to remove an ownership inscription; below on verso in red ink ‘Richarde H ffrancis’(?), 16th(?) century (f.iiv); he was perhaps responsible for numbering the psalms. (4) In pencil ‘Robert Benson’, 18th(?) century (ff.163v, 164v). (5) Ampleforth Abbey, with their ink stamp, shelfmark label ‘M/188/.S.S.’ (formerly MS 60a), and flyleaf notes; described by Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, II, 1977, p.32.

TEXT

The original text consists of the Psalms (f.1r) followed by the usual canticles and creeds (f.143r), ending complete on f.157v; added leaves at the beginning and end contain prayers, benedictions, hymns, etc. in an early 16th-century hand.