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MS. Hatton 45

Summary Catalogue no.: 4095

Secular Choir Psalter; England, London (?); 15th century, middle

Contents

Secular Choir Psalter

Fols. i recto–iii verso are fly-leaves, originally blank.

[item 1 occupies quire II]

1. (fols. iv recto–ix verso)

Sarum calendar, laid out one month per page, written in red and black, approximately half full, not graded. Includes Erkenwald, bishop of London, in red (30 April and 14 November), David and Chad (1 and 2 March), Richard of Chichester (3 April) and his translation (16 June), the translation of Edmund Rich (9 June), Anne in red (26 July), Cuthburga (31 August), the translation of Edward the Confessor in red (13 October), Winifred (3 November) and Hugh of Lincoln (17 November). Thomas Becket’s name and the titles ‘pape’ are not erased.

[items 2–7 occupy quires III–XVIII]

2. (fols. 1r–105r)

Psalms 1–150 in the biblical order, written with each verse starting on a new line, without titles or numbers. Punctuated throughout, with punctus used to mark the ends of verses, punctus elevatus used to mark metrum, and punctus or punctus elevatus used to mark minor pauses. Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into eleven 16-verse units. There are textual divisions at psalms 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). A leaf which used to contain the beginning of psalm 26, presumably with an illuminated initial, is excised after fol. 16 (missing text 25: 5–26: 12).

3. (fols. 105r–111r)

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).

4. (fols. 111r–115r)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:

  • (1) Te deum laudamus (fol. 111r);
  • (2) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 112r);
  • (3) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 112v);
  • (4) Magnificat (fol. 113r);
  • (5) Nunc dimittis (fol. 113v);
  • (6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) (fol. 113v).

5. (fols. 115r–119v)

Litany, including Edmund, Fremund and Alban among the martyrs, Augustine (first) and Erkenwald among the confessors. Followed by collects (fol. 119r–v):

  • (1) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
  • (2) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui facis mirabilia magna solus ...
  • (3) Deus qui caritatis dona per gratiam sancti spiritus tuorum cordibus fidelium infundis ...
  • (4) Deus a quo sancta desideria recta consilia et iusta sunt ...
  • (5) Ineffabilem misericordiam tuam nobis quesumus domine clementer ostende ut simul nos ...
  • (6) Fidelium deus omnium conditor et redemptor animabus omnium fidelium defunctorum ...
  • (7) Pietate tua quesumus domine nostrorum solue uincula omnium ...

6. (fols. 120r–124v)

Office of the Dead, use of Sarum, with rubrics and 9 lessons at Matins (responsories correspond to nos. 14, 72, 24, 32, 57, 28, 68, 82, 38 in Ottosen, 1993).

7. (fols. 125r–128r)

Prayers, some with rubrics:

(fols. 125r–126v)

Prayer attributed to Augustine of Hippo.

Rubric: Beatus augustinus composuit hanc orationem ...
Incipit: Dulcissime domine iesu christe verus deus
Explicit: et glorifico nomen tuum quia tu es benedictus et laudabilis et gloriosus in secula seculorum Amen
(fols. 126v–127v)

Prayer attributed to Thomas Aquinas.

Rubric: Oratio beati thome de Aquino ordinis predicatorum ...
Incipit: Concede michi misericors deus que tibi placita sunt
Explicit: Qui viuis et regnas deus. P o. s. s. Amen’
(see Doyle, 1948).
(fol. 127v)
Incipit: Sancta maria mater domini nostri ihesu christi in manus filij tui et in tuas commendo hodie
(fol. 127v)
Incipit: Domine ihesu christe per tuam pacem da mihi prosperitatem
(fol. 127v)
Incipit: Deus pacis caritatis qui amator et custos
(fols. 127v–128r)

Suffrage to St George (‘Ad sanctum Georgium’)

Incipit: Miles christi gloriose. laus spes tutor anglie

Followed by a prayer:

Incipit: Deus qui beatum militem tuum Georgium in auxilium

Fol. 128v is ruled but blank; fols. 129r–131v are blank parchment fly-leaves.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: Multi dicunt (psalter, fol. 2r)
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 140 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c. 300 × 205 mm.
Foliation: Modern, in pencil and early modern, in ink; i–ix + 1–131. The early modern foliation appears on fols. 1–119, containing psalms, canticles and litany, but not in the calendar, Office of the Dead or prayers.

Collation

(fols. i–iii) I (4) the first leaf is a pastedown | (fols. iv–ix) II (6) | (fols. 1–8) III (8) | (fols. 9–16) IV (8−1) missing 8 | (fols. 17–128) V–XVIII (8) | (fols. 129–131) XIX (4) the last leaf is a pastedown. Catchwords survive; leaf signatures are present in most quires after the calendar, starting with ‘+’, followed by a, b, etc

Layout

Ruled in ink with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page, with double horizontals in quires V–VII (fols. 25–48); 24 lines per page; prickings frequently survive in the three outer margins; written below the top line; written space: c. 190 × 125 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hand, black and brown ink.

