MS. Laud Lat. 81

Summary Catalogue no.: 768

Portable psalter; England, 11th century, second half

[items 1–4 occupy quires I–XIX]

1. (fols. 3r–131v)

Psalms 1–150, in the biblical order, written with each verse starting on a new line, without titles (apart from ‘Psalmus Dauid’ written in gold at the start of psalm 51). There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 77, 80, 97, 101, 109 and 119 (see ‘Decoration’). Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. Punctuated throughout with metrum almost always marked with a medial point (placed mid-line), and the ends of verses either with another medial point or with an arrangement of three dots in a triangle or inverted triangle (occasionally the base of the triangle is a comma) (Toswell, 1995, p. 14). Verse 26 of psalm 113 at the top of fol. 106r omitted and supplied in a 13th-century hand. Added psalm numbers, scribbles in margins, transcripts of opening lines of psalms (e.g. fols. 36v, 96v, 119r, 120r), a gloss (fol. 93r) and Hebrew subtitles in psalm 119 (see Thomas Wood in ‘Provenance’).

2. (fols. 131v–139v)

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).

3. (fol. 139v–144v)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:

(1) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 139v);
(2) Te deum laudamus (fol. 140v);
(3) Gloria in excelsis (fol. 141v);
(4) Pater noster (141v);
(5) Nicene Creed (Credo in unum deum . . .) (fol. 142r);
(6) Nunc dimittis (fol. 142r);
(7) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult . . .) (fol. 142v).

4. (fols. 144v–147r)

Litany (ed. Lapidge, 1991), including Benedict (first), Cuthbert, Guthlac, Patrick, Columba, David and Aidan among the confessors, and Gertrude, Benedicta and Corona among the virgins. Contains 80 names of which 27 are virgins (Toswell, 1995, p. 15). Followed by petitions, ending imperfectly at ‘Ut cunctum populum christianum . . .’ because of a loss of a leaf.

[item 5 occupies quire XX]

5. (fols. 147r–152r)

Thirty-two collects including those of the Trinity, the Holy Cross, the Virgin Mary, Michael, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul and Andrew, Stephen, Lawrence, Vincent, Benedict, Gregory, Augustine of Canterbury and Nicholas. The last three of the thirty-two collects are added and their initials are not filled in. The beginning is lost, starts with ‘... mereamur bonis operibus habundare’. Fol. 152v is blank.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: figuli confringes (psalter, fol. 4r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; fols. 1–2 perhaps not contemporary with the original book, though probably medieval (worm holes from an earlier binding); fols. i and 133 are paper, 17th century, no watermarks

Extent: 154 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 85 × 59 mm.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; i + 153.

Collation

(fol. i) fly-leaf conjoint with the upper pastedown | (fols. 1–2) I (2) parchment fly-leaves, probably medieval, but of different quality from the rest of the manuscript | (fols. 3–146) II–XIX (8) 2nd and 7th leaves of quire XVII are singletons | (fols. 147–152) XX (8−2) first and last leaves lost | (fol. 153) fly-leaf conjoint with lower pastedown. No catchwords or leaf signatures.

Layout

Blind-ruled for 19 lines per page; double vertical bounding lines extending the full height of page; prickings often survive; written space: c. 63 × 42 mm.

Hand(s)

English Caroline minuscule; brown ink; the incipits of most psalms and the first lines of most psalms at liturgical divisions are in majuscules.

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander iii. 61

10-line gold Beatus-initial with foliate designs on fol. 3r; the opening words of psalm 1 written in gold.

Plain gold border to the whole page.

9- to 10-line gold initials with foliate designs at the beginnings of psalms 51 (fol. 47r) and 101 (fol. 90v); opening words in gold.

8-line plain gold initial at the beginning of psalm 109 (fol. 103r).

2- to 3-line indented gold initials, some with arabesque designs, at the beginning of psalms 26 (fol. 22v), 38 (fol. 35v), 52 (fol. 48r), 68 (fol. 69v), 77 (fol. 70r), 80 (fol. 75r), 97 (fol. 88v), 119 (fol. 116r).

1-line indented gold initials of psalms, canticles, litany and prayers.

1-line gold initials at the beginnings of verses.

