MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 30

Summary Catalogue no.: 18922

Choir Psalter with Gloss; Italy, Florence (?), late 12th or early 13th century

Fol. i is a paper fly-leaf.

Fol. ii is blank, apart from medieval and modern notes: ‘Cum ego Cato animadverterem’ on the recto (13th century (?)), from the prose Volgarizzamenti dei distici di Catone (Monaci, 1955, pp. 170–4); erased note of several lines on the recto, presumably medieval. See also ‘Provenance’.

[items 1–6 occupy quires I–XXIX]

(fol. 1r) Two added prayers with rubrics ‘oratio’:

(1) Suscipere digneris hos psalmos consecratos ...
(2) Clementissime pater exaudi me cantatem hos psalmos ...

2. (fols. 1r–204r)

Psalms 1–150 (‘Incipit liber hymnorum uel soliloquiorum. dauid prophetæ de christo.’), laid out as prose, punctuated throughout (some punctuation is added) with punctus elevatus used to mark metrum, punctus or punctus elevatus used to mark minor pauses, and punctus or punctus flexus used to mark the ends of verses. Psalms are in the biblical order; subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109r (see ‘Decoration’). Psalms have short titles which do not correspond to any of Salmon’s series (1959). Some titles include psalm numbers in Roman numerals. The titles of five psalms are quoted below:

15 tituli inscriptio ipsi dauid (fol. 14r)
30 In fine [sic] psalmus dauid pro extasi (fol. 35r)
63 In finem psalmus david (fol. 85v)
115 alleluia (fol. 168v)
140 psalmus dauid (fol. 208r).

Psalms are accompanied by a marginal and interlinear gloss (Glossa Ordinaria, Patrologia Latina, vols. 113–14) which extends into the canticles and Athanasian Creed, beginning ‘Ordo habuit Adam cum deo recessit . Stetit cum delectatus est peccato ...’ (left margin, fol. 1r); ‘Primus psalmus ideo uidetur carere titulo quia de commendatione christi principaliter loquitur ...’ (right margin, fol. 1r). Antiphons and versicles, some with short rubrics and musical notation (neums on staves of three, often invisible, lines), are added in a slightly later hand in the margins of some psalms. The text of psalms and the gloss contains corrections in medieval hands.

Fols. 208–215, moved in rebinding from their correct place after fol. 200a, contain psalms 140 (‘psalmus dauid’), 141 (‘Intellectus david cum esset in spelunca. oratio’), 142 (‘Psalmus dauid quando persequebatur eum filius suus’), 143 (‘cxliii. psalmus dauid aduersus goliath’), 144 (‘laudatio ipsi dauid. cxliiii’) and 145 (‘cxlv. alluia’ [sic]).

(fols. 204r–207v and 216r–224r) Weekly canticles with titles, marginal and interlinear gloss:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12) (‘Canticum ysaie prophete’);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21) (‘Canticum ezechie regis’);
(3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11) (‘Canticum anne prophetisse’);
(4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20) (‘Canticum moysi’);
(5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3) (‘Canticum abbacuc’);
(6) Avdite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (‘canticum moysi’).

4. (fols. 224r–227v)

Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ... ) (‘Fides catholica athanasii episcopi’) with interlinear and marginal gloss, starting ‘Hec ratio fidei catholice traditur et in ueteribus codicibus ...’, top of the first column, fol. 224r (Haring, 1972, p. 232, lists other manuscripts containing this version of the gloss).

5. (fols. 228r–v)

Benedicite omnia opera ... without a title or gloss, added in a different, near-contemporary (?) hand.

6. (fols. 228v–232v)

Hymns, written as prose, with short rubrics (such as ‘In natiuitatem domini ad uesperam’ or ‘Ad laudes’), added in the same hand as Benedicite: Uenit redemptor gentium (Chevalier, no. 21294); Christe redemptor omnium ex patre (Chevalier, no. 2960); A solis ortus cardine (Chevalier, no. 26); Deus qui mundum crimine iacentem (Chevalier, no. 4494), with a ‘Divisio’ at ‘Gaudens in verbo ...’; Festum nunc celebre magnaque gaudia compellunt (Chevalier, no. 6264); Optatus uotis omnium sacratus (Chevalier, no. 14177); Iesu nostra redemptio amor et desiderium (Chevalier, no. 9582); Ueni creator spiritus (Chevalier, no. 21204); Iam christus astra ascenderat regressus unde uenerat (Chevalier, no. 9216); Ut queant laxis resonare fibris (Chevalier, no. 21039), with a ‘Divisio’ at ‘Ceteri tantum cecinere ...’.

