MS. Rawl. G. 185

Summary Catalogue no.: 14902

Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Use of the Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; England, 14th century, third quarter (before 1368)

Choir Psalter with antiphons, Use of the Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

1. (fols. ii verso–iii recto, 142v, 144r)

Notes concerning the affairs of the Priory of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, ranging from 1368 to 1416 (described and partially reproduced by Hand, 1956). Most notes refer to the priorate of James de Redenesse (d. 1409). Personal prayers, fol. iii recto. Fol. i is a paper fly-leaf; fols. ii recto and iii verso are blank apart from modern notes.

[item 2 occupies quire I]

2. (fols. iv recto–ix verso)

Calendar for the use of the Augustinian canons of Christ Church, Dublin, laid out one month per page, written in brown, blue, red, pink and gold, graded to 9 lessons and ‘duplex festum’. Augustine of Hippo is in gold (28 August) with octave and translation in red (11 October). Also in gold are Patrick (17 March, ‘sancti patricii hibernie apostoli’), Columba (9 June), Lawrence O’Toole (14 November, ‘sancti laurencii archiepiscopi dublini’) and Catherine (25 November). The following saints are in red or blue: David (1 March), Cuthbert (20 March), Dunstan (19 May), Augustine of Canterbury (26 May, ‘primi anglorum episcopi’), Maculinus (6 September), Fintan Find (10 October) and Mobhi of Glasnevin (12 October). The calendar includes many other Irish saints, such as Itha, patroness of Killeedy, Limerick (15 January), Fursey, abbot of Langy near Paris (16 January), Aedhan, bishop of Ferns (31 January), Brigid of Kildare (1 February), Fintan, abbot of Clonenagh (17 February), Abban, abbot of Kill-Abban and Finan, abbot of Swords, Dublin (both 16 March), Brendan (16 May), Kieran, abbot of Clonmacnoise (9 September), Finbar McBindi (10 September), Canice (11 October) (for a full list of Irish saints in the calendar and comparison with the calendar of another Christ Church book, the Martyrology, see Hand, 1956, pp. 312–14). The feast of relics is in red on 31 July. The elevation of the relics of Edward, king and martyr, is added in a 16th-century hand at 20 June (‘Translatio Sancti Edwardi’). The months are headed by verses on the ‘Egyptian’ days, which correspond to Hennig’s (1955) set III, and end with notes on the number of hours in days and nights, e.g. ‘Nox habet horas xvi. dies uero viij.’ (January). In February ‘locus bisextus’ is entered against the 24th with the Dominical letter ‘f’ and there are Latin verses in red in the original hand in the lower margin: Si bisextus erit f. seruetur utrique diei Posteriori die celebratur festum mathie. Verses on psalms in red in the original hand on the page for December, before the start of psalms (fol. ix verso): ‘Centum quingenos dauid canit in ordine psalmos Uersus bis mille sex centum sex canit ille’ (Walther, no. 19209).

[items 3–7 occupy quires II–XIX]

3. (fols. 1r–127r)

Psalms 1–150, without titles or numbers, written with each verse beginning on a new line. Punctuated throughout, with punctus used to mark the ends of verses, and punctus elevatus used to mark metrum. The psalms are in the biblical order; the subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into eleven 16-verse units. Psalms 148–150 are written without breaks as a single text. The psalms are accompanied by antiphons and versicles, with short rubrics and musical notation (square notation on staves of three or four red lines). There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109. Roman numerals ii–vii (for days of the week) are written in the margins next to the initials of psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80 and 97, possibly in the original workshop. Psalm 109 starts at the beginning of a new quire and the scribe left much of the preceding fol. 96v blank. The text contains corrections, and omitted verses are added in margins in the original or a contemporary hand.

4. (fols. 127r–134v)

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).

5. (fols. 134v–139r)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:

(1) Te deum laudamus (fol. 134v);
(2) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 135v);
(3) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 136r);
(4) Magnificat (fol. 136v);
(5) Nunc dimittis (fol. 137r);
(6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) (fol. 137r).

The canticles are followed by antiphons with musical notation, beginning ‘Beati qui ambulant in lege ...’ and ending ‘parce domine parce populo tuo quem redemisti precioso sanguine tuo . et ne des hereditatem tuam in perdicionem’.

