A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Bodl. 738

Summary Catalogue no.: 2731

Nicholas Trevet on the Psalms

Contents

Language(s): Latin

(1ra–250vb)
Nicholas Trevet, Expositio super Psalterium
(1ra–1va)
Epistola dedicatoria
Rubric: (running title) ep(isto)la p(ro)hemialis
Incipit: Reu(er)endo p(at)ri f(ratr)i Joh(ann)i de Bristoll’ Priori p(ro)ui(n)ciali fr(atru)m p(re)dicator(um) Anglie f(rate)r Nich(olau)s Treueth eiusde(m) ord(in)is salute(m) et debite obediencie p(ro)mptu(m) obsequiu(m) ac deuotu(m). Int(er) celebres uet(er)is tes(tamen)ti t(ra) nsl(aci) ones.
Explicit: op(us) ist(u)d agg(re)ssus su(m) u(est)ris alior(um) q(ue) fr(atru)m m(er)itis qui || a me labore(m) hu(n)c instanti(us) flagi tarunt ad d(omi)ni n(ost)ri ih(s)u xp(ist)i honore(m) et gl(or)iam consu(m)mandu(m). amen.
(1va–250vb)
Expositio
Rubric: Incipit exp(ositi)o litt(er)alis fr(atr)is Nich(ola)i Treueth ord(in)is p(re)dicatoru(m) sup(er) psalt(er)ium
(1va–2va)
Prologus (referred to as ‘lectio’ in the running title)

Lemma: In psalt(er)io decacordo psallam t(ib)i ps(alm)o .cxliij.

Incipit: Cu(m) m(u)l ti p(ro)ph(et)e an(te) dauid m(u)lta et diu(er)sa ad laudem dei edid(er)int cantica.
Explicit: vn(de) dicit ip(s)e psalmista i(n) p(er)(sona) cui(us) l(ibet) qui se dirigit i(n) hu(n)c finem ps(alm)o .xxvi. tibi dixit cor meum exq(u)isiuit te facies mea faciem tua(m) d(omi)ne requiram ad q(ua)m nos p(er)ducat et c(etera).
(2va–4vb)
Expositio prologi Hieronymi
Rubric: Incipit p(ro)log(us) b(eat)i J(er)o(nim)i sup(er) psalt⟨er⟩iu(m) heb(ra)icu(m) .
Incipit: (textus) Eusebius Jeronim(us) soph\r/onio suo salute(m).
Incipit: (commentary) Beatus J(er)onim(us) cu(m) ad instancia(m) cui(us)dam familiaris sui no(m) i(n)e sophronij t(ra)nsferret psalt(er)iu(m) i(n)mediate de hebreo in latinu(m) p(re)misit hu(n)c p(ro)logu(m) in quo t(r)ia facit.
Explicit: (textus) (4va) Uale in domino ihesu cupio te meminisse mei.
Explicit: (commentary) (4vb) Exigit u(er)o se or(ati)onib(us) eius reco(m)mendando cu(m) dicit. cupio te meminisse mei. (id est) in or(ati)onib(us) tuis.
(4vb–250vb)
Expositio Psalmorum
Rubric: Psalmus p(r)imus .i.
Incipit: (textus) Beatus uir qui non abiit in co(n)silio impioru(m). et in uia p(e)cc(at)orum no(n) stetit et i(n) cathedra derisorum non sedit.
Incipit: (commentary) Putant n(on)n(u)lli duas fuisse t(ra)nsl(ati)ones psalt(er)ij i(n)mediate de hebraico in latinu(m) q(ua)ru(m) una e(st) J(er)onimi et alia cui(us)da(m) alt(er)ius int(er)pretis ignoti.
(textus)
Explicit: (textus) Omne quod spirat laudet dominum. haleluya.
Explicit: (commentary) Et in fine addit haleluya. q(uo)d est nota eximie leticie in laude diuina. que hic inchoata p(er)ficietur in pat(r)ia claritatis et(er)ne. ad q(ua)m nos p(er)ducat d(omi)n(u)s noster ih(su)c xp(istu)c qui e(st) deus benedictus in secula. amen.
Final rubric: Explicit litt(er)alis exp(ositi)o fr(atr)is Nicholai Treueth ordinis p(re)dicator(um) sup(er) psalteriu(m) translatu(m) a beato Jeronimo inmediate de hebraico in latinu(m).
(2va–250vb)
Latin Psalter according to the Hebrew