Binding

Limp parchment, 17th century. Sewn on three cords. Evidence of the Bodleian (?) label on spine; handwritten title in ink on spine. Paper end-leaves.

History

Origin: 11th century, second half ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

Made for a Benedictine (?) owner: St Benedict is the first among the confessors in the litany (fol. 144v) and his name appears in a collect on fol. 149v.

Additions of different dates: fol. 106r (13th century (?)); fol. 122r (16th century (?)).

Thomas Wood, rector of Stowting, Kent, 1593 (Foster, 1891–92, p. 1672): on fol. 115v: ‘Thende of the 119 . p . By me T. W. 1593’; on fol. 131v: ‘finis julij 1593 at Stowting in Kent. Tho Wood clericus Domine misarere [sic] mei peccatoris: Luke . 18’. Additions of psalm numbers, etc. in the psalter. Note on fol. 1r ‘Qui non laborat Non manducet 2 Thes 3 . Dominum Deum tuum adorabis et illi soli servies Math 4’.

William Laud (1573–1645), see ODNB: ‘Liber Guilielmi Laud Archiepiscopi Cantuar’: et Cancellarij Vniuersitatis Oxon. 1633’ (fol. 2v).

Bodleian Library: first donation from Laud, 22 May 1635. Former shelfmark: ‘D I Laud’ (fol. i verso).

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 15–18. 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. 36

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 1, p. 33

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (3 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Printed descriptions:

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 10

Online resources:

Electronic Gneuss-Lapidge (entry 655)

Select bibliography (to 2002):

Frere, no. 455.

Sisam, C. and Sisam, K. (eds.), The Salisbury Psalter, edited from Salisbury Cathedral MS 150, EETS O.S. 242 (London: Published for the EETS by OUP, 1959), p. 75 n. 2.

Barré, H., Prières anciennes de l’occident à la Mère du Sauveur: des origines à saint Anselme (Paris: Lethielleux, 1963), p. 131 n. 19.

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 3, no. 61.

Coxe (1973), col. 36.

Gneuss, H., ‘Liturgical books in Anglo-Saxon England and their Old English terminology’ in M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss (eds.), Learning and literature in Anglo-Saxon England: studies presented to Peter Clemoes on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday (Cambridge: CUP, 1985), pp. 91–141, at pp. 116, 138.

Lapidge, M. (ed.), Anglo-Saxon litanies of the saints, Henry Bradshaw Society 106 (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1991), no. 33.

Dumville, D. N., English Caroline script and monastic history: studies in Benedictinism, A.D. 950–1030 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1993), pp. 60–1.

Clayton, M. and Magennis, H. (eds.), The Old English lives of St Margaret (Cambridge: CUP, 1994), p. 77.

Pulsiano, P., ‘Psalters’ in R. W. Pfaff (ed.), The liturgical books of Anglo-Saxon England (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1995), pp. 61–85, at p. 66.

Toswell, M. J.,‘The late Anglo-Saxon psalter: ancestor of the Book of Hours?’, Florilegium: papers on late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 14 (1995), pp. 1–24.

Remley, P. G., Old English biblical verse: studies in Genesis, Exodus and Daniel (Cambridge: CUP, 1996), pp. 390, 429.

Pulsiano, P., ‘The prefatory matter of London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius E. XVIII’ in P. Pulsiano and E. M. Treharne, Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and their heritage (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), pp. 85–116, at p. 105.

Gameson, R., ‘Book culture in Northern Europe during the tenth and eleventh centuries’ in E. Petersen (ed.), Living words and luminous pictures: medieval book culture in Denmark. Essays (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliothek, Moesgård Museum, 1999), pp. 23–51, at pp. 37, 51 n. 77.

——, The manuscripts of early Norman England (c. 1066–1130) (Oxford: Published for the British Academy by OUP, 1999), p. 140 no. 748.

Pulsiano, P. (ed.), Old English glossed psalters: psalms 1–50 (Toronto and London: Published in association with the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto by University of Toronto Press, 2001), p. xxix.

Haney, K., The St. Albans Psalter: an Anglo-Norman song of faith (New York and Oxford: Peter Lang, 2002), p. 23.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-01: Matthew Holford: encoded description from Solopova catalogue.

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