6. (fols. 139r–142r)

Litany, including Thomas Becket, Hugh of Lincoln, Edmund, Oswald, Edward and Alban among the martyrs; Augustine, Patrick, Columba and Kieran as the sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth among the confessors; and Brigid (of Kildare (?)) as the twelfth of the virgins. The litany is followed by collects (fols. 140r–142r):

(1) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
(2) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui facis mirabilia magna solus ...
(3) Deus uirtutum cuius est totum quod est optimum ...
(4) Deus qui caritatis dona per graciam ...
(5) Pretende domine famulis et famulabus tuis dexteram celestis auxilii ut de toto corde ...
(6) Ure igne sancti spiritus renes nostros ...
(7) Actiones nostras quesumus domine aspirando preueni ...
(8) Ecclesie tue quesumus domine preces placatus admitte ut destructis ...
(9) Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor mirabilis atque lapsorum subleuator ...
(10) Per horum omnium sanctorum angelorum ...
(11) Liberator animarum mundi redemptor ihesu criste ... [masculine forms]
(12) Omnipotens sempiterne deus cuius bonitate regimur ...

The last collect is followed by a colophon naming Stephen of Derby, prior of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, fol. 142r (see ‘Provenance’). The colophon is in the original hand in coloured inks, changing at the start of every new line, alternating between pink, red and blue: ‘ffrater Stephanus de Derby . Prior ecclesie sancte trinitatis dublinie Cathedralis istud psalterium ordinauit et fieri fecit . Sit benedictus amen’. The lower margin of fol. 142r contains the obits of nine priors of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, added in a 16th-century hand, headed by a rubric ‘Successores Steph. de Derby’, beginning with Robert de Lockton with a date ‘1397’, and ending with William Hassard with a date ‘1537’ and Robert Castell without a date (‘Robertus Castell alias Painswick ultimus Prior et primus huius ecclesiae Decanus’).

7. (fol. 143r)

Added formula for general absolutions, beginning ‘Auctoritate dei patris omnipotentis et beatorum apostolorum Petri & Pauli ...’ and ending ‘... et uiuas in secula seculorum. Amen. In nomine patris et filij et cetera’ (published by Hand, 1956). Initial A is left unfinished. Fol. 143v is partially ruled, otherwise blank; fol. 144v is blank; fol. 145 is a paper fly-leaf.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: Apprehendite disciplinam (psalter, fol. 2r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; paper fly-leaves

Extent: 154 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 395 × 250 mm.

Leaves were trimmed in rebinding causing the loss of decoration.

Foliation: modern, in ink; i–ix + 1–145.

Collation

(fols. i–iii) fol. i is a paper fly-leaf, originally conjoint with the upper pastedown; fols. ii–iii are two singletons | (fols. iv–ix) I (6) | (fols. 1–136) II–XVIII (8) | (fols. 137–142) XIX (6) | (fols. 143–145) fols. 143 and 144 are two singletons; fol. 145 is a paper fly-leaf originally conjoint with the lower pastedown. Catchwords, decorated with scrolls, often survive; leaf signatures occasionally survive (e.g. quire VIII, fols. 49–52)

Layout

Ruled in red ink with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines, extending the full height and width of page, and in faint plummet for tops and bottoms of minims; written below the top line; 21 lines per page; written space: c. 292 × 185 mm. .

Fols. 139r–142r, containing the litany and collects, are ruled for two columns of 21 or more lines, with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page. Fol. 143r–v is ruled on each page for two columns with single vertical bounding lines, single horizontal bounding lines at the top of the page and double horizontal bounding lines at the bottom of the page

Hand(s)

Large formal Gothic book hand; antiphons and versicles are in a smaller script

Musical Notation:

Square notation on staves of three or four red lines

Decoration

Attributed to the Master of the Egerton Genesis (London, British Library, Egerton MS. 1894) (Pächt, 1943), the M. R. James Memorial Psalter (London, British Library, Add. MS. 44949) (Millar, 1938; Pächt, 1943) and the Crucifixion and Christ in Majesty miniatures in the Fitzwarin Psalter (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale MS. lat. 765) (Wormald, 1943). Border decoration on fol. 1r is in a different style from the rest of the psalter.

