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MS. Gough Liturg. 8

Summary Catalogue no.: 18338

Portable Psalter, part of a Monastic Breviary of the Benedictine Abbey of Hyde; England, Winchester and East Anglia, probably between 1292 and 1304

Portable Psalter from a Monastic Breviary,

[item 1 occupies quire I]

1. (fols. 2r–3v)

Full-page miniatures (see ‘Decoration’). Fol. 1 is blank apart from modern notes.

[item 2 occupies quire II]

2. (fols. 4r–9v)

Calendar, laid out one month per page, with major feasts in gold, and others in blue, red or brown; approximately three-quarters full, graded to 12 lessons, ‘in cappis’ and ‘in albis’, with some 15th-century additions (ed. Tolhurst, 1932–42, vol. v). Includes the feast of Judoc (13 December) and his translation (9 January), both in gold as duplex festum, and the octave of the translation in red (16 January). Grimbald of Winchester is added as duplex festum in a 15th-century hand (8 July) with the octave in the original hand (15 July); the translation of Grimbald is added in the same hand (3 September). The shrines of both saints were at the Benedictine Abbey at Hyde near Winchester. Valentine, Barnabas and Edmund are each in gold as duplex festum (14 February, 11 June and 16 November). The head of Valentine was an important relic at Hyde and Sts Valentine, Barnabas and Grimbald appear on the 13th-century seal of the Abbey (de Gray Birch, 1892, p. lxx). The calendar also includes obits (in the original hand) of kings Alfred (26 October) and Edward the Elder (17 July), and Queen Emma (6 March), all buried at Hyde, and several monks, priors and abbots of Hyde, the last one being Abbot Robert de Popham, who died in 1292 (Tolhurst, 1934, vol. i, p. xi). Some of the text that was intended to be written in gold seems to have been left unfinished, as the entry for Barnabas is incomplete and spaces are left blank for the feasts of Grimbald. Many entries are followed by the incipits of the antiphons to the Magnificat at Vespers. The months are headed by verses on the ‘Egyptian’ days (e.g. ‘Prima dies mensis et septima truncat ut ensis’, etc.) which correspond to Hennig’s (1955) set III, and a note on the number of days in a month, and on the number of hours in day and night (the last is repeated at the end of each month). The 15th-century additions to the calendar include Alban (22 June), Martin of Tours (ordinatio, 4 July), Etheldreda (17 October) and Eleven Thousand Virgins (21 October). The feasts of Thomas Becket are erased, but not the octave in January (and not his name in the litany).

[item 3 occupies quire III]

3. (fols. 10r–11v)

Full-page miniatures (see ‘Decoration’).

[items 4–9 occupy quires IV–XII]

4. (fols. 12r–59r)

Psalms [1]–150, laid out in two columns, with each verse starting on a new line, without titles. The numbers of some psalms are added in the margins in an early modern hand. The psalms are punctuated throughout with punctus used to mark the ends of verses and minor pauses, and punctus elevatus used to mark metrum. The psalms contain corrections in the original hand and are imperfect at the beginning owing to the loss of the first leaf, starting at ‘Quoniam non est ...’ (6: 6). The following text is also missing owing to the loss of two leaves: 36: 8–38: 2 (after fol. 20) and 93: 5–97: 1 (after fol. 41). The psalms are in the biblical order; the subdivisions within psalms are marked with two-line initials at 9: 20 (fol. 12v), 17: 26 (fol. 15r), 67: 20 (fol. 30v), 68: 17 (fol. 31r), 77: 36 (fol. 34v), 88: 20 (fol. 40r), 103: 25 (fol. 43v), 104: 23 (fol. 44r), 105: 32 (fol. 45r), 106: 25 (fol. 46r), 138: 11 (fol. 56v) and 144: 10 (fol. 58r). There is no subdivision in psalm 143; psalm 118 is subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 52, 68, 80 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). Originally there were probably also historiated initials at the beginning of psalms 1, 38 and 97. Psalms are interspersed with full-page miniatures bound out of order between the quires (see ‘Decoration’).

