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

MS. Lat. liturg. f. 19

Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)

Portable Secular Psalter; England, Diocese of Norwich (?), 14th century, end

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Psalter,

[item 1 occupies quire I]

1. (fols. 1r–6v)

Calendar, laid out one month per page, written in red and black, approximately half full, not graded. Includes Benedict (21 March) and his translation (11 July), Taurinus (11 August), Augustine (28 August), Osyth (7 October), Edmund (20 November), ‘Dedicacio ecc(les)ie norwici’ with octave (24 September and 1 October) and Leonard (6 November), all in red. Also contains Bonitus (15 January), Felix of Dunwich (8 March), the ‘passio’ of William of Norwich (24 March), Ethelbert (20 May), Botulph (16 June), Etheldreda (22 June) and her translation (17 October), and Neot (31 July).

[items 2–7 occupy quires II–XXXI]

2. (fols. 7r–202r)

Psalms 1–150, laid out as prose, without titles (the rubric ‘psalmus’ is used occasionally, e.g. fols. 35r, 136r). There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109. Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into eleven 16-verse units. Psalms 148–150 are written as a single text. Psalm numbers and ‘finis Psalmorum’ on fol. 202r added in the margins in brown ink, in a post-medieval hand.

3. (fol. 202v–214v)

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. 214v–222v)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:

  • (1) Te deum laudamus (fol. 214v);
  • (2) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 216r);
  • (3) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 217v);
  • (4) Magnificat (fol. 218v);
  • (5) Nunc dimittis (fol. 219r);
  • (6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) (fol. 219v).

(fols. 222v–232r)

Litany, including Edmund and William among the martyrs; Taurinus, Augustine, Dunstan, Cuthbert, Felix, Bonitus, Edmund, Benedict and Neot among the confessors; and Etheldreda and Osyth among the virgins. All invocations are crossed through in red ink. Followed by collects (fols. 229r–232r), including one for the bishop (2):

  • (1) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
  • (2) Mentem famuli tui episcopi nostri quesumus omnipotens deus lumine tue ueritatis illustra ...
  • (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) Acciones nostras quesumus domine aspirando preueni ...
  • (7) Adesto domine supplicationibus nostris et viam famulorum tuorum in salutis tue ...
  • (8) Ecclesiae tue domine preces placatus admitte ut destructis aduersitatibus uniuersis ...
  • (9) A domo tua quesumus domine spirituales nequitie repellantur et aeriarum discendat malignitas tempestatum ...
  • (10) Deus a quo sancta desideria recta consilia et iusta sunt ...
  • (11) Deus qui inter apostolicos sacerdotes famulos tuos pontificali fecisti ...
  • (12) Animabus quesumus domine famulorum famularumque tuarum oracio proficiat supplicancium ut eas ...
  • (13) Hostium nostrorum quaesumus domine elide superbiam et dextere tue virtute prosterne ...
  • (14) Deus qui misericordie tue potentis auxilio et prospera tribuis ...
  • (15) Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor mirabilis atque lapsorum subleuator ...

6. (fols. 232v–240v)

Prayers, including those to the Trinity (fols. 232v–234v):

  • (1) Domine deus pater omnipotens qui consubstancialem et coeternum tibi ante omnia ineffabiliter secula filium genuisti ...
  • (2) Domine iesu christe fili dei viui qui es verus et omnipotens deus splendor ...
  • (3) Domine sancte spiritus omnipotens qui coequalis et coeternus et consubstancialis patri filioque ...
  • (4) Domine deus eterne et ineffabilis sine fine et inicio ...
  • (5) Domine deus pater omnipotens infinite misericordie et maiestatis immense obsecro te ...

7. (fols. 241r–242v)

Prayers, ‘Benedicam dominum patrem omnipotentem in omni tempore ...’ and ‘Benedictus es domine ...’, added in a 15th-century (?) hand (fols. 241v–242v).

Fol. 241r is ruled but blank.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: syon montem (psalter, fol. 8r)
Form: codex
Support: parchment; paper fly-leaf
Extent: 245 (i + 244) leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c. 120 × 80 mm.
Foliation: modern, in pencil; i + 244.

Collation

(fol. i) fly-leaf | (fols. 1–6) I (6) | (fols. 7–238) II–XXX (8) | (fols. 239–242) XXXI (4) | (fols. 243–244) XXXII (2). Catchwords survive.

Layout

Ruled in ink with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; prickings survive; written below the top line; 17 lines per page; written space: c. 75 × 42 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hand, black ink

Decoration

Decoration Blue KL monograms with red penwork in the calendar.

5-line red and blue Beatus ‘puzzle’ initial with penwork and a four-sided penwork border (fol. 7r).

4-line red and blue initials with penwork and one- or two-sided penwork borders at psalms 26 (fol. 35v), 38 (fol. 54r), 52 (fol. 72r), 68 (fol. 90r), 80 (fol. 113), 97 (fol. 134r) and 109 (fol. 156r).

3-line blue initial with red penwork at the beginning of the litany.

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

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

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Contemporary binding of plain (?) tawed leather over wood boards with endbands sewn in green, pink and white. The whole covered with a chemise formed from similar tawed leather with pockets of pink tawed leather, perhaps also encompassing textile flaps now lost. The remains of two clasps over the chemise. The chemise was lined with linen in 1995. Modern paper fly-leaf.

History

Origin: 14th century, end ; English, diocese of Norwich (?) (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Norwich Cathedral Priory: pressmark 'a xxiij', 15th century, written over an erasure (?) on fol. 7r.

Record of the number of leaves in the volume (fol. 243r, top edge).

Dame Thomas Hughson est hui(us) libri possessor’, 16th century (fol. 244v), wife of the sacristan of Norwich Cathedral in 1547, and rector of St Michael at Pleas, Norwich, in 1560 (Blomefield, IV, 7, 327). A similar inscription on fol. 243r, the name erased.

Katherine CORBET’: partly erased 16th-century inscription (fol. 243r). Possibly the wife of Sir Miles Corbett of Sprowston (cf. Dashwood, 1878, I, p. 35).

Lowth, Robert (1710–1787), biblical critic and bishop of London, see ODNB.

Miss A. S. Bourne.

Charles Martin of Dartington, 1872: on the front inside cover ‘Charles Martin || Dartington || from Miss A. S. Bourne 1872 || possibly belonged to Bp Lowth’.

Bodleian Library: given by Mrs. Dora F. Martin of Ottery St Mary, Devon, 1918.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 214–18. Previously described in typescript by Bodleian library staff.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    Blomefield, F., An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk, 5 vols. (Fersfield, 1739–75).
    Dashwood, G. H. et al. (eds.), The visitation of Norfolk in 1563, 2 vols. (Norwich, 1878).
    Ker, N. R., ‘Medieval manuscripts from Norwich Cathedral Priory’, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 1 (1949–53), pp. 1–28, reprinted in N. R. Ker, Books, collectors and libraries: studies in the medieval heritage, ed. Andrew G. Watson (London: Hambledon, 1985), pp. 243–72, at p. 256.
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 25
    Ker (1964), p. 139.
    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. 156.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-06: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.