Psalter, French lyric, English lyric — 12th century, second half; English, North-East (?)

Title

Psalter, French lyric, English lyric — 12th century, second half; English, North-East (?)

Shelfmark

MS. Rawl. G. 22

Place of origin

English

English, North-East (?)

Date

12th century, second half

13th century, first half

Language

Anglo-Norman

Latin

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

1 + 166 leaves

Hands

The work of several scribes writing in a large formal proto-Gothic book script; dark brown ink.

Decoration

6- to 7-line red and green initials with arabesque designs at the beginning of psalms 69 (fol. 56v), 80 (fol. 73v) and 97 (fol. 91v).

2-line red and green initials, plain or decorated with foliage and arabesque designs, at the beginning of psalms, canticles, litany and prayers.

1-line plain red or green initials at the beginning of verses and periods.

Rubrics in red ink.

Musical notation

Music (see van Dijk 1957).

Binding

Typical Rawlinson binding, 18th century, first half. Parchment (a reversed document in English, 17th century) over pasteboard. Sewn on four cords. Inscription in brown ink on the spine: ‘Psalmor. || liber || antiquiss. || MS .’. Fragments of printed paper label on spine with lettering: ‘B . . . || R . . . 2’. Fols. i and 164 are 18th-century flyleaves of laid paper, without watermarks.

Acquisition

Bequeathed in 1755, accessioned in 1756. ‘607’ on the upper pastedown.

Provenance

Made for a Benedictine house, dedicated to St Martin (?), in the north-east of England (?): Benedict appears together with the Virgin Mary in a collect ‘Satisfaciat . . .’ on fol. 160r; Martin is the first among the confessors in the litany. The litany (fol. 149r) contains Botulph before Cuthbert and Dunstan among the confessors, and Etheldreda among the virgins. Ker (1964), however, rejects ascription to St Mary’s and St Botulph’s, Thorney, made by Nicholson (Summary catalogue, vol. 5) and van Dijk (1958).

Probably owned after 1202, when St Gilbert was canonized, by a Gilbertine house: annotations on fols. 152v–163v suggesting alternative grammatical forms (in many cases changing singular endings to plural), include an addition of ‘atque Gileberti’ in a collect ‘Satisfaciat . . .’ on fol. 160r.

Jhon Andre: notes on fols. 137r, 142r and 163v in a 16th-century hand.

Francis Pole of Park Hall, Chesterfield (d. 1750): no. 1397 in the auction catalogue of his library (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Mus. Bibl. III. 8o 51(11)), 9 March 1752, described as ‘Liber Psalmorum (imp.)’. ‘1397 Pole’ on fol. 2r.

Richard Rawlinson, 1690–1755, see ODNB: bookplate, upper pastedown.