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MS. Tanner 169*

Summary Catalogue no.: 9995

Psalter with missal and breviary; England, Chester (?); 12th century, end (c. 1192–1193 (?)), with later additions

Contents

Psalter,

[items 1–2 occupy quire I; for pp. 1-2 see below, endleaves]

1. (pp. 3–14)

Calendar (ed. by Wormald, 1939), laid out one month per page, written in red, green, blue and black, graded to 12 lessons (faded), with 13th- to 16th-century additions. Werburgh is in red (3 February and 21 June) with octave in red (10 February), Brigid of Kildare in green (1 February), Patrick in black (17 March). Includes ‘Inuentio corporum sanctorum Patricii . Columbe . & Brigide .’ (24 March), referring to the discovery made at Downpatrick in 1185. Also includes Milburga (23 February) in red, Longinus (15 March), Joseph (19 March, added), Valeric of Leuconay (1 April and 12 December), Anselm (21 April, added, xii lessons), the discovery of St Denis (22 April), Neot (31 July, added), Dominic (5 August, added (?)) in red, Barloc (10 September), the conception of John the Baptist (24 September), Cybi (6 November) and Egwin of Evesham (30 December). Thomas Becket (29 December) is in red in the original hand (canonized 1173), whereas his translation (1220) is added (7 July). Obits of the abbots and benefactors of St Werburgh’s, Chester, added during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries (published by Taylor, 1912). ‘O sapientia’ with neums (16 December). Notes on the number of hours in day and night, and verses on the ‘Egyptian’ days corresponding to Hennig’s (1955) set VIII. Astronomical notes and diagrams in medieval hands on pp. 3–5.

2. (pp. 15–16)

Easter tables from 1188 to 1263 with a series of pin pricks in the cycle between the entries for 1192 and 1193 (see Bannister, 1910, p. 145).

[items 3–16 occupy quires II–XI]

3. (pp. 17–78)

Psalms 1–150 in the biblical order, laid out with each verse starting on a new line, without titles. The lines are fully filled with text, and ends of verses are often transposed to earlier lines to save space. Such transpositions are indicated with red paragraph marks. Punctuated throughout, with punctus versus used to mark the ends of verses, punctus elevatus used to mark metrum, and punctus elevatus or punctus used to mark minor pauses. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 80, 97, 101 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). Subdivisions within psalms are marked with larger initials at 9: 20 (p. 19), 17: 26 (p. 22), 36: 27 (p. 31), 68: 17 (p. 44), 77: 36 (p. 49), 103: 25 (p. 60), 104: 23 (p. 61), 105: 32 (p. 62), 106: 25 (p. 63), 138: 11 (‘Et dixi ...’) (p. 75), 144: 10 (p. 77). Psalm 118 is subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. Psalm numbers are added on pp. 17–19 in a post-medieval hand.

4. (pp. 78–82)

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. (pp. 82–83)

Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...), without a title.

6. (pp. 83–89)

Litany, including Alban, Edmund, Oswald and Elphege among the martyrs; Dunstan, Cuthbert, Chad and Barloc among the confessors; Werburgh (invoked twice), Ermenhilda (abbess of Ely, mother of Werburgh) and Milburga among the virgins. Additions of Patrick, Francis, Dominic, Hugh and Brigid on pp. 84–85. The litany is followed by collects and prayers (pp. 86–89), ending with several prayers to the Virgin Mary (pp. 88–89):

  • (1) Deus qui corda fidelium sancti spiritus illustratione docuisti ...
  • (2) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
  • (3) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui facis mirabilia magna solus ...
  • (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) Omnipotens sempiterne deus miserere famulis tuis et famulabus tuis et dirige eos secundum tuam clementiam ...
  • (8) Animabus quesumus domine famulorum famularumque tuarum oracio proficiat supplicancium ut eas ...
  • (9) Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor mirabilis atque lapsorum subleuator ...
  • (10) Omnipotens sempiterne deus edificator et custos celestis ierusalem ... Benedicto patrono nostro ...
  • (11) Domine deus omnipotens pater et filius et spiritus sanctus trinus et unus ...
  • (12) Dominator domine deus omnipotens qui es trinitas in filio ...
  • (13) O domina misericordissima dei genitrix maria dignare meis indignissimis petitionibus ...
  • (14) Sancta et perpetua uirgo maria domina et aduocatrix mea ...
  • (15) Gloriosissima uirgo uirginum Maria totius pudoris et sanctimonie forma ...

7. (pp. 90–91)

Commemoration of souls (rubric on p. 89).

