Portable Secular Psalter; England, Diocese of Norwich (?), 14th century, end

Title

Portable Secular Psalter; England, Diocese of Norwich (?), 14th century, end

Shelfmark

MS. Lat. liturg. f. 19

Place of origin

English, diocese of Norwich (?) (?)

Date

14th century, end

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaf

Physical extent

245 (i + 244) leaves

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand, black ink

Decoration

Decoration Blue KL monograms with red penwork in the calendar.

5-line red and blue Beatus ‘puzzle’ initial with penwork and a four-sided penwork border (fol. 7r).

4-line red and blue initials with penwork and one- or two-sided penwork borders at psalms 26 (fol. 35v), 38 (fol. 54r), 52 (fol. 72r), 68 (fol. 90r), 80 (fol. 113), 97 (fol. 134r) and 109 (fol. 156r).

3-line blue initial with red penwork at the beginning of the litany.

2-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of psalms, canticles and prayers.

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

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Contemporary binding of plain (?) tawed leather over wood boards with endbands sewn in green, pink and white. The whole covered with a chemise formed from similar tawed leather with pockets of pink tawed leather, perhaps also encompassing textile flaps now lost. The remains of two clasps over the chemise. The chemise was lined with linen in 1995. Modern paper fly-leaf.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: given by Mrs. Dora F. Martinof Ottery St Mary, Devon, 1918.

Provenance

Norwich Cathedral Priory: pressmark 'a xxiij', 15th century, written over an erasure (?) on fol. 7r.

Record of the number of leaves in the volume (fol. 243r, top edge).

‘Dame Thomas Hughsonest hui(us) libri possessor’, 16th century (fol. 244v), wife of the sacristan of Norwich Cathedral in 1547, and rector of St Michael at Pleas, Norwich, in 1560 (Blomefield, IV, 7, 327). A similar inscription on fol. 243r, the name erased.

‘Katherine CORBET’: partly erased 16th-century inscription (fol. 243r). Possibly the wife of Sir Miles Corbett of Sprowston (cf. Dashwood, 1878, I, p. 35).

Lowth, Robert (1710–1787) , biblical critic and bishop of London, see ODNB.

Miss A. S. Bourne.

Charles Martin of Dartington, 1872: on the front inside cover ‘Charles Martin || Dartington || from Miss A. S. Bourne 1872 || possibly belonged to Bp Lowth’.