Decoration

Illuminated by the Master of Sir John Fastolf(Scott, 1996, p. 298; Turner, 1996, p. 64).

Gold KL monograms on pink and blue background, decorated with white arabesque designs.

fol. 1r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) 8-line initial in gold rectangular frame infilled with King David kneeling in a landscape, praying to God, watched by a half-length angel holding a sword and a dagger; harp and an open book on the ground.

(full border) Gold, blue and pink bars and filigree scrolls, decorated with foliage, flowers and gold discs.

8-line initials (reduced to 7-line when at the bottom of a page), decorated with foliage, in gold rectangular frames, and full borders made of gold, blue and pink bars and filigree scrolls, decorated with foliage, flowers and gold discs, at liturgical divisions at psalms 38 (fol. 26r), 52 (fol. 36r), 68 (fol. 45v), 80 (fol. 58r), 97 (fol. 69r) and 109 (fol. 81r).

4-line initial and three-quarter border at the beginning of the Office of the Dead (fol. 120r).

3-line initial at the beginning of psalm 118 (fol. 85r).

2-line gold initials on pink and blue backgrounds, decorated with white arabesque designs at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany, parts of the Office of the Dead and prayers.

1-line initials, alternately blue with red penwork and gold with blue penwork, at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Gold and blue line-endings with floral and geometric designs; gold paragraph signs with blue penwork.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Brown leather over wood boards, 15th century, London (?). Blind-stamped decoration, including five-petalled flowers in medallions, with four fleurs-de-lis, set in a lattice pattern made of blind fillet lines on both covers. Border made of blind fillet lines round the outer edge of both covers with blind-stamped decorations, including a dog chasing a hare (?). Endbands of green, red and yellow (?) thread. Fragments of two burgundy fabric ties and their fittings on the upper cover and two catches made of yellow metal on the lower cover. Seven raised bands on spine. ‘45’ painted white on spine (flaking). ‘70’ written in black ink on spine. ‘70’ on the fore- and lower edges, and ‘45’ on the upper edge of the textblock. Paper label on spine with handwritten ‘M.S. || Hatton. || 45’. Parchment pastedowns and fly-leaves.

History

Origin: 15th century, middle ; English, London (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made in London or its vicinity (evidence of the calendar and litany), perhaps for a patron with Augustinian connections (litany, psalm 118 subdivided according to secular use).

Leaves containing psalms were foliated in the first third of the 16th century before the loss of fol. ‘16’, and folio numbers for psalms were added in the margins of the Office of the Dead.

Christopher, first Baron Hatton (bap. 1605, d. 1670), see ODNB.

Robert Scott, London bookseller (b. in or before 1632, d. 1709/10), see ODNB: bought as part of the library of Christopher, first Baron Hatton.

Bodleian Library: bought in 1671 from Robert Scott; came to the Library in September 1671 (see Summary catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, pp. 801–2). Former shelfmark: ‘Hatton 70’ (fol. i recto). On fol. iii verso ‘Breuiarium Romanum’.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 255–9. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2 Part 2, p. 839

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (8 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Select bibliography to 2002:

    Frere, no. 450.
    Summary catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, no. 4095.
    Doyle, A. I., ‘A prayer attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas’, Dominican Studies 1 (1948), pp. 229–38.
    ‘Notes and news’, BLR 4 (1952), p. 1.
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 61
    Tuve, R., ‘Notes on the virtues and vices’, JWCI 26 (1963), pp. 264–303, at p. 284 n. 39.
    Alexander, J. J. G., ‘A lost leaf from a Bodleian book of hours’, BLR 8 (1971), pp. 248–51.
    Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 1, no. 696.
    Scott, K. L.,‘A mid-fifteenth-century English illuminating shop and its customers’, JWCI 31 (1968), pp. 170–96, at p. 172.
    Cavanaugh, S. H., A study of books privately owned in England, 1300–1450, Diss., University of Pennsylvania (Ann Arbor, MI, 1985), p. 332.
    Scott (1996), vol. 2, pp. 107, 298, 330.
    Turner, J. (ed.), The dictionary of art, vol. 20 (London: Macmillan, 1996), p. 64.
    Scott, K. L., ‘An hours and psalter by two Ellesmere illuminators’ in M. Stevens and D. Woodward (eds.), The Ellesmere Chaucer: essays in interpretation (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1997), pp. 87–119.
    Dutton, A. M., ‘Piety, politics and persona: MS Harley 4012 and Anne Harling’ in F. Riddy (ed.), Prestige, authority and power in late medieval manuscripts and texts (Woodbridge, etc.: York Medieval Press, 2000), pp. 133–46, at p. 136.
    Scott (2000–02), vol. 2, no. 554.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-04-08: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.