A-C: Calendar, Psalter and Anselm of Canterbury, Prayers and meditations; England (A: St Albans (?), B: Winchester), 12th century

Title

A-C: Calendar, Psalter and Anselm of Canterbury, Prayers and meditations; England (A: St Albans (?), B: Winchester), 12th century

Shelfmark

MS. Auct. D. 2. 6

Place of origin

English

English, Winchester, Cathedral Priory(the Old Minster) (?)

English, St. Albans, Benedictine abbey(?)

Date

12th century, middle

12th century, middle or third quarter

c. 1140–1150 (perhaps 1139 × 1158)

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Physical extent

201 + modern parchment fly-leaves at the beginning and end.

Binding

Modern binding, white leather over wood boards, rebound in the Bodleian in 2010. symmetrical holes on fol. 1 and four marks on 2r left by the fitting of a clasp.

The former binding: brown leather over pasteboard, 18th century. Blind fillet lines round the outer edge of both covers. Blind roll decoration forming a rectangle with floral corner-pieces on both covers. Blind roll decoration on the edges of covers. Rebacked in the 20th (?) century with the original spine relaid. Sewn on four cords. End-leaves of 18th-century laid paper. Fol. 1 (parchment), originally the second leaf of the first booklet, was used as the upper pastedown of an earlier binding: glue and fragments of dark pink textile with yellow patterning; fragments of blue textile, possibly the remains of two ties. Four

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: donation of Richard Beswick, c. 1672. Former shelfmarks: ‘Cod. 170. Museo’ (fol. 2r); ‘170’ in ink on the fore-edge of leaves; ‘MS. e Mus. 118’ (fol. 2r). The manuscript was part of ‘in Musaeo’ collection (manuscripts kept in a cupboard in the Librarian’s study) which was formed from miscellaneous donations and acquisitions of the period c. 1647–83. The shelfmark was changed to ‘e Musaeo’ and the numeration altered in 1728. The shelfmark ‘Auctarium’ was given c. 1789, when books then considered most valuable in the Library were moved to the Auctarium (one of the schools in the Bodleian Library quadrangle) (see Summary catalogue, vol. 1, pp. xiv, xxxix–xl).

Provenance

Calendar and Psalter bound together before 1200: a 12th-century addition of Frideswide in the calendar and litany.

‘Adam Basset de Litlemore’ in clumsy 13th-century (?) capitals on fol. 155r.

Benedictine nunnery of Littlemore, Oxfordshire. Cautio note of the prioress of Littlemore, 14th century (?), fol. 1v: ‘Caucio Priorisse de lytelmor’ jacet pro xl s’ & habet supplementum perforium [or possibly ‘portiforium’] cum uno signaculo argenteo 2o folio incipiatur’.

Conservation treatment carried out in the Bodleian Library in 2010 showed that there is only one set of sewing holes at three sewing stations and two kettle stitches for all three texts. There is no evidence to suggest that the three texts had previous or independent bindings. It is theoretically possible that one text was sewn independently, and later resewn to incorporate the other two texts using the same sewing positions, but this seems unlikely, as none of the holes are enlarged as one would expect had they been used more than once (Nicole Gilroy, Report of the treatment carried out on MS. Auct. D. 2. 6, 6th January 2011).

Richard Beswick or Bestwick, d. 1705 (Foster, 1891–92, p. 118; Boase, 1894, p. 118), Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford: ‘Liber Bibliothecae Bodleianae Ex dono Ric: Beswick Art: Mag: nuper Coll: Exon: Socii’ (fol. 2r).