5. (fols. 59r–64r)

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), subdivided at verses 8 (‘Numquid ...’) and 13 (‘Egressus ...’);
(6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44), subdivided at verse 22 (‘Ignis succensus ...’).

6. (fols. 64r–66r)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:

(1) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 64r);
(2) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 64v);
(3) Magnificat (fol. 64v);
(4) Te deum laudamus (fol. 64v);
(5) Nunc dimittis (fol. 65r);
(6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) (fol. 65r), followed by versicles and a collect:
Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui dedisti famulis tuis in confessione uere fidei eternae trinitatis gloriam ...

7. (fols. 66r–68r)

Litany (de Gray Birch, 1892, pp. 261–8; ed. Tolhurst, 1932–42, vol. 71), including Judoc and Grimbald among the confessors. The invocations of Peter, Valentine and Benedict are doubled (Hyde Abbey was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary and St Peter). The litany is followed by collects (fols. 67v–68r), with rubrics ‘oratio’ and ‘alia oratio’:

(1) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
(2) Ecclesie tue quesumus domine preces placatus admitte ut destructis ...
(3) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui facis mirabilia magna solus ...
(4) Pretende domine famulis et famulabus tuis dexteram celestis auxilii ut de toto corde ...
(5) Ure igne sancti spiritus renes nostros ...
(6) Actiones nostras quesumus domine et aspirando praeueni ...
(7) Deus a quo sancta desideria recta consilia et iusta sunt ...
(8) A domo tua quesumus domine spirituales nequitie repellantur et aeriarum discedat malignitas potestatum ...
(9) Adesto domine supplicationibus nostris et uiam famulorum tuorum in salutis tue ...
(10) Animabus quesumus domine famulorum famularumque tuarum oracio proficiat supplicancium ut eas ...
(11) Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor mirabilis atque lapsorum subleuator ...

8. (fol. 68r–70v)

The Office of the Dead (‘Pro mortuis’), use of Hyde, in the original hand (ed. Tolhurst, 1932–42, vol. 71; Ottosen, 1993, p. 147), with rubrics, a prayer ‘Pro abbatibus’ and 9 lessons.

9. (fol. 70v)

Three short prayers to the Virgin Mary, added in a cursive 15th-century hand (ed. Tolhurst, 1932–42, vol. 71), preceded by a rubric concerning the 80,000 years’ indulgence granted by ‘Julius papa secundus’ (1443–1513): ‘O gloriosissima regina misericordie saluto venerabile templum ...; O gloriosissima regina misericordie saluto virgineum cor tuum ...; O gloriosissima regina misericordie saluto nobilissimam animam tuam ...’ (cf. Durham, University Library MS. Cosin V. V. 19).

[item 10 occupies quire XIII]

10.

(fol. 71r–v) Full-page miniatures (see ‘Decoration’).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: exacercbauit dominum peccator (the second c in ‘exacercbauit’ is underdotted) (psalter, fol. 13r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; the parchment of leaves with miniatures is much thicker and stiffer than the rest

Extent: 72 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 202 × 130 mm.

Leaves were trimmed, causing the loss of text and decoration

Foliation: modern, in pencil; 1–72.

Collation

Layout

Ruled in light brown ink for two columns with horizontal and vertical bounding lines (sometimes double) extending the full height and width of page; 36 lines per page; written below the top line; written space: c. 143 × 85 mm.

Hand(s)

Small formal Gothic book hand; brown ink

Decoration

KL monograms in the calendar, decorated with coiled tendrils and vine leaves, extending into the margins (partly trimmed off).

Miniatures (most defaced) illustrating the life of Christ, painted on both sides of each leaf, in East Anglian style. The miniatures, most likely the remains of three or four quires, are bound out of order between the text quires of the present psalter. They are similar in size to the rest of the psalter and may have been made for the Hyde Breviary, or they may have been added at the time of the rebinding in the 18th century or earlier (see Sandler, 1974, pp. 119–21 and Sandler, 1986 for their probable original sequence). There is an offset on fol. 35v of the illumination on fol. 38r which indicates that the miniatures were not always in this position.