Fol. 232v also contains partly erased notes in a post-medieval hand, including the opening lines of Aeneid.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: bit . psalmus dauid ii (psalter, fol. 2r)

Secundo Folio: Titulos (gloss, fol. 2r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; paper fly-leaves

Extent: 236 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 321 × 200 mm.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; i–ii + 1–200a + 200b + 201–232 + fly-leaf.

Collation

(fols. i–ii) fol. i is a paper fly-leaf conjoint with the upper pastedown; fol. ii is a single parchment leaf sewn to the first quire | (fols. 1–232) I–XXIX (8) | (fol. 232) single parchment leaf sewn to the last quire. Quire XXVII (fols. 208–215) should precede XXVI (fols. 200b–207). Quires are usually numbered in medieval Roman numerals in the upper right corner of the first leaf, except the misbound quire XXVI (perhaps erased (?)); catchwords occasionally survive

Layout

Ruled in plummet for three columns; the central column, containing psalms and canticles, is separated by double lines from the columns on each side, containing the marginal gloss. Double vertical and single horizontal bounding lines. Ruled for the text and gloss with 17 lines of text, two lines of interlinear gloss between the lines of text and three lines of marginal gloss to each line of text. Written space: c. 190–193 × 150–153 mm.

Hand(s)

Large formal book hand, smaller script used for the gloss, brown ink; the last quire is in a different hand, in darker ink

Musical Notation:

Neums on staves of three, often invisible, lines.

Decoration

Large red penwork initials and opening words written in red capitals, flourished in red and blue, at the beginnings of psalms 1 (fol. 1r), 26 (fol. 30v), 38 (fol. 52r), 52 (fol. 73r), 68 (fol. 93r), 80 (fol. 118v), 97 (fol. 141r), 109r (fol. 163r) and Athanasian Creed (fol. 224r). The initial of psalm 1 is approx 9 lines high; other initials are 3 to 6 lines high.

2- to 3-line red initials, occasionally with blue penwork at the beginning of psalms.

1-line plain red initials at the beginning of verses and periods.

1-line plain blue (occasionally red) initials and paragraph signs in the marginal gloss.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Pasteboard covered with pink paper, brown leather spine, 18th century (?), worn and damaged by worms. Sewn on five cords, five raised bands on spine, each outlined with gold foliate design. Two dark green labels on spine with lettering ‘PSALTER || CUM . COMM . || ET SYMB . || S . || ATHANAS’ and ‘COD . MEM . || SAECULI || XII .’. Two paper labels on spine, one printed ‘Canonici || Bibl. Lat.’. Pastedowns and a fly-leaf made of laid paper, no watermarks.

History

Origin: 12th century, late or 13th century, early ; Italian, Florence (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Belonged to Ospedale di Sancta Maria Nuova, Florence: ex libris, erased except for the first two and last words, ‘pSalterium[sic] postillatum ⟨hospitalis Sce Marie⟩ Florentine’ (fol. ii recto), 15th century.

Added green laurel wreath with a red ribbon with erased (?) arms (fol. 1r), 18thcentury (?). Compare Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 147, MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 105, MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 151, MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 40, MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 177, MS. D’Orville 89, MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 94 and MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 49, many from Florence (Pächt and Alexander, 1966–73).

Matteo Luigi Canonici of Venice (1727–c. 1806), but not from the libraries of Soranzo or Trevisan.

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 451–5. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ pars tertia codices Græcos et Latinos Canonicianos complectens, Quarto Catalogues III, 1854) and supplementary sources.

Quarto Catalogue, col. 259

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 324

Bibliography

Select bibliography to 2004:

Coxe (1854), col. 259.

Frere, no. 150.

Monaci, E., Crestomazia italiana dei primi secoli: con prospetto grammaticale e glossario, rev. edn. (Rome, Naples: Società editrice D. Alighieri, 1955).

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 84

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 2, no. 64.

Haring, N. M., ‘Commentaries on the pseudo-Athanasian Creed’, Medieval Studies 34 (1972), pp. 208–52, at pp. 216–7, 232.

de Hamel, C., Glossed books of the Bible and the origins of the Paris booktrade (Woodbridge: D. S.

Brewer, 1984), p. 26 n. 64.

Augustyn, W., ‘Zur Illustration von Psalterien und Psalmenkommentaren in Italien vom frühen 11. bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert’ in Büttner (2004), pp. 165–80, at p. 166 n. 8.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-06: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.

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