Calendar: Pink and blue KL monograms on gold background and borders made of pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with sprays of leaves (both side-margins in January and left margin only in other months). The borders incorporate the Signs of the Zodiac, and a Labour of the Month for January: January: man sitting on a stool, stirring the contents of a cauldron; hybrid Aquarius February: Pisces (man holding two fish) March: Aries April: Taurus May: Gemini (two profile heads and two arms supporting a shield, party per pale, sable and argent) June: Cancer July: Leo August: Virgo September: Libra (man holding scales) October: Scorpio emerging from a bishop’s mitre November: Capricorn December: Sagittarius

5- to 7-line (psalm 1) historiated initials in gold frames at liturgical divisions. Borders made of pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with sprays of leaves and gold discs. Psalms 1 and 109 have a particularly rich border ornament.

fol. 1r, Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) Blue initial, decorated with white monochrome images (damaged) of David playing harp, the Virgin and Child, and a seated young man. The initial is infilled with young David, holding stones in the skirt of his tunic, and Goliath in armour, with a sword, axe and shield (staining from tarnished silver on Goliath’s armour).
(full border) Jesse Tree (reclining Jesse; 12 panels, framed with vines, bearing leaves and grapes, containing twelve crowned figures, including Solomon with a model of the Temple).
fol. 20r, Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) Christ, seated, holding a book and blessing. Beside the initial is the kneeling figure of Stephen of Derby (?), in a monastic (Augustinian (?)) habit, holding a scroll inscribed with the opening words of the psalm.
(full border) Lower corner-pieces with gold roses.
fol. 32v, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)) King David kneeling, pointing to his mouth; the face of Christ with cruciform halo in clouds above.
(border, left, right and lower margins) Animal masks; dragons.
fol. 43v, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)) Seated tonsured figure in a black (Augustinian (?)) habit, holding a book, finger raised in a gesture of teaching, speaking to the Fool, seated on the floor, in a short white tunic, holding a pouch; the face of God in clouds above. Scrolls with lettering: ‘Non est deus’ (Fool); ‘Tu mentiris aperte’ (cleric); ‘Ecce dicit incipiens’ (God).
(full border) Grotesque.
fol. 54v, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) Crowned nude King David praying in waters; the face and blessing hand of God above.
(full border) Animal mask.
fol. 68v, Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)) Seven tonsured Augustinian (?) clerics playing musical instruments; half-figure of God, holding a book and blessing.
(full border) Human figures in hoods and cloaks with decorative stems growing out of their bodies; grotesque.
fol. 81v, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)) Tonsured clerics singing from a book with musical notation open on a lectern; two hybrid figures, reading books.
(full border) Animal mask.
fol. 97r, Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) Blue initial, decorated with white monochrome images of praying angels, infilled with the Throne of Grace.
(full border) Animal masks; grotesque.

2-line initials in gold frames, decorated with sprays of leaves and gold discs, and borders formed by pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with sprays of leaves, grotesques and animal masks, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, prayers and litany. Some initials are infilled with the head of Christ with cruciform halo (e.g. fols. 9r–v, 11r, 15r–v), heads of bearded men or human profiles (e.g. fols. 31r, 35r, 69v).

Borders: see above.

1-line gold initials on blue and pink background alternating with blue initials decorated with red penwork at the beginnings of verses and periods.

The beginnings of staves with musical notation and capital letters at the start of antiphons are often decorated with arabesque designs, grotesques and human profiles in penwork with pink and yellow wash.

Line-endings made of blue, pink and gold bars with white designs alternate with red and blue penwork line-endings.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Dark brown leather (damaged) over oak boards, early 16th century (?). Tooled with four diamond-shaped panels on both covers; at the centre of each panel is a shield with a rose inside. The panels are framed with blind fillet lines, forming a criss-cross pattern with floral corner-pieces. Border made of blind roll floral decoration framed with blind fillet lines round the outer edge of both covers. Rebacked, probably in the Bodleian. Impressions left by the fittings of two clasps on the lower cover. Holes on fol. 144 presumably from a former strap-and-pin binding. The upper and lower pastedowns and paper fly-leaves are leaves from an early printed edition of the Compilatio Sexta, i.e. Raymond of Pennafort’s Decretals of Gregory IX. Fols. ii and 144 were formerly pastedowns.

