MS. Gough Liturg. 18
Summary Catalogue no.: 18332
Portable Psalter; England, 14th century, beginning, with early 15th-century additions
Contents
Fols. i–iii are paper fly-leaves, originally blank.
[item 1 occupies quires I–II]
An alphabetical index of psalms in a 16th-century hand, including their opening words and numbers (fols. vi recto–xi verso). The opening words and numbers of psalms omitted in the main index are listed in the same hand on fol. xii recto–verso. Fols. iv–v and xiii are blank.
[item 2 occupies quire III]
Four miniatures, painted on the versos of fols. xiv and xv, leaving the rectos blank, and on the rectos of fols. xvi and xvii, leaving the versos blank (see ‘Decoration’).
[item 3 occupies quires IV–V]
Calendar for the use of Benedictine Priory of St Mary and St Oswin, Tynemouth (Northumberland), 15th century, laid out one month per leaf (see Wormald’s edition of the calendar of St Albans, 1939, pp. 31–45). The calendar is graded to 12 lessons (in a mixture of Arabic and Roman numerals), ‘in cappis’ and ‘in albis’, approximately half full, and is written in brown and red with blue initials, though the use of colour is partly decorative. The dedication of the abbey church of St Albans, of which Tynemouth was a cell, is on 29 December (‘Dedicac(io) ecc(lesie) s(ancti) Albani’) with octave. St Alban is on 22 June with octave; ‘inuentio sancti albani’ is on 2 August with octave. The calendar also includes Amphibalus (25 June), venerated as a priest who converted Alban to Christianity, and Benedict (11 July), both with octaves. The deposition of Oswin, buried at Tynemouth, is on 20 August with octave, and his invention is on 11 March. Lupus of Troyes and Germanus of Auxerre, commemorated because of their visit to St Albans in 446, are on 29 and 31 July. The calendar also includes Patrick (17 March), Guthlac of Croyland (11 April), the invention of Ivo (24 April), the translation of Wulstan (6 June), Simeon of Jerusalem (18 February), Basil (14 June) and the Feast of the Transfiguration (6 August) (see Wormald, 1939, p. 33). The feast of relics, possibly an addition, is on 14 July (‘ffestum reliquia(rum)’). The feasts of Thomas Becket are crossed out. The calendar is similar to that in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Lat. liturg. g. 8 (see ‘Provenance’).
[items 4–6 occupy quires VI–XXVII]
Psalms 1–150, written as prose, without numbers, most preceded by a rubric ‘psalmus david’ or ‘psalmus’. Punctuated throughout with punctus used to mark the ends of verses, and punctus elevatus used to mark metrum and minor pauses. One leaf is lost after fol. 25/6 (missing text psalms 25 and 26: 1–4). The psalms are in the biblical order; subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from 17: 26 (fol. 17r). Psalm 118 is subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. There are textual divisions at psalms 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). Originally there was probably also an illuminated initial at the beginning of psalm 26, now missing. On fol. 16v omitted verses are added in the lower margin in an original or contemporary hand.
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);
- (6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44).
Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:
- (1) Te deum laudamus (fol. 159r);
- (2) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 160r);
- (3) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 161r);
- (4) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) (fol. 162r) imperfect after fol. 163v, but completed in a 15th-century hand. The creed is followed by antiphons and a prayer ‘Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui dedisti famulis tuis in confessione uere fidei eterne trinitatis gloriam ...’.
The texts which follow are in the same 15th-century hand.
[items 7–10 occupy quires XXVIII–XXXIII]
Litany, with invocations of Alban, Oswin and Catherine doubled. Thomas Becket is not crossed out. The litany is almost identical to that of MS. Lat. liturg. g. 8 (see ‘Provenance’). The differences include the absence of Ursula (the last among the virgins in MS. Gough Liturg. 18), a double invocation of Amphibalus and a single invocation of Catherine in MS. Lat. liturg. g. 8. Followed by psalm 69 and collects (fols. 172r–175v):
- (1) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui dedisti nobis famulis tuis in confessione uere fidei eterne trinitatis gloriam ...