The miniatures appear to be by two artists (see Sandler, 1986, vol. 2, no. 42 on the division of work) whose work has been identified in the Peterborough Psalter (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS. 9961–62) and the Ramsey Psalter (St Paul im Lavanttal (Carinthia) Stiftsbibliothek MS. XXV/2.19 and New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS. M. 302) (Sandler, 1986, 1999). The miniatures are in rectangular frames, on gold background, incised with geometric, floral and zoomorphic designs.

fol. 2r, Nativity, with Christ Child on a tall pedestal; gold background with fleurs-de-lis.
fol. 2v, Annunciation to the Shepherds.
fol. 3r, Massacre of the Innocents.
fol. 3v, Baptism of Christ.
fol. 10r, Zachariah (?) blessing the infant John the Baptist. Rubric in a 16th-century (?) hand, partly cropped off, in the upper margin: ‘Natiuitas Domini (?) nostri Iesu Christi’.
fol. 10v, Annunciation to Joseph: sleeping Joseph is spoken to by an angel.
fol. 11r, The First Temptation: the Devil offers stones to Christ, who is standing, holding a book.
fol. 11v, Entry into Jerusalem.
fol. 22r, Adoration of the Magi.
fol. 22v, An angel warning the Magi.
fol. 23r, Presentation in the Temple.
fol. 23v, Flight into Egypt, and the fall of the idols.
fol. 36r, Agony in the Garden.
fol. 36v, The Betrayal with Peter cutting off Malchus’s ear; one soldier with winged headgear.
fol. 37r, Christ before Caiaphas and Annas, one soldier with winged headgear; the Denial of Peter, with the cock crowing above; background with rampant lions.
fol. 37v, Christ before Caiaphas with the Veil of the Temple (?) above.
fol. 49r, Flagellation: Christ tied around the waist.
fol. 49v, Christ carrying the Cross.
fol. 50r, Noli me tangere: standing Christ, holding a staff with cross and pennant; Mary Magdalene kneeling before him.
fol. 50v, Incredulity of St Thomas: St Thomas kneeling to touch the wound of Christ.
fol. 61r, Crucifixion: Christ on the Cross; the Virgin Mary and St John standing on either side; a soldier piercing Christ’s side with a spear; another soldier holding a sponge and a pot with vinegar; a devil sitting on the bar of the Cross.
fol. 61v, Descent from the Cross.
fol. 62r, Entombment.
fol. 62v, The Harrowing of Hell: Christ, holding a staff with a cross and pennant, leading souls out of the mouth of Hell, watched by two devils, one blowing a horn.
fol. 71r, The Ascension of Christ.
fol. 71v, Pentecost.

5-line historiated initials on gold backgrounds and full borders at liturgical divisions; 8-line initial at the beginning of psalm 109. Related in style to the Master of the Queen Mary Psalter (London, British Library, Royal MS. 2 B. VII) (Pächt and Alexander, 1966–73).

fol. 17v Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) The Anointing of David.
(full border) Blue and pink bars with sprays of vine leaves; a hybrid figure playing a musical instrument; a grotesque in the upper margin partly cropped off.
fol. 27r Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)) King David, seated, speaking to the Fool, nude, apart from a cloak, holding a stick and eating a loaf of bread; the face of God in a cloud above.
(full border) Blue and pink bars with sprays of vine leaves; two grotesques (one defaced); human head.
fol. 31r Psalm 68 (initial S(alvum)) Psalmist, nude, praying in waters, looking up at half-figure of God, holding an orb and blessing.
(full border) Blue and pink bars with sprays of vine leaves; two grotesques playing musical instruments.
fol. 38r Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)) King David, seated, playing bells.
(full border) Blue and pink bars with sprays of vine leaves; three grotesques, two playing musical instruments.
fol. 47r Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) Trinity: two seated figures, holding orbs and blessing; white dove with spread wings above. The opening words of the psalm are written in capitals on pink background.
(full border) Blue and pink bars with sprays of vine leaves; crouching dog, grotesque.

