PETER LOMBARD ON THE PSALTER; S. XIII in.

Title

PETER LOMBARD ON THE PSALTER; S. XIII in.

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 208

Place of origin

France, Paris

Date

S. XIII in.

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

252 leaves (iv + 248) All edges heavily retrimmed, affecting marginalia.

Hands

Several practised early gothic bookhands, some of English, some of French appearance.

Decoration

Handsome historiated and decorated initials in Parisian style, in colours and gold. Some are protected with curtains of red silk. fol. 9 8-line C; fol. 10 15-line B(eatus) with foliage and ‘white lions’, in a small roundel King David seated and harping, all on a blue square ground; fol. 43v 8-line D (David anointed by Samuel: Ps. 26); fol. 63v 8-line D (Ps. 39); fol. 79 17-line Q (A man beheads a fallen knight: Ps. 51); fol. 79v 9-line D (Ps. 52); fol. 102 11-line S (Ps. 68); fol. 127 12-line E (Ps. 80); fol. 153 11-line C (Ps. 95); fol. 156v 9-line D (A priest prays before an altar, the hand of God blessing: Ps. 101);fol. 177 12-line D (Ps. 109) enclosing the Trinity: God seated with cruciferous nimbus, in His left hand a small roundel with the Lamb of God, in His right, raised in blessing, the Holy Spirit as dove. Red or blue initials flourished in the other colour; plain red or blue initials, red running heads, underlining of biblical lemmata in the gloss. In the lower margin of fol. 179 is a design of oak leaves.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on five bands; formerly chained from the usual position. fols. i-iii, 246–8, are paper binding leaves of that period, the first and last from the same printed book as in MS 13.

Provenance

Presumably made in Paris.

At the head of fol. 245v is an erased inscription of two lines, perhaps s. xv, of which ‘Liber ... ipsum quem habuimus ex dono et legato emendebat capitulum in principio Solomonem’ can be read under ultra-violet light.

At the head of fol. 1 is ‘Liber domus scolarum de Mertonhalle in Oxon’ ex dono magistri Iohannis Burbache doctoris in theologia et quondam socii eiusdem domus ut inchatenatur in libraria communi ad perpetuum usum studencium ibidem.’ For Burbage, fellow 1411–35, d. by Dec. 1451, see MS 3.

Inside the front board is ‘Gorham super Iohannem’, s. xvii, canc., and a sheet of paper with titles of s. xvii, ‘F, 5, 10’ canc., and ‘P. 1. 5. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘N. 2. 5’ in red, ‘CCVIII’ in pencil; the College bookplate. ‘5’ is inked on the foredge.