8. (pp. 91–94)

Office of the Dead, presumably use of St Werburgh’s, Chester (Ottosen, 1993, p. 147). The opening words of the Sarum responsories added in a 14th-century hand in the margin on p. 93.

9. (pp. 94–124)

Meditations and prayers, including commentary on psalm 51, beginning ‘Non peto secundum meritum meum ...’ (pp. 100–104). The lines of the psalm are written out in full and followed by the commentary.

10. (pp. 125–130)

A cycle of hymns known as the Mariale (see Dreves and Blume, 1886– 1922, vol. 50, pp. 426–8; ‘Ut jucundas cervus undas’ in Julian, 1957, pp. 1200–02): (1) Ut iocundas ceruus undas ... matri virgini. (2) Omni die dic marie ... digna celicis. (3) Virga iesse spes oppresse ... laudare sedule. (4) O beata per quam data ... soluit generis. (5) Reparatrix et solatrix ... deus unus secula Amen. (6) Salutaris stella maris ... ne loquata noxia. (7) Maris stella interpella quem portasti utero ... dei pronunciant. (8) Rex uirtutum cuius nutum nihil potest fallere ... secula deus trinitas. Amen. (9) Mater Christi que tulisti . . . fidutia. (10) Rex eternus ut egenus uisus est incredulis ... supergressa ordines. (11) O regina huc inclina pie mentis lumina ... deus unus secula Amen. (12) Celi porta per quam orta ... gracior. (13) O felicem genitricem ... pareiente uirgine. (14) O benigna quis te digna ... uirtutes ceteras. (15) O qvam grata & beata tua est memoria ... pacem populo. (16) Te laudamus & rogamus feminarum gloria ... deus unus secula Amen. (17) Animarvm spes lapsarum ... laus et modica. (18) Stella maris que per clauis ... remoueat. (19) O Maria uite uia ... nexibus. (20) Mediatrix & saluatrix infirmarum ... deus unus secula.

11. (pp. 130–132)

Verses to the Virgin Mary, ‘Alma serena pia preclara beata maria ...’ (Walther, no. 799).

12. (pp. 132–133)

Private office (?) including cues for Pater noster and Credo in deum (Apostles’ Creed), full texts of Ueni creator spiritus (Chevalier, no. 21204) and Gloria in excelsis and prayers to God and the Virgin Mary. Amen at the end.

13. (pp. 133–135)

Hymns to the Virgin Mary:

  • (1) Ave celestis ianua Aue mundi spes unica ...
  • (2) Christi mater gloriosa Sponsa regis speciosa ...
  • (3) Salve regina omnium Virgo mater post filium ...
  • (4) Imperatrix reginarum et saluatrix animarum ...

14. (pp. 136–138)

Votive offices of the Five Wounds and the Cross.

15. (pp. 138–156)

Missal, consisting of the principal feasts of the temporale (pp. 138– 147) from Christmas to the Conception of the Virgin Mary (p. 147); Prefaces (p. 148); Canon of the Mass (p. 149); masses for the Common of Saints (p. 151); mass for the dead (p. 155). There is no special mass for St Werburgh, but her name is mentioned in a collect for the mass of ‘Many Virgins’ (p. 155). A short prayer to Christ is added in an originally blank space on p. 151 in brown ink in a 13th-century hand. Another prayer in a 13th-century hand is added after the end of the main text at the bottom of p. 156.

16. (pp. 157–172)

Part of the breviary, probably for the last week after Trinity Sunday, including the common of the breviary (p. 161) with short lessons, incomplete at the beginning (lacking the first 9 lessons) and at the end. An office of St Werburgh on p. 171 (described and partly translated by Brownbill, 1912).

[For items 17–20 (pp. 173-8) see below, endleaves ]

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: tua super celos (psalter, p. 19)
Form: codex
Support: parchment (now very darkened); original patches on several leaves, particularly pp. 113–123
Extent: 182 pages; inserted unfoliated offprint of Napier (1892)
Dimensions (leaf): c. 280 × 191 mm.
Leaves were trimmed, occasionally causing the loss of decoration, and damaged by mice.
Foliation: Pagination in pencil (on fly-leaves only) and ink (18th century?); i–ii + [1]–180.