- (2) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
- (3) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui facis mirabilia magna solus ...
- (4) Pretende domine famulis et famulabus tuis dexteram celestis auxilii ut de toto corde ...
- (5) Deus a quo sancta desideria recta consilia et iusta sunt ...
- (6) A domo tua quesumus domine spirituales nequitie repellantur et aerearum discedat malignitas potestatum ...
- (7) Ecclesie tue domine preces placatus admitte ut destructis aduersitatibus uniuersis ...
- (8) Omnipotens sempiterne deus miserere famulis tuis et famulabus tuis et dirige eos secundum tuam clementiam ...
- (9) Deus in cuius manu corda sunt regum qui es humilium consolator ...
- (10) Deus qui contritorum non despicis gemitus et merentium non spernis affectum ...
- (11) Animabus quesumus domine famulorum famularumque tuarum oracio proficiat supplicancium ut eas ...
- (12) Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor mirabilis atque lapsorum subleuator ...
- (13) Omnipotens sempiterne deus salus eterna credentium exaudi nos pro famulo tuo N ...
- (14) Adesto domine supplicationibus nostris et uiam et actibus famuli tui in salutis tue ...
- (15) Deus in quo viuimus mouemur et sumus pluuiam nobis tribue congruentem ut presentibus ...
- (16) Ad te nos domine clamantes exaudi et aeris serenitatem nobis tribue ...
- (17) Deus qui iminentem niniuitis interitum sola misericordia remouisti quibus ut misericors ...
Office of the Dead with rubrics. Responsories correspond to nos. 14, 72, 24, 90, 32, 57, 68, 28, 38 in Ottosen (1993, p. 148).
Fragmentary because of the loss of leaves after fols. 187 and 188. At least one quire is missing after fol. 187; fols. 188–189 are the outer bifolium of the following quire. Fols. 185v–187v contain the beginning of Matins, up to the start of ‘lectio ii’ (‘Sancta maria piarum ...’). Fol. 188r contains the beginning of Sext. Fol. 189 contains the very end of Compline: ‘... et a morte perpetua liberemur’, followed by ‘Gaude uirgo mater christi’ (Chevalier, no. 7017) and prayer ‘Deus qui beatissimam virginem mariam in conceptu ...’ (see Wordsworth, 1920, pp. 63–4).
Fifteen O’s of St Bridget (‘O Domine iesu christe eterna dulcedo ...’) (ed. Wordsworth, 1920, pp. 76–80).
Fol. 196v is ruled but blank; fols. 197–199 are blank paper fly-leaves.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
(fols. 1r–163v) ruled in ink with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; written below the top line; 18 lines per page; written space: c. 54 × 39 mm. .
(fols. 164r–196v) ruled in ink with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; written below the top line; 19 lines per page; written space: c. 54 × 39 mm.
Hand(s)
Formal Gothic book hands
Decoration
Prefatory miniatures:
- fol. xiv verso, John the Baptist, holding a gold disc with an image of a nimbed lamb.
- fol. xv verso, Crucifixion: Christ on the Cross, the Virgin Mary and St John, holding books, stand on either side; the sun and the moon in clouds above the arms of the Cross.
- fol. xvi recto, Christ in Majesty: Christ seated, holding an orb, in a quatrefoil with a gold background; the quatrefoil is in a rectangular frame with the symbols of the four evangelists in the corners, holding scrolls with their names.
- fol. xvii recto, Tonsured cleric in a white (Cistercian (?) or Carthusian (?)) habit, kneeling before the Virgin and Child.
Blue KL monograms decorated with red penwork in the calendar.
8-line historiated initials in gold rectangular frames, some on gold backgrounds, and nearly full borders decorated with coiled tendrils, vine leaves and animal heads at liturgical divisions:
- fol. 1r, Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)), King David playing harp.
