MS. Laud Lat. 17

Summary Catalogue no.: 994

Glossed Psalter; England; 12th century, third quarter

Fol. i is a blank parchment leaf.

[items 1–3 occupy quires I–XXVI]

1. (fols. 1r–200r)

Psalms [1]–150, written as prose, imperfect at the beginning because of the loss of the first two quires, starting at 15: 9, ‘...meum et exultauit lingua mea’. The psalms are in the biblical order; subdivisions within the psalms are not indicated, apart from 17: 26 (fol. 5r) and psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 80, 101 and 109. Punctuated throughout with punctus used to mark the ends of verses, and punctus or occasionally punctus elevatus used to mark metrum and minor pauses. Most psalms are preceded by short titles which do not conform to any of Salmon’s series (1959). The titles of five psalms are quoted below:

16 Oratio dauid (fol. 1r)
30 In finem psalmus dauid per extasi. (fol. 22v)
63 In finem psalmus dauid. (fol. 70v)
115 Alleluia. (fol. 157v)
140 Psalmus dauid. (fol. 190r).

The psalms are accompanied by interlinear and marginal glosses. The gloss starts imperfectly with ‘ferno dabitur . nec corpus sanctum per quod et alii ...’.

Antiphons and liturgical notes are added in the margins in 15th-century (?) hands (e.g. 20v, 22v, 26v, 30r, 33r, etc.).

Numbers of some psalms in Roman numerals are added in post-medieval (18th-century (?)) hands.

2. (fols. 200v–210v)

Weekly canticles, with short titles and marginal and interlinear glosses:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12) (‘Canticum ysaie’);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21) (‘Oracio ezechie regis’);
(3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11) (‘Canticum anne’);
(4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20) (‘Canticum moysi’);
(5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3) (‘Canticum abbacuch’);
(6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (‘Canticum moysi’).

3. (fols. 211r–214v)

Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) with a title ‘Fides sancti Athanasij episcopi catholica’, with interlinear and marginal glosses attributed to Bruno of Würzburg (see Haring, 1972, pp. 211 n. 38, 229; Gibson, Heslop and Pfaff, 1992, p. 110).

[items 4–5 occupy quires XXVII–XXVIII]

4. (fols. 215r–217r)

Litany, on added leaves, written in a 14th-century hand, including Alban, Edmund, Oswald and Kenelm among the martyrs; Augustine (of Hippo (?)), Nicholas, Augustine (of Canterbury (?)), Paulinus, Cuthbert, Dunstan, Edmund, Swithin, Julian, Aldhelm, Wulstan, Richard, Jerome, Benedict, Egidius, Leonard and Guthlac (last) among the confessors; and Frideswide (last) among the virgins. Thomas Becket is erased. The litany is followed by collects (fols. 216v–217r):

(1) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
(2) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui facis mirabilia magna solus ...
(3) Deus in cuius manu corda sunt regum qui es humilium consolator ...
(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 aeriarum discendat malignitas tempestatum ...
(7) Adesto domine supplicationibus nostris et uiam famulorum tuorum in salutis tue ...
(8) Animabus quesumus domine famulorum famularumque tuarum oracio proficiat supplicancium ut eas ...
(9) Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor mirabilis atque lapsorum subleuator ...

In the lower margin of fol. 216v is an added collect for the king.

5. (fols. 217v–222v)

Office of the Dead, use of Sarum (Ottosen, 1993, p. 115) added in the same 14th-century hand as the litany. Space for musical notation filled in only at Vespers.

[items 6–7 occupy quire XXIX]

6. (fol. 223r)

A short extract in a 13th-century hand from Rabanus Maurus, De rerum naturis (Migne, 1851, vol. 111), book 5, chapter ‘De officiis canonicis, et de his quae in Ecclesia leguntur atque canuntur’, beginning ‘IERONIMUS Diapsalma quidam Hebreum uerbum esse ...’ and ending ‘...quia ideo interponitur ut conuersio sensuum uel personarum esse noscatur’.

7. (fols. 223r–224v)

Formulary for use by judges and parties of the delegated courts, containing letters of proxy, appeal, commission, etc., probably produced in England (Cirencester (?)) during the pontificate of Innocent III (see Cheney, 1950; Kuttner, 1962; Sayers, 1971). Includes eleven original and two added letters, written in 13th-century hands; eight of the letters are based on two, possibly real, legal cases. Original letters start with coloured initials and have titles, such as ‘Littere procuratoris’, ‘Littere appellationis a iudicibus directe’, ‘Littere commissionis’, ‘Item littere commissionis’, etc. Two added letters (fols. 223r and 224v) have no titles or coloured initials. The letters contain names, many from the diocese of Worcester (particularly Cirencester and Winchcombe), but also from the dioceses of Lincoln and Salisbury. The names include R., abbot of Cirencester, R., abbot of Winchcombe, prior of Bradenstoke, Robert de Clipston, Robert of Bingham, Alexander of St Albans, J. de Pratis, G. de Bradewille, etc. (see Sayers, 1971).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: pupillam oculi (psalter, fol. 2r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: 226 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 244 × 170 mm.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; i + 1–225.