Portions of textus , in larger script, alternate with the commentary within a column. In the commentary the textus is referred to by lemmata, underlined in the same ink.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment of fine quality with only a slight difference between flesh and hair sides. Fols 1–15, of which the margins have been badly damaged, were repaired with transparent paper, which has sometimes made the text on those leaves difficult to read. Transparent paper was widely used for manuscript repairs at the Bodleian Library during Edward W. B. Nicholson’s time as Bodley’s Librarian between 1882 and 1912; see M. Stiglitz, J. Bearman, ‘Of earth and sky: a pair of Ming hanging scrolls, from past repairs to present conservation’, Restaurator, 37 (2016), pp. 309–27, at 309–16.
Extent: I–II + one non-numbered leaf + III–V (old parchment flyleaves) + 254 (fols 251–54 blank, between fols 251 and 252 stubs of two excised leaves).
Dimensions (leaf): 342 × 220 mm.
Foliation: Modern foliation.

Collation

I6+6 (1–12 [a]), II6+6 (13–24 [b]), III6+6 (25–36, c), IV6+6 (37–48, d), V6+6 (49–60, e), VI6+6 (61–72, f), VII6+6 (73–84, [g]), VIII6+6 (85–96, [h]), IX6+6 (97–108, [i]), X6+6 (109–20, [k]), XI6+6 (121– 32, [l]), XII 6+6 (133–44, [m]), XIII6+6 (145–56, [n]), XIV6+6 (157–68, [o]), XV6+6 (169–80 [a]), XVI 6+6 (181–92 [b]), XVII6+6 (193–204, c), XVIII6+6 (205–16, d), XIX6+6 (217–28, b?), XX6+6 (229–40, a?), XXI5+5 (241–50). The quires of regular sexternions and the final quinternion, bearing the text, are preceded and followed by ternions of old parchment flyleaves, blank or bearing ownership notes: the front ternion (fols I–V; an unnumbered leaf between II and III) and the back ternion (fols 251–54, wanting the second and third leaves). Horizontal catchwords, often lost (or partly lost) to trimming. Alphanumerical signatures in lead point are present in some quires.
Secundo Folio: (fol. 2r) ‘q(uia) t(er)nari(us)’.

Layout

342 (28+239+75) × 220 (28+65+13+63+51), written lines: 15 ( textus ) + 20 (comm.) in col. a, 42 (comm. alone) in col. b (fol. 31r, central bifolium of the quire III). Ruling in lead point, barely visible. Text begins below topline. As the textus in larger script alternates with the commentary, the number of written lines varies from column to column. It seems that the pages were provided with a constant ruling for lines (5 mm apart), while the sections of a column destined to host the textus were provided with additional ruling running through the middle of the space determined by standard ruling (see fol. 68vb). Two columns.

Hand(s)

Northern littera textualis by one hand. The use of straight d, alongside the round-backed form, decreases the probability that the copy was written later than the 1320s. Manuscripts described and reproduced in Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts, shows that the straight d, still found during the first three decades of the fourteenth century, becomes very rare afterwards (as an example of its late, and apparently already sporadic use, see London, British Library, Royal MS 10 E. iv (c. 1330–c. 1340), fol. 3r, l. 8, ‘edificandis’ (vol. 1, il. 258, cf. vol. 2, catalogue, No. 101, pp. 111–12).

