MS. Rawl. G. 21

Summary Catalogue no.: 14754

Portable Psalter; French Flanders (?), 14th century, second quarter

Fols. i–iii are paper fly-leaves, blank apart from modern notes.

1. (fols. 1r–147v)

Psalms 1–150, in the biblical order, written with each verse starting on a new line, without titles. Subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided mostly into 16-verse units. The beginning of two 8-verse units are marked with larger initials: Manus tue (118: 73, fol. 121v) and Princeps persecuti (118: 161, fol. 126v). Psalm numbers are added in the margins in black ink, in Arabic numerals, in a 17th-century (?) hand, which also made notes in English about the missing text on fols. 43r, 56v, 57r, 82r and 95r (see below). The same hand numbered the 8-verse units in psalm 118. There is an offset from a document with a formal Gothic writing, perhaps contemporary with the manuscript and once present between its leaves, on fol. 40r. The following text is missing:

– one leaf missing after fol. 42 (missing text 37: 14–38: 5)
– six (?) leaves missing after fol. 56 (missing text 50: 16–57: 4)
– eight-leaf quire missing after fol. 81 (missing text 77: 42–83: 6, catchword ‘(N)on sunt’ on fol. 81v)
– one leaf missing after fol. 94 (missing text 96: 3–97: 3)
– one leaf missing after fol. 111 (missing text 108: 21–109: 4).

Punctuated throughout with punctus elevatus used to mark metrum, punctus or punctus elevatus used to mark minor pauses, and punctus used to mark the ends of verses. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 68, 119 (the beginning of the Gradual Psalms) and 143 (one of the Penitential Psalms) (see ‘Decoration’). Originally there were probably historiated initials on leaves, now excised, containing the beginnings of psalms 38, 51 (?), 52, 80, 97 and 109. There are offsets of illuminated borders on fols. 43r, 95r and 112r from leaves which used to face them and contained the beginnings of psalms 38, 97 and 109. Many leaves are mutilated, sometimes with a loss of text.

2. (fols. 147v–151v)

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) ending imperfectly at ‘...ab itineribus’ (verse 6), because of the loss of one or more quires at the end.

There is a catchword ‘eternitatis’ on fol. 151v, currently the last medieval leaf in the manuscript.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: Dominus dixit (psalter, fol. 8r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: 158 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 187 × 132 mm.

Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of decoration.

Foliation: modern, in pencil; i–iii + 1–155.

Collation

(fols. i–iii) fols. i–ii are a fragment of a paper bifolium; fol. iii is a paper fly- leaf | (fols. 1–40) I–V (8) | (fols. 41–47) VI (8−1) | (fols. 48–55) VII (8) | (fols. 56–57) VIII (8−6 (?)) missing 2–7 (?) | (fols. 58–81) IX–XI (8) a quire is missing after fol. 81 | (fols. 82–89) XII (8) | (fols. 90–96) XIII (8−1) missing 6 | (fols. 97–104) XIV (8) | (fols. 105–111) XV (8−1) missing 8 | (fols. 112–151) XVI–XX (8) one or more quires missing at the end | (fols. 152–155) fols. 152–154 are paper fly-leaves; fol. 155 is a fragment of a paper leaf, probably originally conjoint with the lower pastedown. Catchwords survive.

Layout

Ruled in ink with two sets of vertical and horizontal bounding lines, extending the full height and width of page. One set is single and frames the written space; the second set is double and is placed in the margins, closer to the edges of leaves. 17 lines per page; written below the top line; written space: variable, c. 132 × 85 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hand, black and brown ink.

Decoration

The decoration is related in style to Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, fols. 3–208, the Romance of Alexander in French, finished by the scribe in 1338 and by the named illuminator, Jehan de Grise, in 1344 (Pächt and Alexander, 1966–73).

Historiated initials on gold backgrounds and borders decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage, gold discs and grotesques at liturgical divisions:

fol. 1r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) 8-line initial with seated King David (?) (badly rubbed; the upper half missing).
(full border) David with a sling and stones, and seated Goliath (?) (badly rubbed and mutilated); panel with a mask.
fol. 26v Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) 8-line initial with King David kneeling before an altar, pointing to his eyes; the head of God in clouds above.
fol. 67v Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) 8-line initial with Jonah emerging from the whale and a building with towers on the shore (Nineveh?); half-figure of God in clouds above, holding an orb and blessing.
fol. 127v Psalm 119 (initial A(d)) 3-line initial with a portrait head of a bearded man.
fol. 141v Psalm 143 (initial A(d)) 3-line initial with a portrait head of a bearded man.
fol. 147v Weekly canticles (initial C(onfitebor)) 5-line initial with seated Christ, holding an orb and blessing (defaced).

Borders: see above.

2-line gold initials on blue and pink backgrounds, decorated with foliage, at the beginnings of psalms and canticles.

1-line alternating gold and blue initials, decorated with contrasting purple and red penwork, at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Red and blue penwork line-endings.

Binding

Late 17th-century binding, possibly made for Thomas Noble (see ‘Provenance’). Brown leather of suede finish over pasteboard. Single blind fillet line border round the edges of both covers. Blind roll rectangular decoration, made of floral and arabesque designs, with floral corner-pieces on both covers (very faint). Gilt decoration on the edges of covers. Edges of textblock painted red. Rebacked in the Bodleian. Gilt lettering on spine ‘MS. || RAWL. G. || 21’. Laid paper pastedowns, contemporary with the binding, and fly-leaves with two different watermarks (one with the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam with initials ‘H G’).

History

Origin: 14th century, second quarter ; Flanders, French Flanders (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made in French Flanders (?) in the second quarter of the 14th century: evidence of decoration.

‘iesu marya’ and ‘amen’ written in the upper margins of fols. 134v–135r, 16th century (?).

Partly erased 16th-century (?) note in English and added verse numbers (fols. 101v–102r).

17th-century (?) English owner who numbered the psalms, and wrote notes in the margins about the missing text.

‘Thom : Noble : Anno Domini 1694’ (fol. 153r). Possibly Thomas Noble of Butterwick, Westmorland, who matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1686 and was Canon of York and rector of churches in York (Foster, 1891–92, p. 1073).

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755), see ODNB.

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson; accessioned in 1756. Earlier Bodleian shelfmark: ‘Auctarium Rawlinson 21’ (fol. iii recto).

Record Sources

Summary description based on Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 387–91. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 3, p. 344

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Printed descriptions:

Summary catalogue, vol. 3, no. 14754.

Frere, no. 441.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 55

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 1, no. 298, pl. XXIII.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-06: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.

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