Psalter; Italy, Sora, near Naples (?); 11th century, end

Title

Psalter; Italy, Sora, near Naples (?); 11th century, end

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 127

Place of origin

Italian, area of Naples/ Sora (?)

Date

11th century, end

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves; many leaves damaged (in most cases the margins are cut off) and repaired with paper; lower margins damaged by water and rodents

Physical extent

161 leaves

Hands

Beneventan minuscule, black and brown ink

Decoration

2- to 4-line initials in gold, red, green, yellow, mauve, etc. at the beginnings of psalms and canticles, formed by the bodies of beasts, biting bird and animal heads, coiled tendrils and interlace. The opening words of psalms are written in capitals on gold background.

2- to 3-line gold initials formed by coiled tendrils, outlined in red, at the beginnings of sections of psalm 118 (fols. 110r–119r) and litany (fol. 148v); initial on fol. 152 is cut out.

3-line simple gold initials at the beginnings of collects (fols. 153r–158v).

1-line red (or sometimes black) initials on gold background at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Rubrics in red ink

Musical notation

Roman antiphons with music (square notation on three or four black lines) added in the margins in an early 14th-century hand.

Binding

Red leather over pasteboard, 18th century (?). Five raised bands on spine (previously sewn on four bands), framed by gilt floral borders; gilt floral decorations at the centre of panels between the bands. Green leather label on spine with gilt lettering ‘SACRU. || PSALTE’. Paper label on spine inscribed ‘Arch. F. || d. 10’, covering a fragment of another paper label. Laid paper pastedowns and fly-leaves.

Acquisition

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834. Pencil transcription of the text on fol. 1r initialled by E. W. B. Nicholson (1848–1912) (fol. ii v); Douce’s note followed by a pencil note (fol. ii recto), signed by ‘E. S. Ffoulkes’ (1819–1894).

Provenance

Made for the Benedictine Abbey of the Virgin Mary and St Dominic at Sora, near Naples (?): evidence of the litany (but see van Dijk (1958)).

14th-century liturgical additions in Italian hands.

‘No 118’ in ink, 17th or 18th century (fol. 1v); ‘62’ in ink, 18th century (?) (upper left corner of the upper pastedown).

Francis Douce, 1757–1834, see ODNB: bookplate on the upper pastedown; note dating the manuscript to c. 800 on fol. ii recto.

Title

A Latin Psalter, 'Liber Psalmorum', followed (fol. 131) by the 15 1st ps. 'Pusillus eram', canticles, creeds, and litany with prayers

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 127

Summary

A leaf is lost after fols. 1, 145, some pages are damaged, and a capital is cut out of fol. 152. Of a rubric on fol. 1 much is now illegible: the latter part is 'inchoamus principio meliori exitu consum[m]emus + + + per Dominum nostrum Hiesum Xpistum.' The names of Dominicus and Restituta in the calendar may be thought to connect the book with Sora near Naples. A facsimile of the writing is in the 1840 catalogue, and in J. O. Westwood's Palæographia Sacra Pictoria (1843-5).

Date

written in the 12th cent. in Lombardic characters in Italy

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, with many illuminated capitals

Physical extent

59 Leaves