History

Origin: 14th century, third quarter (before 1368) ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Commissioned by Stephen of Derby, prior of the Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, 1349–c. 1382: colophon on fol. 142r; possible portrait (fol. 20r).

Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The psalter was still in the Priory early in the 15th century when the notes concerning the affairs of the Priory were added.

Sir James Ware (1594–1666), Irish antiquary and historian, see ODNB. No. IIII among ‘Libri Theologici’ in his 1648 Catalogue (published by O’Sullivan, 1997).

Robert Ware (1639–1697), younger son of James Ware: inherited after his father’s death.

Henry Hyde (1638–1709), the second earl of Clarendon, see ODNB: bought James Ware manuscripts from Robert Ware c. 1685. The psalter was deposited in 1687 in the public library at St Martin-in-the-Fields, established in 1684 by Thomas Tenison, see ODNB, but withdrawn between 1692 and 1694 (O’Sullivan, 1997). Shelfmark ‘No I || JP’, followed by a cross in a circle (fol. 2v), found in other Ware manuscripts and probably added at the time of their return to Clarendon from St Martin’s (O’Sullivan, 1997, p. 75). No. 253 in his sale catalogue compiled in 1709 by Christopher Bateman (Rawlinson’s annotated copy is Bodleian Library, Mus. Bibl. III. 4o 13).

James Brydges (1674–1744), first duke of Chandos, see ODNB: bought Clarendon’s library for £1,200 in 1709.

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755), see ODNB: bought parts of Chandos’s collection in 1747.

Booksellers’ (?) markings on fol. ii verso (‘2v Nn Ba. ZZ’ [2v meaning 2 vols. (?)], ‘3. 6’, ‘Bmn’) and fol. iii verso (‘11. 2. 8’, ‘vol: 1’).

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson in 1755; accessioned in 1756. Known as the Derby Psalter. Former shelfmark: ‘Auctarium Rawlinson BN 185’ (fol. i verso) (see Summary catalogue, vol. 1, pp. xxxviii–xl). ‘527’ written in ink on the upper pastedown.

Record Sources

Summary description based on Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 186–95. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 3, p. 375

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (34 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Select bibliography to 2004:

Gilbert, J. T., Facsimiles of national manuscripts of Ireland (Dublin: Public Record Office of Ireland, 1882), part IV, pp. lxxxiv–lxxxvi.

Macray, W. D., Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford: with a notice of the earlier library of the University, 2nd edn. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890; repr. Bodleian Library, 1984), pp. 244, 441.

Frere, no. 169.

Summary catalogue, vol. 3, no. 14902.

Millar, E. G., ‘The Egerton Genesis and the M. R. James Memorial MS’, Archaeologica 87 (1938), pp. 1–5.

Pächt, O., ‘A Giottesque episode in English medieval art’, JWCI 6 (1943), pp. 51–70.

Wormald, F., ‘The Fitzwarin Psalter and its allies’, JWCI VI (1943), 71–9, at p. 78; reprinted in J. J. G. Alexander, T. J. Brown and J. Gibbs (eds.), Francis Wormald: collected writings (London; New York: H. Miller in conjunction with OUP; 1984), vol. 2, Studies in English and Continental art of the later Middle Ages, pp. 88–102.

Hand, G. I., ‘The psalter of Christ Church, Dublin’, Reportorium novum 1 (1956), pp. 311–22.

Hawkes, W., ‘The liturgy in Dublin, 1200–1500: manuscript sources’, Reportorium Novum 2 (1958), pp. 33–67, at pp. 54–7.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 126

Pfaff (1970), p. 27 fn. 5.

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 3, no. 653, pl. LXVII.

Alexander, J. J. G. and Kauffmann, C. M., English illuminated manuscripts 700–1500 (Brussels: Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, 1973), no. 68, pl. 33.

Pfaff, R. W., Montague Rhodes James (London: Scolar Press, 1980), p. 309 n. 62.

Marks, R. and Morgan, N., The golden age of English manuscript painting, 1200–1500 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1981), pp. 21–2 and fig. XIV (fol. 68v).