- fol. 41r, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)), Kneeling King David pointing to his mouth; the face of God with gold nimbus above.
- fol. 55r, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)), The Fool holding a club and a loaf (?).
- fol. 69v, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)), King David praying in waters in the lower part of the initial; half-figure of Christ, holding an orb and blessing, in the upper part of the initial.
- fol. 87r, Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)), King David, seated, playing bells.
- fol. 103r, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)), Three tonsured clerics singing from a book open on a lectern; a blessing hand of God in a cloud above.
- fol. 118v, Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)), Trinity (the Dove smudged).
Borders: see above. The beginning of psalm 26 is missing, but there is an offset of an illuminated border on fol. 27r which it used to face.
2-line alternating red and blue initials, decorated with contrasting purple and red penwork, at the beginnings of psalms.
1-line alternating red and blue initials, decorated with contrasting purple and red penwork, at the beginnings of verses and periods.
Red and blue penwork borders on every page, decorated with beasts, grotesques, fish, floral and geometric designs.
Penwork line-endings with geometric and floral designs.
Illumination in the 15th-century continuations: 3- to 5-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of the Office of the Dead (fol. 175v), the Hours of the Virgin (fol. 185v) and the Fifteen O’s of St Bridget (fol. 189v).
2-line blue initials with red penwork and penwork borders at the beginnings of the litany, collects, and sections within the offices and within the Fifteen O’s.
1-line alternating plain red and blue initials at the beginnings of periods and verses.
Simple penwork line-endings.
Rubrics in red ink.
Binding
Polished brown leather (calf?) over pasteboard, 17th century. Double gilt border round the outer edge of the upper and lower covers with four floral corner-pieces; the same design is repeated on the spine. Stamped gilt sheldrake, the crest of Ralph Sheldon, in the centre of the upper and lower covers. ‘57’ painted white on spine. Sewn on three cords. Laid paper fly-leaves without watermarks. Edges of textblock speckled red. Traces of glue on fol. iv, suggesting that it was a pastedown of an earlier binding. Marks and holes on fols. 184–196 left by a pair of clasps from an earlier binding.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Apparently made for a member of a religious order that wore white and had a special veneration for John the Baptist. A miniature shows a tonsured cleric in a white habit, and the original arrangement of the miniatures quite probably had fol. xiv verso facing fol. xvii recto. If the cleric was intended to represent a Carthusian, he might have been a monk of either Hinton or Witham, both of which were dedicated to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and All Saints.
Tynemouth, Northumberland, Benedictine priory of St Mary the Virgin and St Oswin; cell of St Albans: 15th-century calendar, litany and other additions. Similar to Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Lat. liturg. g. 8, a French 14th-century psalter with a calendar, litany, Office of the Dead, the Fifteen O’s of St Bridget and private prayers added in Tynemouth Priory in the 15th century (see ‘Notable accessions’, 1964; the psalter part was missing when it was acquired by the Bodleian).
Ralph Sheldon (1623–1684), see ODNB: his crest on the binding. His library, housed during his lifetime in Weston in Long Compton, Warwickshire, passed to William Sheldon, who sold them at public auction in August/September 1781 by Christie and Ansell.
Richard Gough (1735–1809), see ODNB: bought at Sheldon sale for 2s 3d (inscription in his hand, fol. i recto). ‘P. 25 b.’, an inscription in Gough’s hand, perhaps referring to the fact that a leaf containing psalm 25 is missing after fol. 25. ‘C4’ and ‘31’ written in ink on the upper pastedown, almost certainly also by Gough.
Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Richard Gough; received in 1809. Former shelfmark: ‘Gough Missal 57’ (upper pastedown and fol. i recto), see Bliss and Bandinel (1814).
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (6 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Select bibliography to 2002:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2024-08: Convert full description from Solopova catalogue.