Collation

(pp. i–2) pp. i–ii are a paper fly-leaf, originally conjoint with the upper pastedown; pp. 1–2 are a parchment fly-leaf made from a late 13th-century manuscript | (pp. 3–16) I (8−1) pp. 3–4 are a singleton; the stub of the fly-leaf (pp. 1–2) can be seen after pp. 3–4; no physical evidence, but the first leaf of the quire is probably lost | (pp. 17–32) II (8) | (pp. 33–48) III (8) a piece of repair parchment with fragments of Latin text in formal script, 13th century, between pp. 39–40 and 41–42 | (pp. 49–144) IV–IX (8) change of scribe after p. 112 | (pp. 145–156) X (8−2) missing 7 and 8 | (pp. 157–172) XI (8) | (pp. 173–178) pp. 173–174 are a single leaf from a late 12th-century manuscript; pp. 175–178 are two parchment leaves from late 13th century manuscripts

Layout

Ruled in hard point for two columns; double vertical and single (occasionally double at the top of the page) horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; prickings often survive; written above the top line. Ruled for 40 lines per page up to p. 112; beginning with p. 113 most pages have 44–48 lines. Pp. 173–174 are written below the top line. Pp. 1–2, 175–176 and 177–178 are ruled for both text and musical notation. Written space (psalter): c. 223 × 135 mm.

Hand(s)

Two contemporary or near-contemporary scribes (the second takes over on p. 113), both writing in a formal proto-Gothic book script; black ink

Decoration

Miniature of the Crucifixion on p. 149 with figures drawn in ink against painted background. Christ on the Cross with ‘INRI’ inscription; the Virgin Mary and St John, holding a book; the sun and the moon with profile faces; blue background (flaking); square frame, decorated with geometric designs.

Blue, red and green KL monograms with penwork designs in the calendar.

9-line Beatus-initial decorated with floral designs (p. 17). Ayres (1969, p. 42) notes similarities with the decoration in another 12th-century manuscript from St Werburgh’s Abbey, a glossed copy of Pauline Epistles (London, British Library, Royal MS. 4 E. VIII).

6-line initials, decorated with floral designs, at the beginning of psalms 26 (p. 26), 38 (p. 32), 52 (p. 37), 68 (p. 43), 80 (p. 50), 97 (p. 57) and 109 (p. 62).

4-line similar initials at the beginning of psalms 51 (p. 37) and 101 (p. 58).

4-line red, blue and green penwork initials at the beginning of prayers (p. 94), hymns (pp. 125 and 133) and the Canon of the Mass (p. 149).

2- to 3-line red, blue and green initials, many with penwork designs, at the beginning of psalms, canticles, prayers, litany and hymns.

1-line red, green and blue initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Polished light brown leather over pasteboard, 18th century. Blind fillet line and blind roll border with floral and geometric designs round the outer edge of both covers. Rebacked in the Bodleian, in the later 19th century, in similar leather, with the original spine relaid. Sewn on five cords (modern cord whenever visible). Five raised bands on spine. Fragments of a paper label on spine with ‘169*’ written over it in ink. Pastedowns and fly-leaves made of 18th-century laid paper, no watermarks. Parchment fly-leaves (pp. 1–2, 177–178), made from a late 13th-century manuscript, have glue marks with offsets of tanned leather from an earlier binding.

History

Origin: 12th century, end (c. 1192–1193) ; English, Chester (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made for St Werburgh’s Abbey, Chester: evidence of the calendar, litany and missal.

Added obits of the abbots of Chester, 14th–16th centuries.

Titles ‘pape’ erased in the calendar presumably at the Reformation, but not the name of Thomas Becket in the calendar or litany.

‘henry maynwarying by the…’ and ‘henry’ in a 16th-century hand on p. 2.

Thomas Tanner, 1674–1735, see ODNB.

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Tanner, received in 1736. ‘169 Tann .’ on p. 3.

MS. Tanner 169*, endleaf (pp. 173–174)

Contents

17. (pp. 173–174)

Added prayers, incomplete at the beginning and end, in two late 12th-century hands.

Language(s): Latin

History

Origin: 12th century, end ; English, Chester (?)

MS. Tanner 169*, endleaf (pp. 175–176)

Contents

18. (p. 175)
Alliterative poem

Added 13th-century version of Stabat iuxta Christi crucem in English, written as prose, with music, beginning imperfectly with ‘stod ho þere neh’ (Supplement to IMEV 3216.5; ed. Napier, 1892; Brown, 1932, pp. 8–10). Title (?) in a later hand: ‘Translac(i)o s(anc)te Elene’.

Language(s): Middle English
19. (p. 176)

Added 13th-century Sarum sequence for Sundays in the summer, beginning ‘Voce iubilantes magna ...’ and ending ‘... agmina voce dulcissona’. Laid out to be accompanied with music. Several lines of text in medieval hands at the bottom of the page.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Musical Notation:

Notation on p. 175.

