File
PSALTER
Catalogue reference: Sion L40.2/L2
What’s it about?
This record is a file about the PSALTER dating from c.1260.
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Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- Sion L40.2/L2
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Title (The name of the record)
- PSALTER
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Date (When the record was created)
- c.1260
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Description (What the record is about)
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A finely illuminated psalter, written for use in the diocese of York. All the historiated initials of the liturgical divisions and several full-page miniatures, which were pasted in on separate pieces of vellum, have unfortunately been removed. The illustrations of the labours of the months and the signs of the zodiac in the calendar, as well as many ornamented initials and grotesques, remain. Owned by Simon Mepham, also known as Simon Meopham (c.1275-1333), Archbishop of Canterbury. Described in the Burlington Fine Arts Club's 'Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts', 1908, pp. 20-21, no. 44. The decoration is said there to be closely similar to that of no. 103 in the exhibition, a Bible of c.1260-c.1280 (now British Library Add MS 52778; on this see Nigel Morgan, 'Early gothic manuscripts 1250-1285' no. 135). Other products of the same workshop are the 'York Psalter' of c.1260 (British Library Add MS 54179; see Nigel Morgan, 'Early gothic manuscripts 1250-1285' no. 133) and an Apocalypse of c.1255-60. (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Auct. D.4.17; see Nigel Morgan, 'Early gothic manuscripts 1250-1285' no. 131). ff. iv-viii. Blank, except for ownership inscription 'Psalterium pulcherimum d[omp]ni S. de Mepham archiepiscopi', 15th century, at f. 5 recto. ff. 1r-6v. Calendar in blue, red, and black. Feasts in blue include John of Beverley, Augustine, William, Oswald king and martyr, Wilfred (7, 26 May, 8 June, 5 Aug., 12 Oct.) and 'Festiuitas reliquiarum ebor' ecclesie' (Feast of the Relics at York, 19 Oct.). The word 'pape' and feasts of St. Thomas of Canterbury have been erased. 'S (?) Ricardus Rex [Richard II] et anna vxor' and 'Obitus Iohannis B[okyng]ham episcopi Linc' are in pencil in one hand at 6 and 10 March respectively: John Buckingham died at Canterbury on 10 Mar. 1399. The Calendar has 24 small miniatures, one series depicting the signs of the zodiac, and the other the labours of the months. The labours, in star-shaped frames on burnished gold grounds, are as follows: f. 1r. January, feasting. f. 1v. February, man by a fire. f. 2r. March, pruning. f. 2v. April, man holding two sprigs of foliage or flowers. f. 3r. May, falconry. f. 3v. June, weeding. f. 4r. July, scything. f. 4v. August, cutting corn. f. 5r. September, threshing. f. 5v. October, sowing. f. 6r. November, pig pannage. f. 6v. December, slaughter of a bullock. ff. 7r-9v. Now blank: see Physical Description. ff. 10r-123r. Psalms 1-150. All between 'tu propicius' (Psalm xcviii. 8) and 'piencie timor' (Psalm cx. 10) is missing in a gap of probably thirteen leaves after f. 93. ff. 123r-135r. Six ferial canticles, Te deum, Benedicite, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, Quicumque vult, Gloria in excelsis. ff. 135r-139v. Litany. York diocese. Augustine, Paulinus, John, Wilfred, William, Cuthbert, Swithun, Sampson are ninth to sixteenth of confessors, and Hilda, Everildis, and 'Aedeldrida' are the last three of twenty-five virgins. ff. 140-143. Blank.
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Note (Additional information about the record)
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A digital copy is available via the online image management system: http://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet/s/k93ifq Negatives (selected) at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Prints from these are at Lambeth Palace Library, MS Facsimile 16.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- Lambeth Palace Library
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Language (The language of the record)
- Latin
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
- Sion College
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- viii, 143 ff.
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
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Open
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
- Written for use in the diocese of York. Owned by Simon Mepham (c.1275-1333), Archbishop of Canterbury: 'Psalterium pulcherimum d[omp]ni S. de Mepham archiepiscopi', f. v recto, 15th century. Recorded as owned by Christ Church, Canterbury in 'Medieval libraries of Great Britain : a list of surviving books', ed. N.R. Ker, 2nd ed., 1964, p. 37. Perhaps a gift to Christ Church from Archbishop Simon Mepham. Not recorded at Sion College in 1666, but acquired by 1697. The only significant collection acquired during these years was given by George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley; see the description of Sion L40.2/E62. Recorded at Sion College in Edward Bernard, 'Catalogi Manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae' (Oxford, 1697) vol ii, no. 4088: 'Psalterium Lat. folio'. Shelfmark A2 at f. viii recto. Recorded with this shelfmark in William Reading, 'Bibliothecae cleri Londinensis in Collegio Sionensi catalogus' (London, 1724). Transferred from Sion College to Lambeth Palace Library, 1996.
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Physical condition (Aspects of the physical condition of the record that may affect or limit its use)
- Binding of brown leather, 375 x 250 mm., 19th century. Thick, good parchment leaves (foliated iv-viii, 1-143), 360 x 235 mm. Written space 215 x 125 mm. 20 long lines. Foliated i-viii, 1-143. ff. iv-vii, 140-3 are medieval fly-leaves (ff. iv, 143 were pastedowns in a former binding). Collation of ff. viii, 1-139: 1(6) + 1 leaf after 6 (f. 6); 2 three (ff. 7-9); 3-9(12); 10(12) wants 1 before f. 94; 11-12(12); 13(12) wants 12, blank: a quire missing after 9. Punctuation includes the flex, which is repeated in the margin whenever it occurs in the text. The full-page pictures on ff. 7v, 8r, 9v and initials to Psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97, about 90 mm. each way, were on special pieces of pasted-in parchment, as in the Worcester psalter now Magdalen College MS. 100, but all of them have been removed, without damage to the underlying parchment. The only traces that remain are the frames of the initials and their terminals, usually grotesques, in the margins [in the Worcester psalter all but two of the pasted-in initials have been similarly removed]. The word 'sadoch' [Zadoch] can be read in an erased side-note on f. 9v and suggests that the missing picture showed the anointing of Solomon. The remaining decoration consists of the signs of the zodiac and occupations of the months in ff. 1-6, line fillers, alternately red and blue, and initials: (i) to Psalms (etc.), 3-line, about 35 mm. each way, in colours patterned in white on gold and coloured grounds decorated in colours: a few naked figures in the decoration, and on f. 132v one forms the central limb of M: some letters, especially D and I, terminate in a grotesque in the margin. (ii) to verses of Psalms (etc.), 1-line, gold with blue or gold with red ornament. f. 10r begins with Beatus in the main hand, the B an ordinary 1-line gold initial. A nearly full-page initial B seems to have been intended but never executed on the facing page, now turned round as f. 9 recto. Secundo folio 'Apprehendite' (f. 11r).
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/4f80f1b2-a07d-42c1-bf04-bccc62742dc3/
Catalogue hierarchy
This record is held at Lambeth Palace Library
Within the fonds: Sion L40.2
SION COLLEGE MANUSCRIPTS COLLECTION
Within the sub-fonds: Sion L40.2/L
SION COLLEGE: LATIN MANUSCRIPTS
You are currently looking at the file: Sion L40.2/L2
PSALTER