2- to 3-line initials and borders, decorated with human and animal heads, grotesques, floral and geometric designs at the beginnings of psalms, litany, canticles and prayers.

Borders: see above.

1-line alternating blue and gold initials, decorated with contrasting red and purple penwork at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Rubrics in red ink in prayers and the Office of the Dead (fols. 67v–70v)

Binding

Brown leather over pasteboard, 18th century. Double gilt fillet line border round the outer edge of the upper and lower covers (partly lost). Triple gilt fillet line decoration, forming a rectangle with floral corner-pieces on the upper and lower covers. Blind roll arabesque decorations on turn-ins. Rebacked in the Bodleian. Gilt lettering on spine ‘MS. | GOUGH | LITURG. | 8’. Parchment pastedowns and fly-leaves, probably 18th century. The binding is identical to that of MS. Rawl. liturg. e. 1*.

History

Origin: 1292 × 1304 (?) English, Winchester and East Anglia ;

Provenance and Acquisition

Hyde, Hampshire, Benedictine abbey of Holy Trinity, St Mary the Virgin, and St Peter: made for the abbey, liturgical evidence. Originally part of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. liturg. e. 1*, a portable breviary from the same house (psalter preceding the breviary). Probably written during the rule of Abbot Symon de Kanings, 1292–1304, successor of Robert de Popham (d. 1292), the last Hyde abbot whose obit is written in the calendar in the original hand (see Tolhurst, 1932–42, vol. 69, p. xi; Sandler, 1986, vol. 2, nos. 64a and b). The manuscripts are probably the work of the same scribe and illuminators.

The addition of the feasts of Grimbald (see ‘Text’) suggests that the psalter was still in the Winchester area in the 15th century. It may have been at Hyde until the dissolution of the Abbey in 1538.

Rubric, probably in a 16th-century hand, partly cropped off, attempting to identify the subject of an unusual miniature (fol. 10r).

Bound, probably in the 18th century, with miniatures in their present order, before the manuscript was acquired by Gough, and before 1755, since the breviary, which has the same binding, was owned by Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755). The order in which the quires are put together is indicated by Arabic numerals (1–13) in a postmedieval, probably 18th-century, hand on fols. 2r, 4r, 10r, 12r, 22r, 24r, 36r, 38r, 49r, 51r, 61r, 63r and 71r. This numbering shows that the Beatus-page was already lost when the volume was bound (Sandler, 1974, p. 142 n. 69).

Richard Gough (1735–1809), see ODNB.

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Gough; received in 1809. Former shelfmarks: ‘Gough Missal 140’, cancelled by encircling (fol. 1r), see Bliss and Bandinel (1814).

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 124–32. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 292

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (38 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Online resources:

MLGB3: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain

Select bibliography to 2003:

Bliss, P. and Bandinel, B., A catalogue of the books relating to British topography, and Saxon and northern literature, bequeathed to the Bodleian Library in the year MDCCXCIX by Richard Gough, Esq. F. S. A. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1814), p. 429.

Edwards, E. (ed.), Liber monasterii de Hyda: comprising a chronicle of the affairs of England, from the settlement of the Saxons to the reign of King Cnut; and a chartulary of the abbey of Hyde, in Hampshire, A. D. 455–1023, Rolls Series 45 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1866).

de Gray Birch, W., Liber vitae: register and martyrology of New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester (London: Simpkin & Co.; Winchester: Warren and Son, 1892).

Tolhurst, J. B. L. (ed.), The monastic breviary of Hyde Abbey, Winchester: mss. Rawlinson liturg. e. 1*, and Gough liturg. 8, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Henry Bradshaw Society 69–71, 76, 78, 80, 6 vols. (London: Harrison and Sons, 1932–42).

van Dijk (1958), fol. 19.

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 3, no. 545, pl. LIV; no. 546, pl. LV.