History

Origin: 13th century, end ; English, Chester (?)

MS. Tanner 169*, endleaves (pp. 1–2, 177–178))

Contents

20.

Two leaves from a late 13th-century liturgical book used as fly-leaves. Contain Laudes crucis (Chevalier, no. 10360), hymn to the Holy Cross with musical notation, ending imperfectly (pp. 1–2), and a hymn to St Oswald, beginning and ending imperfectly (pp. 177–178). The fly-leaves may also originate from St Werburgh’s Abbey, where Oswald was venerated (Nicholson, 1901, p. xv).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Musical Notation:

Pp. 1–2, 175–176 and 177–178 are ruled for both text and musical notation.

History

Origin: 13th century, end ; English, Chester (?)

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description adapted (March 2024) from Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 57–63. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (A. Hackman, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ pars quarta codices viri admodum reverendi Thomæ Tanneri, S.T.P., episcopi Asaphensis, complectens, Quarto Catalogues IV, repr. 1966, with corrections, from the ed. of 1860) and supplementary sources.
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 3, p. 86

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (4 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Online resources:

    DIAMM: Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
    MLGB3: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain
    MLGB3: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain

    Select bibliography to 1998:

    Dreves, G. M. and Blume, C., Analecta hymnica medii aevi, 55 vols. (Leipzig: Fues’s Verlag R.
    Reisland, 1886–1922).
    Napier, A., ‘Eine mittelenglische Compassio Mariæ’, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen 88 (1892), pp. 181–9; translated with revisions in EETS O.S. 103 (1894), pp. 75–86.
    Summary catalogue, vol. 3, no. 9995.
    Frere, no. 266.
    Nicholson, E. W. B., ‘Introduction’ in J. Stainer, Sacred and secular songs, together with other MS. compositions in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: ranging from about A. D. 1185 to about A. D. 1505, with an introduction by E. W. B. Nicholson, and transcriptions into modern musical notation by J. F. R. Stainer and C. Stainer, Early Bodleian Music, 2 vols. (London: Novello; New York: Novello, Ewer, 1901), vol. 1, pp. xiv–xv.
    Bannister, H. M., ‘Signs in kalendarial tables’ in Mélanges offerts à M. Emile Chatelain (Paris, 1910), pp. 141–9, at p. 145.
    Brownbill, J., ‘A Chester service book’, The Cheshire Sheaf 9 (1912), pp. 49–51.
    Taylor, M. V. (ed.), ‘Some obits of abbots and founders of St. Werburgh’s abbey, Chester’, Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 64 (1912), pp. 85–103.
    Brown, C. (ed.), English lyrics of the XIIIth century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932).
    Wormald, F., English kalendars after A. D. 1100, Henry Bradshaw Society 77, 81, 2 vols. (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1939–46), vol. 2, pp. 95–111.
    Julian, J., A dictionary of hymnology: setting forth the origin and history of Christian hymns of all ages and nations, 2nd rev. edn., 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 1957).
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 13
    Swarzenski, H., ‘A chalice and the Book of Kings’ in M. Meiss (ed.), De artibus opuscula XL, essays in honor of Erwin Panofsky, 2 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961), vol. 1, pp. 437–44, at pp. 443–4.
    Ker (1964), p. 50.
    Robbins, R. H. and Cutler, J. L., Supplement to the index of Middle English verse by Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965).
    Ayres, L. M., ‘A Tanner manuscript in the Bodleian Library and some notes on English painting of the late twelfth century’, JWCI 31 (1969), pp. 41–54.
    Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 3, no. 225, pl. XXII (fol. 149r).
    Pfaff (1970), p. 84 n. 1.
    Ayres, L. M., ‘The work of the Morgan Master at Winchester and English painting of the Early Gothic period’, The Art Bulletin 56, no. 2 (1974), pp. 201–23, at p. 221, fig. 32.
    MacLean, S., Chester art: a subject list of extant and lost art including items relevant to early drama (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1982), pp. 40–41, fig. 21.
    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 705
    Laing, M.,‘Anchor texts and literary manuscripts in Early Middle English’ in F. Riddy (ed.), Regionalism in late medieval manuscripts and texts: essays celebrating the publication of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, York Manuscripts Conferences: Proceedings Series 2 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991), pp. 27–52, at p. 49.
    ——, Catalogue of sources for a linguistic atlas of early medieval English (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993), p. 142.
    Borst, A., Die karolingische Kalenderreform, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Schriften, Band 46 (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1998), Siglum ‘g 13’, pp. xxvi, 149, 508.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024: Encode full Solopova description.