Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Use of the Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; England, 14th century, third quarter (before 1368)

Title

Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Use of the Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; England, 14th century, third quarter (before 1368)

Shelfmark

MS. Rawl. G. 185

Place of origin

English

Date

14th century, third quarter (before 1368)

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves

Physical extent

154 leaves Leaves were trimmed in rebinding causing the loss of decoration.

Hands

Large formal Gothic book hand; antiphons and versicles are in a smaller script

Decoration

Calendar: Pink and blue KL monograms on gold background and borders made of pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with sprays of leaves (both side-margins in January and left margin only in other months). The borders incorporate the Signs of the Zodiac, and a Labour of the Month for January: January: man sitting on a stool, stirring the contents of a cauldron; hybrid Aquarius February: Pisces (man holding two fish) March: Aries April: Taurus May: Gemini (two profile heads and two arms supporting a shield, party per pale, sable and argent) June: Cancer July: Leo August: Virgo September: Libra (man holding scales) October: Scorpio emerging from a bishop’s mitre November: Capricorn December: Sagittarius

5- to 7-line (psalm 1) historiated initials in gold frames at liturgical divisions. Borders made of pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with sprays of leaves and gold discs. Psalms 1 and 109 have a particularly rich border ornament. fol. 1r, Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) Blue initial, decorated with white monochrome images (damaged) of David playing harp, the Virgin and Child, and a seated young man. The initial is infilled with young David, holding stones in the skirt of his tunic, and Goliath in armour, with a sword, axe and shield (staining from tarnished silver on Goliath’s armour). (full border) Jesse Tree (reclining Jesse; 12 panels, framed with vines, bearing leaves and grapes, containing twelve crowned figures, including Solomon with a model of the Temple). fol. 20r, Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) Christ, seated, holding a book and blessing. Beside the initial is the kneeling figure of Stephen of Derby (?), in a monastic (Augustinian (?)) habit, holding a scroll inscribed with the opening words of the psalm. (full border) Lower corner-pieces with gold roses. fol. 32v, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)) King David kneeling, pointing to his mouth; the face of Christ with cruciform halo in clouds above. (border, left, right and lower margins) Animal masks; dragons. fol. 43v, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)) Seated tonsured figure in a black (Augustinian (?)) habit, holding a book, finger raised in a gesture of teaching, speaking to the Fool, seated on the floor, in a short white tunic, holding a pouch; the face of God in clouds above. Scrolls with lettering: ‘Non est deus’ (Fool); ‘Tu mentiris aperte’ (cleric); ‘Ecce dicit incipiens’ (God). (full border) Grotesque. fol. 54v, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) Crowned nude King David praying in waters; the face and blessing hand of God above. (full border) Animal mask. fol. 68v, Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)) Seven tonsured Augustinian (?) clerics playing musical instruments; half-figure of God, holding a book and blessing. (full border) Human figures in hoods and cloaks with decorative stems growing out of their bodies; grotesque. fol. 81v, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)) Tonsured clerics singing from a book with musical notation open on a lectern; two hybrid figures, reading books. (full border) Animal mask. fol. 97r, Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) Blue initial, decorated with white monochrome images of praying angels, infilled with the Throne of Grace. (full border) Animal masks; grotesque.

2-line initials in gold frames, decorated with sprays of leaves and gold discs, and borders formed by pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with sprays of leaves, grotesques and animal masks, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, prayers and litany. Some initials are infilled with the head of Christ with cruciform halo (e.g. fols. 9r–v, 11r, 15r–v), heads of bearded men or human profiles (e.g. fols. 31r, 35r, 69v).

Borders: see above.

1-line gold initials on blue and pink background alternating with blue initials decorated with red penwork at the beginnings of verses and periods.

The beginnings of staves with musical notation and capital letters at the start of antiphons are often decorated with arabesque designs, grotesques and human profiles in penwork with pink and yellow wash.

Line-endings made of blue, pink and gold bars with white designs alternate with red and blue penwork line-endings.

Rubrics in red ink.

Musical notation

Square notation on staves of three or four red lines

Binding

Dark brown leather (damaged) over oak boards, early 16th century (?). Tooled with four diamond-shaped panels on both covers; at the centre of each panel is a shield with a rose inside. The panels are framed with blind fillet lines, forming a criss-cross pattern with floral corner-pieces. Border made of blind roll floral decoration framed with blind fillet lines round the outer edge of both covers. Rebacked, probably in the Bodleian. Impressions left by the fittings of two clasps on the lower cover. Holes on fol. 144 presumably from a former strap-and-pin binding. The upper and lower pastedowns and paper fly-leaves are leaves from an early printed edition of the Compilatio Sexta, i.e. Raymond of Pennafort’s Decretals of Gregory IX. Fols. ii and 144 were formerly pastedowns.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson in 1755; accessioned in 1756. Known as the Derby Psalter. Former shelfmark: ‘Auctarium Rawlinson BN 185’ (fol. i verso) (see Summary catalogue, vol. 1, pp. xxxviii–xl). ‘527’ written in ink on the upper pastedown.

Provenance

Commissioned by Stephen of Derby, prior of the Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, 1349–c. 1382 : colophon on fol. 142r; possible portrait (fol. 20r).

Augustinian Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The psalter was still in the Priory early in the 15th century when the notes concerning the affairs of the Priory were added.

Sir James Ware (1594–1666), Irish antiquary and historian, see ODNB. No. IIII among ‘Libri Theologici’ in his 1648 Catalogue (published by O’Sullivan, 1997).

Robert Ware (1639–1697), younger son of James Ware: inherited after his father’s death.

Henry Hyde (1638–1709), the second earl of Clarendon, see ODNB: bought James Ware manuscripts from Robert Ware c. 1685. The psalter was deposited in 1687 in the public library at St Martin-in-the-Fields, established in 1684 by Thomas Tenison, see ODNB, but withdrawn between 1692 and 1694 (O’Sullivan, 1997). Shelfmark ‘No I || JP’, followed by a cross in a circle (fol. 2v), found in other Ware manuscripts and probably added at the time of their return to Clarendon from St Martin’s (O’Sullivan, 1997, p. 75). No. 253 in his sale catalogue compiled in 1709 by Christopher Bateman (Rawlinson’s annotated copy is Bodleian Library, Mus. Bibl. III. 4o 13).

James Brydges (1674–1744), first duke of Chandos, see ODNB: bought Clarendon’s library for £1,200 in 1709.

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755), see ODNB: bought parts of Chandos’s collection in 1747.

Booksellers’ (?) markings on fol. ii verso (‘2v Nn Ba. ZZ’ [2v meaning 2 vols. (?)], ‘3. 6’, ‘Bmn’) and fol. iii verso (‘11. 2. 8’, ‘vol: 1’).