Lasko, P. and Morgan, N. (eds.), Medieval art in East Anglia, 1300–1520 (Norwich: Jarrold, 1973), no. 4.

Sandler (1974), pp. 47–8, 119–20, 150, pls. 90–115, 332, 333.

Hassall, A. G. and Hassall, W. O., Treasures from the Bodleian Library (London: G. Fraser, 1976), pp. 93–5, pl. 21.

Marx, C. W. and Skey, M. A., ‘Aspects of the iconography of the devil at the Crucifixion’, JWCI 42 (1979), pp. 233–5.

Sandler, L. F., ‘An early fourteenth-century English psalter in the Escorial’, JWCI 42 (1979), pp. 65–80, at p. 77 and pl. 28c.

Marks, R. and Morgan, N., The golden age of English manuscript painting, 1200–1500 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1981), p. 18.

Morgan, N., ‘Notes on the post-Conquest calendar, litany and martyrology of the Cathedral Priory of Winchester with a consideration of Winchester diocese calendars of the pre-Sarum period’ in A. Borg and A. Martindale (eds.), The vanishing past: studies of medieval art, liturgy and metrology presented to Christopher Hohler (Oxford: BAR, 1981), pp. 133–71, at p. 160 n. 6.

Oruch, J. B., ‘St. Valentine, Chaucer, and spring in February’, Speculum 56 (1981), pp. 534–65, at p. 545.

Lubin, E. R., European illuminated manuscripts (Turin: Allemandi, 1985), nos. 16, 17.

Neale, R. A., ‘The Fool and his loaf’, Medium Aevum 54 (1985), pp. 104–9, at pp. 104, 108.

Haney, K. E., The Winchester Psalter: an iconographic study (Leicester: Leicester University Press; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Distributed in the United States of America by Humanities Press, 1986), pp. 53–9.

Sandler (1986), vol. 1, p. 31; vol. 2, nos. 42, 64a and b.

Thorp, N., The glory of the page: medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts from Glasgow University Library (London: Published for Glasgow University Library and the Art Gallery of Ontario by H. Miller, 1987), no. 26.

Watson, A. G., Medieval libraries of Great Britain, a list of surviving books, edited by N. R. Ker: supplement to the second edition (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1987), p. 104.

Manion, M. M., Vines, V. F. and de Hamel, C., Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in New Zealand collections (Melbourne; London: Thames and Hudson, 1989), p. 141, col. 1.

Dennison, L., ‘“Liber Horn”, “Liber Custumarum” and other manuscripts of the Queen Mary Psalter Workshop’ in L. Grant (ed.), Medieval art, architecture and archaeology in London (London: British Archaeological Association, 1990), pp. 118–34.

Morgan, N., The Lambeth Apocalypse: manuscript 209 in Lambeth Palace Library. A critical study (Commentary text volume to the facsimile edition) (London: H. Miller, 1990), p. 66 n. 76.

Harper (1991), pp. 224–5.

Ottosen (1993), pp. xxiv, 147, 290 (OXF 8).

Bräm, A., Das Andachtsbuch der Marie de Gavre: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Ms. nouv. acq. fr. 16251: Buchmalerei in der Diözese Cambrai im letzten Viertel des 13. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden: L. Reichert, 1997), p. 84.

Sandler (1999), pp. 51 n. 100, 52 n. 108, 53 n. 112, 94 n. 255, 127–39.

Bousmanne, B. and Van Hoorebeeck, C. (eds.), La librairie des ducs de Bourgogne: manuscrits conservés à la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, 2 vols. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), vol. 1, p. 191.

Jankulak, K., The medieval cult of St Petroc (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2000), p. 213.

Lapidge, M., The cult of St Swithun, The Anglo-Saxon Minsters of Winchester, part II, Winchester Studies 4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), p. 107.

Smith, K. A., Art, identity and devotion in fourteenth-century England: three women and their books of hours (London: British Library and University of Toronto Press, 2003), p. 252.

Abbreviations

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Last Substantive Revision

2024-08: Convert full description from Solopova catalogue.

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