Psalter with additions including English and French verse and music; England, 13th century, first half

Title

Psalter with additions including English and French verse and music; England, 13th century, first half

Shelfmark

MS. Rawl. G. 18

Associated place

Stapleford Abbot's

Place of origin

English, East Anglia (?)

English

Date

13th century, early (probably before 1221); additions, 13th century

16th century (temp. Henry VIII)

Language

Anglo-Norman

Middle English (1100-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

1 + i + 107 + i leaves

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand; brown ink.

Decoration

Pages left blank for large illuminated initials (?) at liturgical divisions: psalms 26 (?) (leaf cut out after fol. 13), 38 (fol. 22v), 51 (fol. 30v), 52 (fol. 31v), 68 (fol. 40v), 80 (fol. 51r), 97 (fol. 61r), 101 (fol. 63r) and 109 (?) (leaf cut out after fol. 71). The first verses of psalms are also omitted. The initials were pasted on leaves left blank and later removed. Blank pages have discoloration, traces of glue and bleed-through left by the initials, including green borders and traces of text (e.g. ‘AS’ on fol. 22v, the last letters of ‘meas’); ‘VS’ on fol. 40v (the last letters of ‘deus’)).

3-line alternating red and blue initials with contrasting blue or red penwork at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany and prayers.

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

Penwork line-endings.

Musical notation

Music, fol. 105v.

Music for two voices, fol. 106v.

Binding

Dark brown leather over pasteboard, 17th century (?). Blind roll design, forming a rectangular frame, with floral decoration and corner-pieces on the upper (almost obliterated) and lower covers. Rebacked in the Bodleian in 1951: ‘R.H. 12 7 51’ on the lower pastedown. Sewn on four cords, four raised bands on spine, framed with blind fillet lines. Gilt lettering on spine ‘MS. RAWL. || G. 18’. Offset from the deed (see ‘Text’), which must have been once used as a wrapper pasted around the covers and pastedowns. Edges of textblock speckled red.

Acquisition

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1755

Provenance

Formerly one volume with MS. Lat. liturg. f. 11 (calendar), q.v.

Made in East Anglia (?): evidence of the calendar and litany.

In the 13th century belonged to a woman (fol. 102r), possibly a nun of Burnham Abbey (?): obit of Idonea of Audeley (d. by 1324) in the calendar, 29 May, MS. Lat. liturg. f. 11.

John Thamys, Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford (1438–1458) (Emden, 1974, pp. 1858–9): ‘Istum librum contulit Magistro Thome Lee Magister Johannes Tha’, added c. 1450 (?), fol. 107v.

Thomas Lee, Principal of St Edmund Hall (1459–1469) (Emden, 1974, pp. 1123–4).

Thomas Rawlinson (1681–1725), see ODNB: lot 264 in his sale, March 1733/4. Paper label with ‘264’ on the deed (see ‘Text’) which was once part of the binding.

Richard Rawlinson, 1690–1755, see ODNB: bought at the Thomas Rawlinson sale. Bookplate of Richard Rawlinson on the upper pastedown. His (?) number ‘555’ on the deed.