Decoration

All major divisions of the text (dedicatory letter, prologue, Jerome’s letter, and individual psalms) are marked by painted initials, in gold and colours, and provided with painted marginal extensions in the form of blue and rose bars, decorated with ivy and oak leaves, squiggles and drolleries. Two are historiated initials: R(euerendo), fol. 1ra, represents a Dominican friar, with an open book on a lectern, teaching a group of three students, apparently also Dominicans; B(eatus), fol. 4vb, represents King David playing a harp. Other initials present human busts, en face , en trois quarts , or profiles, mostly male, bearded or beardless, sometimes distinguished by a halo (if cruciform then to be identified with Christ, see e.g. D(ixit), fol. 24va), royal crown (e.g. Q(uare), fol. 6ra), papal tiara (e.g. C(ustodi), fol. 26rb), bishop’s mitre (e.g. D(ixi), fol. 71va), or doctor’s cap (e.g. D(omini), fol. 45ra: see M. Scott, Medieval Dress and Fashion, London, 2007, pp. 84–85, 116, and fig. 66); rarely female (L(audate), fol. 201ra, C(um), fol. 201va: Evans, Pattern, seems to be the only one to have noticed this gallery). Other painted initials include only floral or geometric motifs.

Minor divisions are marked by red initials with violet flourishing or blue with red. Psalm 150 (fol. 250ra–va) is illustrated with representations of musical instruments. Apart from the two forms of tuba , put into the mouths of fantastic creatures (fol. 250ra), the other six are presented as being played by human figures, in square vignettes within text-columns.

Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander date this manuscript to c . 1320–1330 and attribute its decoration to ‘one of the hands of Christ Church, Oxford, MS. 92’. The latter is a presentation copy of Walter of Milemete’s Liber de nobilitatibus, sapientiis et prudentiis regum, prepared for Edward of Windsor, son and heir of Edward II. It is probable that the production of that manuscript had begun before the deposition of Edward II, but it was dedicated to his son as King Edward (III) at the beginning of his reign (crowned on 1 February 1327). MS. Bodl. 738 is therefore usually dated to the turn of 1326 and 1327. The illumination (unfinished) has been attributed to a group of artists working in London. Regrettably, Pächt and Alexander did not specify which of the artists was responsible for the decoration of the manuscript (the faces, at least, resemble those by Hand V in Milemete’s manuscript), or whether the entire decoration was done entirely by the same artist. Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts, vol. 2, No. 84 (pp. 91–93) identifies Hand V with the major artist responsible for the manuscripts Oxford, All Souls College, 7 (ibid., No. 90, pp. 89–90) and Dublin, Trinity College, 35 (ibid., No. 83, pp. 90–91). In a letter of 8 March 2020, Lucy Sandler defined the style of the manuscript as ‘East Anglian’, which does not necessarily mean that it was produced in East Anglia instead of a cosmopolitan London (cf. M. A. Michael, ‘Oxford, Cambridge and London: towards a theory for ‘grouping’ Gothic manuscripts’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 130, No. 1019, Special Issue on English Gothic Art (February 1988), pp. 107–15). It is worth adding also that the representations of the harp, the bagpipe, and the organs in the manuscript share some details with images of the respective instruments in Christ Church MS 92. Besides the companion volume of Milemete’s treatise (London, British Library, Add. MS 47680, the pseudo -Aristotelian Secretum secretorum, also destined for Edward III) and MS. Bodl. 738, the same artists, together or separately, have been recognized in a number of manuscripts datable to the third decade of the fourteenth century, some of which are associated with Oxford. (M. A. Michael, ‘Urban production of manuscript books and the role of the university towns’, in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, 2: 1100–1400, ed. by N. J. Morgan, R. M. Thomson, Cambridge, 2008, pp. 168–94, at 180–83.) The use of violet ink in the penwork decoration does not contradict the localization based on the painted decoration. The manuscript awaits a detailed art-historical analysis.

Additions:

Two layers of later glosses:

  • Annotations by Grandission (see below, Provenance).
  • A second set of annotations in a small, basically Anglicana glossing script, which Steele erroneously attributes to Grandisson; they are written later than those that are certainly Grandisson’s. They point to different emphases in commentary, such as ‘parabola’ (the outer margin of fol. 27r), ‘historia’ (the outer margins of fols 37r and 37v); spiritual topics (the outer margins of fols 1v, 101r, 155v, 171v, and 182r; the inner margin of fol. 197r, the outer margin of fol. 246r), natural phenomena (the outer margin of fols 45r, 179r–v, 180v, and 248v); definitions of figures of speech (the inner margin of fol. 66v); or names (‘Rabimosse’, the outer margin of fol. 177v).

