Secular Choir Psalter; England, London (?); 15th century, middle

Title

Secular Choir Psalter; England, London (?); 15th century, middle

Shelfmark

MS. Hatton 45

Place of origin

English, London (?)

Date

15th century, middle

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

140 leaves

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand, black and brown ink.

Decoration

Gold KL monograms on pink and blue background, decorated with white arabesque designs.

fol. 1r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) 8-line initial in gold rectangular frame infilled with King David kneeling in a landscape, praying to God, watched by a half-length angel holding a sword and a dagger; harp and an open book on the ground.

(full border) Gold, blue and pink bars and filigree scrolls, decorated with foliage, flowers and gold discs.

8-line initials (reduced to 7-line when at the bottom of a page), decorated with foliage, in gold rectangular frames, and full borders made of gold, blue and pink bars and filigree scrolls, decorated with foliage, flowers and gold discs, at liturgical divisions at psalms 38 (fol. 26r), 52 (fol. 36r), 68 (fol. 45v), 80 (fol. 58r), 97 (fol. 69r) and 109 (fol. 81r).

4-line initial and three-quarter border at the beginning of the Office of the Dead (fol. 120r).

3-line initial at the beginning of psalm 118 (fol. 85r).

2-line gold initials on pink and blue backgrounds, decorated with white arabesque designs at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany, parts of the Office of the Dead and prayers.

1-line initials, alternately blue with red penwork and gold with blue penwork, at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Gold and blue line-endings with floral and geometric designs; gold paragraph signs with blue penwork.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Brown leather over wood boards, 15th century, London (?). Blind-stamped decoration, including five-petalled flowers in medallions, with four fleurs-de-lis, set in a lattice pattern made of blind fillet lines on both covers. Border made of blind fillet lines round the outer edge of both covers with blind-stamped decorations, including a dog chasing a hare (?). Endbands of green, red and yellow (?) thread. Fragments of two burgundy fabric ties and their fittings on the upper cover and two catches made of yellow metal on the lower cover. Seven raised bands on spine. ‘45’ painted white on spine (flaking). ‘70’ written in black ink on spine. ‘70’ on the fore- and lower edges, and ‘45’ on the upper edge of the textblock. Paper label on spine with handwritten ‘M.S. || Hatton. || 45’. Parchment pastedowns and fly-leaves.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bought in 1671 from Robert Scott; came to the Library in September 1671 (see Summary catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, pp. 801–2). Former shelfmark: ‘Hatton 70’ (fol. i recto). On fol. iii verso ‘Breuiarium Romanum’.

Provenance

Made in London or its vicinity (evidence of the calendar and litany), perhaps for a patron with Augustinian connections (litany, psalm 118 subdivided according to secular use).

Leaves containing psalms were foliated in the first third of the 16th century before the loss of fol. ‘16’, and folio numbers for psalms were added in the margins of the Office of the Dead.

Christopher, first Baron Hatton (bap. 1605, d. 1670) , see ODNB.

Robert Scott, London bookseller (b. in or before 1632, d. 1709/10), see ODNB: bought as part of the library of Christopher, first Baron Hatton.