Collation

(fol. i) parchment leaf conjoint with a stub | (fols. 1–208) I–XXVI (8) two quires missing at the beginning | (fols. 209–214) XXVII (6) | (fols. 215–222) XXVIII (8) | (fols. 223–225) XXIX (2+1) fly-leaf added at the end. Catchwords and leaf signatures occasionally survive

Layout

Ruled in plummet for the text, interlinear and marginal gloss; columns occupied by the marginal gloss are separated by double bounding lines from the text; 15 lines of the biblical text per page; prickings often survive; written below the top line; written space: c. 175 × 135 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal proto-Gothic book hand; larger script used for the text and smaller script for the gloss; black ink.

Musical Notation:

Notation on staves (see van Dijk 1957).

Decoration

3- to 5-line coloured initials, decorated with floral designs in red, green, ochre or blue, at liturgical divisions: psalms 26 (fol. 18r), 38 (fol. 38r), 51 (fol. 57r), 52 (fol. 58r), 68 (fol. 78v), 80 (fol. 105r), 101 (fol. 130v) and 109 (fol. 150v). Psalm 97 (fol. 127v) starts with an ordinary 2-line initial.

The initials of psalms 26 and 38 have added 14th-century penwork with floral designs, birds and a hybrid figure.

2- to 3-line red, blue or brown initials, plain or decorated with floral, arabesque and geometric designs, at the beginning of psalms, canticles, etc.

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

Sketch with heart-shaped and geometric shapes in a square frame, in the lower margin on fol. 190v.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Brown leather over pasteboard, 17th century. Double blind roll border round the outer edge of both covers. Gilt coat of arms of Laud on both covers. Double blind roll lines on spine. Traces of two ties at the fore-edge. Three paper labels on spine, containing respectively: ‘B . Hieronymi sup(er) || Psalma Glossa ...|| Et super alia Cantica || . M . S .’; ‘71’ and ‘Laud. Lat. 17’.

History

Origin: 12th century, third quarter; additions, 14th century ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by the Augustinian Abbey of St. Mary, Cirencester (?) : a collection of letters relating to Cirencester and the Abbey, added in the 13th century.

Inscribed ‘Richardus holder[?] [...]’ (fol. 84, lower margin, upside-down).

William Laud (1573–1645), see ODNB: ‘Liber Guil: Laud Archiep(iscop)i Cant: et Cancellar: vniuersit: Oxon. 1638.’ (fol. 1r). First quires must have been missing by this date.

Bodleian Library: third donation from Laud, 28 June, 1639. Earlier shelfmark: ‘E. 71’, upper pastedown and fol. 1r.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 39–43. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858–1885).

Quarto Catalogue, col. 12

Quarto Catalogue, p. 537 (addenda)

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 1, p. 41

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (4 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Online resources:

MLGB3: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain

Select bibliography to 1994:

Frere, no. 176.

Cheney, C. R., English bishops’ chanceries, 1100–1250 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1950), p. 129.

Kuttner, S. and Rathbone, E., ‘Anglo-Norman canonists of the twelfth century’, Traditio 7 (1949–51), pp. 279–458, at p. 325.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 43

Kuttner, S.,‘Analecta iuridica Vaticana’, Collectanea Vaticana in honorem Anselmi M. Card. Albareda I, Studi e testi (Biblioteca apostolica vaticana) 219 (1962), pp. 415–52, at pp. 443–5.

Sayers, J. E., ‘A judge delegate formulary from Canterbury’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 35 (1962), pp. 198–211, at p. 198 n. 6; repr. in J. E. Sayers, Law and records in medieval England: studies on the medieval papacy, monasteries and records (London: Variorum Reprints, 1988).

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 3, no. 177, pl. XVIII.

Sayers, J. E., Papal judges delegate in the Province of Canterbury, 1198–1254: a study in ecclesiastical jurisdiction and administration (London: OUP, 1971), pp. 42–99 (‘The procedure of the courts of the judges delegate’); repr. in J. E. Sayers, Law and records in medieval England: studies on the medieval papacy, monasteries and records (London: Variorum Reprints, 1988).

Haring, N. M., ‘Commentaries on the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed’, Medieval Studies 34 (1972), pp. 208–52, at pp. 211 n. 38, 229.

Coxe (1973), cols. 12 and 537.

Hunt, R. W., The schools and the cloister: the life and writings of Alexander Nequam, 1157–1217, ed. and rev. by M. Gibson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 13 n. 59, 98 n. 20, 99 nn. 23, 24.

Gibson, Heslop and Pfaff (1992), pp. 59 n. 106, 110 n. 17, 116.

Ottosen (1993), OXF L17.

Polak, E. J., Medieval and Renaissance letter treatises and form letters: a census of manuscripts found in part of Western Europe, Japan, and the United States of America (Leiden: Brill, 1994), p. 379.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-03-06: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.

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