Binding

Stamped white sheepskin (about 1602) on older sewing and boards, rebacked.

History

Origin: 1320s (probably before 1326) ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

John Grandison, bishop of Exeter: bequeathed to the Exeter chapter in 1365. Two notes written in Grandisson’s hand witness the donation. The first reads: ‘lib(er) J⟨ohannis⟩ de G⟨randison⟩. Exon’. Ep(iscop)i. que(m) dam(us) ip(s)i ecc(lesi)e’ (fol. 1r, upper margin). The second appears on the old flyleaf (fol. IV verso): ‘hu(n)c libru(m). cu(m) alio⹎ sup(er) psalt(er)iu(m). Scilicet. Nich(ola)i Tryueth: et aliu(m). Nich(ola)i de Lyra⹎ dam(us) cap(itu)lo n(ost)ro Exoniensi; manu mea .J. de .G. Exon’. Anno d(omi) ni mºcccºlxºvº. et officij mei .xxxºixº et etatis lºxxiiijº [the number repeated below as] septuag(esim)o. iiijº [a capite, with another pen] Et atte(n) de q(uod) s(e)c(un)d(u)m int(er)p(re)tat(i)o(ne)m lxx. exponitur no(n) iuxta textu(m) n(ost)r(u)m. [a capite, in yet another pen] Ego Joh(ann)es de .G. Exon’. †noui† [nouim Steele, 34] vtru(m)q(ue) [ a capite ] N(ota) Nicholau(m) [the following part is displayed on two levels] de lyra Minore(m) | et Tryueth p(re)di(ca) t(orem) | fr(atr)es.’ The problematic reading ‘noui’ has a diacritic sign above ‘i’ and rising abbreviation sign above ‘ui’. Steele’s reading offers a non-existent form. The word could be expanded as ‘nou(er)i(m)’, but then the use of the subjunctive would require explanation. Did Grandisson express a wish to know (or rather have known) both authors? As an alternative but not entirely satisfactory reading, Kujawiński proposes ‘no(mina) ui’, in the sense of ‘render renowned’. If, instead, the names of Lyre and Trevet referred to the bequeathed copies of their works rather than to the person of the authors, our word could be expanded as ‘no(ta)ui’, albeit a superscript cursive ‘a’ as a contraction would have been more in line with Grandisson’s writing habits. Despite this apparent irregularity, the reading ‘notaui’, which has been ingeniously suggested to me by James Willoughby, offers the best meaning: the bishop claims responsibility for the annotations in both books. The bequest is also confirmed by Grandisson’s will (1368): ‘Ita, tamen, quod Scripta Nicholai de Lira et Nicholai Tryvethe super Spalterium[sic], una cum melioribus originalibus que non habentur in libraria Ecclesie Exoniensis, remaneant ibidem in Archivis’. (The Register of John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter (A.D. 1327–1369), ed. by F. C. Hingeston-Randolph, 3 vols, London, 1894, vol. 3, p. 1553; cf. Oliver, Lives of the Bishops, pp. 448–49; in the forthcoming Willoughby, Ramsay, Libraries of the Secular Cathedrals, SC21.17.) The glosses added by Grandisson are written in the same display script and indicate the first psalms sung at Matins of each day of the week and at Vespers on Sunday, according to secular usage. The annotations provide the day, liturgical hour, often repeated in different positions, and are sometimes accompanied by the incipit of the psalm; the respective folios are tagged by strings sewn into the margins:

