MS. Rawl. liturg. f. 37

Summary Catalogue no.: 15814

Portable Psalter, Augustinian Use; French Flanders, Diocese of Cambrai, 15th century, third quarter (?)

Fols. i–ii are parchment fly-leaves, blank apart from modern notes (see ‘Provenance’).

1. (fols. 1r–136r)

Psalms 1–150, some with rubrics ‘psalmus’ or ‘psalmus dauid’, the Beatus-initial and some adjacent text excised. Written as prose, without numbers, punctuated throughout with punctus used to mark the ends of verses, and punctus elevatus occasionally used to mark metrum. Psalms are in the biblical order; subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). Psalm 109 starts on a new page with a full border, similar to the Beatus-page. Fol. 105, preceding psalm 109, contains inscriptions by the 15th- and 17th-century owners (see ‘Provenance’). Psalms 30 (In te domine ...), 42 (‘Iudica . . .’) and 113 (‘In exitu ...’) start with penwork initials, rather than 2-line gold initials like other psalms (guide-letter ‘i’ was sometimes overlooked by illuminators). ‘ye end of ye psalms’ is written in the margin on fol. 136r, probably by Rowland Hund (see ‘Provenance’).

2. (fols. 136r–144r)

Weekly canticles, without titles:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21);
(3) Exultavit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11);
(4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20);
(5) Domine audivi (Habakkuk 3);
(6) Audite caeli (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44).

3. (fols. 144r–149r)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, some with rubrics ‘canticum’ or ‘psalmus’:

(1) Te deum laudamus (fol. 144r);
(2) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 145r);
(3) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 146r);
(4) Magnificat (fol. 146v);
(5) Nunc dimittis (fol. 147r);
(6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) (fol. 147r).

4. (fols. 149r–153v)

Litany with a rubric in French ‘Letanie des S(aints)’, which includes many Cambrai saints (psalters from Cambrai with similar litanies are described in Leroquais, 1940–41, vol. I, pp. 112–25; vol. II, pp. 268–9). Stephen is the first among the martyrs, followed by Victor (of Marseilles (?)) and Piatus (of Tournai (?)). The list of martyrs also includes Fuscianus, who converted to Christianity Morinia and Picardy, Leodegar of Autun, Lambert, bishop of Liège and Quentin (of Amiens (?)). The list of confessors starts with ‘Sancte pater augustine’ and includes Martin, Remigius, Vedast, Gaugeric (of Cambrai (?)), Eleutherius (of Tournai (?)), Aubert (of Avranches and Cambrai (?)), Hubert (of Liège (?)), Amatus, Egidius, Eligius, Benedict and Gillenus. The list of virgins includes Maxelendis (of Cambrai (?)), Gertrude, Aldegundis, abbess of Maubeuge, Cambrai and her sister Waldetrudis. The litany is followed by collects (fol. 153v):

(1) Exaudi quesumus domine supplicum preces ...
(2) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
(3) Ineffabilem misericordiam tuam domine nobis clementer ostende ut simul nos ...

Fols. 154–155 are blank parchment fly-leaves.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: de uia iusta (psalter, fol. 2r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: 157 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 155 × 110 mm.

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

Collation

(fols. i–ii) fol. i is a parchment fly-leaf conjoint with the upper pastedown; fol. ii is a singleton | (fols. 1–96) I–XII (8) | (fols. 97–105) XIII (8−1+2) missing 8; a bifolium (fols. 104–105) added before the final leaf, now missing | (fols. 106–153) XIV–XIX (8) | (fols. 154–155) fol. 154 is a singleton; fol. 155 was originally conjoint with the lower pastedown. Catchwords and leaf signatures survive

Layout

Ruled in purple ink with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines, extending the full height and width of the page; 20 lines per page; prickings survive; written below the top line; written space: c. 92 × 62 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hand, brown ink.

Decoration

The Beatus-initial is cut out, but there is a full border on fol. 1r, made of gold, blue and pink bars, filigree scrolls, flowers, foliage and gold discs. There is a similar border and a 5-line blue initial on gold background, infilled with flowers, at the beginning of psalm 109 (fol. 106r).

