Psalter in Latin with French and English additions; England, late 13th or early 14th century

Title

Psalter in Latin with French and English additions; England, late 13th or early 14th century

Shelfmark

MS. Rawl. G. 127

Place of origin

English

Date

late 13th or early 14th century

Language

Anglo-Norman

Middle English (1100-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves

Physical extent

190 leaves

Hands

Large formal Gothic book hand; black ink.

Decoration

4-line pink initials on gold and blue backgrounds, decorated with foliage, at the beginnings of psalm 119 (fol. 127v) and the first canticle (fol. 149v).

2-line blue and pink initials on gold backgrounds, decorated with foliage, human and animal heads, and grotesques, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany, prayers and sections of the Office of the Dead.

1-line alternating blue and gold initials, with contrasting red or blue penwork, usually extending into the upper and lower margins, often with human faces, dragons, etc., at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Line-endings in gold, red and blue.

Rubrics in red ink in prayers, Office of the Dead and the Devotion of the Seven Words.

Musical notation

Square notation on staves of four red lines.

Binding

Red leather over pasteboard, 19th century. Blind fillet border round the outer edge of both covers. Six raised bands on spine. Gilt lettering on spine: ‘PSALTERIUM.’ and ‘RAWL || 127’. Marbled paper pastedowns. Red leather turn-ins with blind fillet border. Fol. 1 was a pastedown of an earlier binding. Evidence of two clasps at the fore-edge.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson; accessioned in 1756. Former shelfmark: ‘Auctarium Rawlinson G. 127’ (fol. 1r).

Provenance

Owned by a woman named ‘M ...’ in the 15th century (fol. 168r).

‘Pertinet Willelmo ffyssher ’, 15th century (?) (fol. 1v).

‘Pertinuit sed nunc pertinet domine Katherine vaux’, added immediately above the Fisher inscription, 16th century (fol. 1v).

‘John Blaney’, ‘Thomas Basse’, ‘Richard Perkins’, the first name three times, the others twice each, perhaps all by the same hand (fol. 2r); Blaney’s and Basse’s names with numbers and dates ‘24’, ‘27’, ‘1620’, ‘34’ and ‘June 27’ (fol. 2v).

‘No: 8’, 18th century (?) (fol. 2r).

Francis Pole of Park Hall, Chesterfield (d. 1750) : no. 1416 in the auction catalogue of his library, March 1752, London, described as ‘Missale Romanum’ (see fol. 2v).

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755) , see ODNB: ‘684’ (fol. 1v); ‘1416 Pole’ (fol. 2r).