Dennison, L., ‘The Fitzwarin Psalter and its allies: a reappraisal’ in W. M. Ormrod (ed.), England in the fourteenth century: proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium (Woodbridge, Suffolk; Dover, NH: Boydell, 1986), pp. 42–66, at p. 44 n. 10.

Sandler (1986), vol. 1, pp. 34, 49; vol. 2, pp. 134, 141, 143, 164, 166 and no. 128.

Alexander and Binski (1987), cited at no. 685.

Avril and Stirnemann (1987), p. 162.

Scott, K. L., ‘Caveat lector: ownership and standardization in the illustration of fifteenth-century English manuscripts’, English manuscript studies 1100–1700 1 (1989), pp. 19–63, at p. 59.

Tashjian, G. R., Tashjian, D. R. and Enright, B. J., Richard Rawlinson: a tercentenary memorial (Kalamazoo: New Issues Press, Western Michigan University, 1990), pp. 114–15.

Mezger, W., Narrenidee und Fastnachtsbrauch: Studien zum Fortleben des Mittelalters in der europäischen Festkultur, Konstanzer Bibliothek 15 (Constance: Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1991), p. 231 Abb. 122.

Lucy, F. S., ‘The image of the book-owner in the fourteenth century: three cases of self-definition’ in N. Rogers (ed.), England in the fourteenth century: proceedings of the 1991 Harlaxton Symposium (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1993), pp. 58–80, figs. 51–64, at p. x, fig. 56.

Camille, M.,‘The book as flesh and fetish in Richard de Bury’s Philobiblon’ in D. W. Frese and K. O’Brien O’Keeffe (eds.), The book and the body (Notre Dame, IN; London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), pp. 34–77, at pp. 56, 71.

McDonnell, J., Five hundred years of the art of the book in Ireland: 1500 to the present [accompanying book for the Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 22 May–27 July 1997] (Dublin and London: National Gallery of Ireland in association with Merrell Holberton, 1997), pp. 8–9.

Sandler, L. F., ‘The Wilton Diptych and images of devotion in illuminated manuscripts’ in D. Gordon, L. Monnas and C. Elam (eds.), The regal image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych (London: H. Miller, 1997), pp. 137–54, at pp. 137, 318 n. 2; fig. 75.

O’Sullivan, W., ‘A finding list of Sir James Ware’s manuscripts’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C, Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, vol. 97, no. 2 (1997), pp. 69–99.

Dennison, L., ‘Monastic or secular? The artist of the Ramsey Psalter, now at Holkham Hall, Norfolk’ in B. Thompson (ed.), Monasteries and society in medieval Britain: proceedings of the 1994 Harlaxton Symposium (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1999), pp. 223–61, passim.

Kerby-Fulton, K. and Despres, D. L., Iconography and the professional reader: the politics of book production in the Douce Piers Plowman, Medieval Cultures 15 (London and Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), pp. 99, 101, 234 n. 36.

Buckley, A.,‘Music and musicians in medieval Irish society’, Early Music 28 (2000), pp. 165–90, at p. 187 no. 12.

Dennison, L., ‘The suggested origin and initial destination of London, British Library, Additional MS 44949, the M. R. James Memorial Psalter’ in L. Dennison (ed.), The legacy of M. R. James: papers from the 1995 Cambridge Symposium (Donington, Lincs.: Shaun Tyas, 2001), pp. 77–98, at pp. 83–4, 92–4, pls. 22, 26.

Joslin, M. C. and Joslin Watson, C. C., The Egerton Genesis (London: British Library; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), pp. 2, 5, 138, 176, 189, 191, 198, 203, 230, 231–5, 236, 237, 239, 249.

Baschet, J., ‘Pourquoi élaborer des bases de données d’images?’ in A. Bolvig and P. Lindley (eds.), History and images: towards a new iconology, Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe 5 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), pp. 59–106, at pp. 92 and n. 45, 93, fig. 5 (fol. 97r detail).

Büttner, F. O., ‘Der illuminierte Psalter im Western’ in Büttner (2004), pp. 1–135, at pp. 70 n. 34, 74 n. 48.

Refaussé, R., ‘Administration and rubrication: the Christ Church psalter in context’, Irish Arts Review (2004), pp. 100–103, figs. 1–8.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.

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