MS. Auct. D. 2. 5

Summary Catalogue no.: 3616

Psalter; England, Diocese of Norwich (?), 15th century, second quarter (?)

Fol. 1 is a paper fly-leaf; fols. 2r–3v are mostly blank.

[item 1 occupies quire II]

1. (fols. 4r–9v)

Sarum calendar, laid out one month per page, written in red and black, almost fully graded up to 9 lessons and ‘duplex festum principale’. Includes the feasts of Wulstan (19 January), David and Chad (1 and 2 March), Felix of Dunwich (8 March), Edward and his translation (18 March and 20 June), Cuthbert and his translation (20 March and 4 September), Benedict and his translation (21 March and 11 July), Richard of Chichester and his translation (3 April and 16 June), John of Beverley (7 May), Dunstan (19 May), Aldhelm (25 May), Alban (22 June), Anne (26 July), Augustine (28 August), Francis (4 October), Winifred (3 November), Leonard (6 November), Edmund and his translation (20 November and 9 June), all in red. Notes in Latin on the calculation of the date of Easter added in a 15th-century hand (fol. 4r). The feasts of Thomas Becket and the titles ‘pape’ are not erased.

[items 2 and 3 occupy quires III–VIII]

2. (fols. 10r–64r)

Psalms 1–150, laid out as prose, without titles or numbers. Punctuated throughout, with punctus elevatus used to mark metrum, punctus or punctus elevatus occasionally used to mark minor pauses, and punctus used to mark the ends of verses. Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. Psalms 148–150 (fols. 63v–64r), a sequence for all Lauds in monastic and secular use, are written as a single text. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). Corrections in a contemporary hand.

3. (fols. 64r–65v)

Weekly canticles, without titles:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21);
(3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11);
(4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20);
(5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3), ends imperfectly at ‘... in luce sagittarum [catchword: tuarum]’ (verse 11).

Fol. 66 is paper fly-leaf.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: tabo tibi & videbo (psalter, fol. 11r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment of mediocre quality; paper fly-leaves

Extent: 66 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 282 × 192 mm.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; 1–66.

Collation

(fol. 1) paper fly-leaf originally conjoint with the upper pastedown | (fols. 2–3) I (2) | (fols. 4–9) II (6) | (fols. 10–65) III–VIII (8) | (fol. 66) paper fly-leaf conjoint with the lower pastedown. Catchwords survive from quire III onwards

Layout

Ruled in ink with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines, extending the full height and width of page; written below the top line; 27 lines per page; prickings survive; written space: c. 180–183 × 122 mm.

Hand(s)

Large formal Gothic book hand, black ink

Decoration

Blue KL monograms with red penwork in the calendar.

4-line Beatus-initial in red and blue, decorated with red penwork.

3-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109.

2-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of psalms and canticles.

1-line alternating plain red and blue initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Catchwords written on scrolls.

Binding

Parchment over pasteboard; leather ties (those on the upper cover now missing). ‘92’ written on spine in black ink overwriting earlier faded ‘92’. Also on spine: ‘150 .’ written in ink and a paper label ‘D. || 2. 5’. Pastedowns and fly-leaves of laid paper, no watermarks. Fol. 2 was probably a pastedown of an earlier binding and shows the marks of turn-ins and six horizontal channels from a previous board.

History

Origin: 15th century, second quarter (?) ; English, Norwich diocese (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made for a secular (?) church in the diocese of Norwich (?): the calendar is graded up to 9 lessons; includes Felix of Dunwich. Monastic subdivisions are not indicated, but psalm 118 is subdivided in accordance with the monastic use. The calendar also includes saints whose feasts were promulgated after 1415 under Archbishop Chichele (Pfaff, 2009, pp. 438–41), but the feasts of St Osmund (canonized 1456) and his translation (1457) are absent, as is the feast of Transfiguration.

Inscribed ‘6’, 18th century (?) (fol. 2r).

Bought with part of £5 given by Joseph Maynard, fellow of Exeter college, Oxford, in 1658 along with nine other manuscripts: MS. e Mus. 146, MS. e Mus. 111, MS. e Mus. 116, MS. e Mus. 162, MS. eMus. 164, MS. Auct. F. 5. 26, MS. Auct. F. 5. 28, MS. e Mus. 244 and MS. e Mus. 59 . The shelfmark ‘Auctarium’ was given c. 1789, when books then considered most valuable in the Library were moved to the Auctarium (one of the schools in the Bodleian Library quadrangle) (see Summary catalogue, vol. 1, pp. xiv, xxxix–xl). Earlier shelfmarks: ‘150’ (spine; cf. fol. 1v); ‘è Musæo. 92’ (fol. 1v; cf. spine).

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 249–51. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 2, p. 703

Bibliography

Printed descriptions:

Frere, no. 145.

Summary catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, no. 3616.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 67

Scott (2000–02), vol. 1, no. 95.

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