  • Feria II, Nocturnum II (Ps. 26, fol. 49va);
  • Feria III, Nocturnum III (Ps. 38, fol. 71va);
  • Feria IIII, Nocturnum IIII (Ps. 52, fol. 96ra);
  • Feria V, Nocturnum V (Ps. 68, fol. 118rb);
  • Feria VI, Sextum Nocturnum (Ps. 80, fol. 145ra);
  • Nocturnum VII Sabbato (Ps. 97, fol. 171ra);
  • Ad vesperas in dominicis (Ps. 109, fol. 197va).
Cf. Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ott. lat. 599, where the decorated initials point to the same liturgical division. Margaret Steele (p. 34) also ascribed to Grandisson the pointing hands, monograms of ‘Nota’, and the glosses highlighting topics of interest. The attribution of the latter group is not entirely convincing, since the examples cited by Steele from fols 27r and 37v differ in size and some letter forms from the scripts used by Grandisson, as described and illustrated by the same scholar. (Compare the forms of the two-compartment a and long-tailed shoulderless r in the glosses in G with respective forms in Grandisson’s scripts as described and illustrated by Steele, pp. 15–21, and plates; cf. F. Rose-Troup, Bishop Grandisson: Student and Art­Lover, Plymouth, 1929, pl. 6.) Certainly attributable to Grandisson are the glosses written in his glossing script in the outer margins of fols 4r (‘Nota gula’), 72r (‘Domine quid multuplicati’, the incipit of Ps. 3 referred to in the commentary on Ps. 38), 94v (‘Tytulus sequentis’), 103v (‘hic’, followed by a square monogram of ‘Nota’, another monogram in the inner margin of the same page), 104r (‘Item alius psalmus’), and 208r (‘Nota in toto .CLXXVI. versus’, referred to Ps. 118; in the inner margin Grandisson picked up Hebrew letters ‘Haleph’, ‘Beth’ and ‘Gymel’). This corpus of annotations, together with the liturgical division introduced by Grandisson, shows that he used the book (other glosses should probably be attributed to another medieval reader, for which see below). Grandisson, however, may have not been the first owner of G. A Psalter with Trevet’s commentary is registered among the books of his predecessor in Exeter, Walter de Stapeldon, in his post-mortem inventory of 1328: ‘It(e)m phalt(er)iu(m)[sic] Jero(ni)mi [J. sup. lin. ] glo(sa)tum p(er) fr(atr)em N. Triuet p(re)cii .xl. s.’ (Exeter Cathedral Archives, Dean and Chapter 2847). If this were the same book, then G would have been completed before 1328 or, more probably, before Stapeldon’s death on 15 October 1326 (for further discussion of this question, see Kujawiński, Chapter 2, pp. 89–91).

Exeter, Devon, Cathedral church of St Peter. Registered in the library inventory of 1506 of Exeter cathedral among the books of ‘Decimus descus’, ‘in parte orientali’: ‘Glosa super Psalterium in exposicione literali Nicholai Treneth[sic], 2 fo., Quia ternarius’. (Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, p. 373; Willoughby and Ramsay, Libraries of the Secular Cathedrals, SC35.519.)

The manuscript was presented to Sir Thomas Bodley by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter in 1602. (Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, p. 377; cf. Erskine, ‘The growth of Exeter Cathedral library’, p. 49.)

Record Sources

Description by Jakub Kujawiński, Nicholas Trevet’s Commentary on the Psalms (1317–c. 1321): A Publishing History (Turnhout: Brepols, 2023), 187–195. Adapted by Andrew Dunning (2024). Previously described:

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (3 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

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    J. Evans, Pattern. A Study of Ornament in Western Europe from 1180 to 1900, 2 vols, Oxford, 1931, vol. 1, p. 68, n. 4
    R. Dean, ‘The Life and Works of Nicholas Trevet with Special Reference to his Anglo-Norman Chronicle’, DPhil diss., Oxford, 1938, p. 100
    R. H. Bartle, ‘A Study of Private Book Collections in England between ca. 1200 and the Early Years of the Sixteenth’, DPhil diss., Oxford, 1956, p. 74 (simple mention with quotation of the note on fol. 2r)
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    B. P. Shields, ‘A Critical Edition of Selections from Nicholas Trivet’s Commentarius literalis in Psalterium iuxta Hebreos sancti Hieronymi’, PhD diss., Rutgers State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick, 1970, p. 50 and passim (this is his main source)
    C. Page, ‘Biblical instruments in medieval manuscript illustration’ , Early Music, 5 (1977), pp. 299–309, at 300, 309
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    M. W. Steele, ‘A Study of the Books Owned or Used by John Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter (1327–1369)’, DPhil diss., Oxford, 1994, pp. 33–35
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    Online resources:

Last Substantive Revision

2024-04-08: Andrew Dunning adapted new description by Jakub Kujawiński.