5-line gold initials on blue or pink background, decorated with white floral designs, and borders in the outer margins, made of filigree scrolls, flowers, foliage and gold discs at liturgical divisions, at the beginnings of psalms 26 (fol. 21r), 38 (fol. 33v), 51 (fol. 45v), 52 (fol. 46r), 68 (fol. 58v), 80 (fol. 74v) and 97 (fol. 89r).

2-line gold initials on blue or pink background, decorated with white geometric and arabesque designs, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany and prayers.

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

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Contemporary, perhaps Flemish, binding, brown leather over wood boards. Blindstamped fleur-de-lis and floral designs, framed by crossing blind fillet lines on the covers. Holes left by the fittings of a clasp. Sewn on four double thongs; four raised bands on spine. Bodleian numbers ‘15[.]’ (?) and ‘152’ painted white on spine. Black paper label on spine with gilt lettering ‘MS. || RAWL. || LITURG. || f. 37’. Gilt edges of textblock with gauffering in a criss-cross pattern, with a point inside the rhombus shapes. Parchment pastedowns and fly-leaves.

History

Origin: 15th century, third quarter (?) ; Flemish, French Flanders, diocese of Cambrai

Provenance and Acquisition

Made for the use of the diocese of Cambrai, for an Augustinian patron. The litany has many saints venerated in Cambrai; St Augustine is the first among the confessors and St Victor is second among the martyrs. Many Augustinian houses in France were daughter-houses of the Augustinian Abbey of St Victor in Paris. Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale MS. 193, a psalter, hymnal, ritual and martyrology (Leroquais, 1940–41, vol. 1, pp. 125–7), has a similar litany, but St Aubert precedes St Augustine. It was probably made for the Augustinian Abbey of St Aubert in Cambrai, while MS. Rawl. liturg. f. 37 may have been made for a patron connected with the Abbey of the Virgin Mary of Cantimpré, the second of the two Augustinian abbeys in Cambrai (see Cottineau, 1935–70).

Owned by William, Viscount Beaumont (1438–1507) and given by him to his wife Elizabeth née Scrope (d. 1537), later Countess of Oxford married to John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, on 5 March 1498/9. Note, imperfect at the end, on fol. 105v: ‘Memorandum that I willyam viscount Beaumount the vth daye of Marche the yere of our Lorde god MlCCCClxxxxviij geve unto Elisabeth my wief this psalter boke / She toccupie the same / during her lief / And if it happen me the said viscount to over live my said wief than this boke to remayne unto me to dispose it after my myende and wille / And if it fortune me the said viscount to deceas be fore my said wief than she after’.

Roland Hund: ‘Ora pro Rowlando Hund quarto die septembris 1636’ (fol. 105r); note marking the end of psalms (fol. 136r).

Erased and cut-out inscriptions on fols. i recto and ii recto.

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755), see ODNB.

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson; accessioned in 1756. Earlier shelfmarks: ‘Rawl. 815’ (fol. i recto), ‘E Codd. Bodl. Miscell. Liturg. 152’, spine, upper pastedown and fol. ii verso.

Missing from the Rawlinson collection for many years; probably lot 172 in E. Mussell’s sale of 1766 (Doyle, 1958, p. 237, n. 6); restored by Dr Richard Lawrence in 1812. Note on fol. i recto in Dr Philip Bliss’s hand: ‘Stolen from the Library, and restored by Dr. Lawrence June 20. 1812, who purchased it at an auction in London’.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 394–8. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 3, p. 505

Bibliography

Printed descriptions:

Frere, no. 468.

Cottineau, L. H., Répertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 3 vols. (Mâcon: Protat Frères, 1935–70).

Leroquais, V., Les psautiers: manuscrits latins des bibliothèques publiques de France, 3 vols. (Mâcon: Protat Frères, 1940–41).

Doyle, A. I., ‘Books connected with the Vere family and Barking Abbey’, Essex Archaeological Society’s Transactions 25 (New Series), part II (1958), pp. 222–43, at pp. 237–8.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 36

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 1, no. 376.

Hirsh, J. C., Hope Emily Allen: medieval scholarship and feminism (Norman, OK: Pilgrim Books, 1988), p. 81.

Erler, M. C., ‘Devotional literature’ in L. Hellinga and J. B. Trapp (eds.), The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, vol. 3, 1400–1557 (Cambridge: CUP, 1999), pp. 495–525, at p. 497 n. 8.

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