Cambridge, Trinity College, R. 17. 1

Present Location
Repository
Shelfmark

R. 17. 1

Contents
Medieval Provenance

General Information

Ker

91

Summary

The Eadwine Psalter is a trilingual, glossed psalterium triplex made in Christ Church, Canterbury, in the mid-twelfth century. It contains a calendar, triple Metrical Psalms 90:15-95:2, canticles, two continuous commentaries, two prognostications, a marginal image of Halley's Comet (recorded in 1147), a diagrammatic representation of Christ Church's waterworks, and a full page visual memorialisation of Eadwine. The psalms (except Ps. 151) are in Hebrew with French glosses, the Roman version with Old English glosses, and the Gallican version in parallel columns. At least 13 scribes appear to have been employed in the construction of this manuscript. Many of these scribes are part of a cohesive programme of matched, or near-matched, hands, making some sections difficult to attribute to one particular scribe; the Old English gloss on Psalms 26-77, for example, is ascribed to one glossator - OE1 (Webber 19). Examples of the similarities in hands are explained in Teresa Webber's article in Gibson 1992.

It is clear that the Latin gloss and commentary is derived from the Glossa Ordinaria, which was 'in the main stream of contemporary scholarship' (Gibson 1992, p. 109), but the question of sources for the Old English and Anglo-Norman glosses is still unresolved; both sets have multiple erasures and overwritings, illustrating that these are careful, dynamic and functional translations. One might note, for example, the very significant number of corrections made by Webber's scribes OE2 and OE4, and the 'sporadic changes of sources' in the vernacular text (O'Neill 1988, p. 124). Lastly, the possible exemplar used for the Anglo-Norman gloss was a corrupt manuscript which was then corrected, further expanding the corruptness (Markey 1989, p. 150). This is only one hypothesis of two expressed by Markey. Neither of these hypotheses has been fully proved, so further study in this is needed. It is extraordinary that so little work has been done on this exceptional manuscript, despite the excellent foundational work in Gibson 1992.

Digital Surrogate

http://trin-sites-pub.trin.cam.ac.uk/james/viewpage.php?index=1229

Manuscript Items

 

  1. Itemfols 6r-262r
    • Title (C.7.3): Gloss to Psalms

      Incipit(6rb) Æði | se were | þe ne eode | on ðere rede v(el) þæhte | arleasre

      Explicit(262rb) eælle | gæst hergæd drihten

      Text Language: The Roman version is glossed in Old English.

      Date: s. xiimed

      Bibliography:

  2. Itemfols 262v-281r
    • Title (C.11.2): Gloss to Canticles of the Psalter

      Incipit(262v) Ic andette | ðe drihten

      Explicit(281rb) ne meagan heo | hi borhgen beon

      Date: s. xiimed

      Bibliography:


Object Description

Form

Form: Codex

Support: Very large codex; each opening is the equivalent of one whole skin. Membrane probably vellum. In generally excellent condition. Numerous careful repairs.

Extent:

  • 455 mm x 326 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaf)
  • 482 mm x 343 mm (dimensions of front and back cover - size of boards of binding)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

Three sequences of foliation: top right hand corner is modern, with two earlier foliations visible throughout.

Collation:

  • Quires: Arrangement of folios is HFHF. 37 quires, mostly of eights: 14, 2-358, 368 wants one after fol. 283, 374 wants one before fol. 284. Collation diagram in 'Codicology and Palaeography', by Pickwoad and Webber, in Gibson 1998, pp. 10-11.
  • Signatures: Quire signatures denoted by vertical lines in lower margin are probably to help in the internal arrangement of the quires.

Condition:

Membrane is generally in excellent condition. Numerous careful repairs.

Layout description:

  • Extraordinarily complex layout, designed carefully and with each Psalm or Canticle individually assessed. Pricking is still evident on many leaves, and each textual component of the page has been individually ruled. Generally, the Psalm folios are ruled in five columns: the widest column (112 mm) is for the Gallicanum, with narrower columns (45mm each) on the inner part of the leaf for the two columns of the Romanum and Hebraicum. In the case of the Gallicanum, interlinear space is 16 mm; x-height is 5 mm; ascenders and descenders 3 mm each. The measurements for the smaller columns are exactly half those of the Gallicanum. The gloss fills all the available interlinear space (with ascenders and descenders of 2mm, and an x-height of 1-1.5 mm).

Hand Description

Hand

 

Summary:

Webber (Gibson 1998), followed by Pulsiano 2008 (pp. 47-48), detects five main Old English hands working within a much larger team of scribes and artists. The scribes are difficult to distinguish.

All of the Old English hands use a combination of Caroline and English Vernacular Minuscule forms, showing the hybridity typical of mid-twelfth-century hands. Pulsiano 2008 describes the Old English gloss as 'written in an informal but archaizing script with some insular letters but with an overall "Norman" cast to it' (p. 46). It is not clear what this means, and there is little archaic about any of the hands; all of their characteristics can be thought of as contemporary when compared with other, similarly dated vernacular manuscripts. There is little 'informal' about the glossing hands, either. The scribal stints can be divided as below, according to Webber.

  • Scope: major
  • Scribe: Scribes 1-5
  • Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
  • Description: fols 7-278.
    • Old English scribe 1 copied fols 7r-44v, 164r/25-170v/11, 164r-170v, 173r-252v, 261r-262r, 262v-266r, 266v/35-271r/23, 271v/23-275r/15, 275v-276r
    • Old English scribe 2 wrote fols 10r/lower margin (comet note), 141r, 143r/13-32, fol. 149r, 151v/9-16, 280va/1-5-281r, 282rv
    • Old English scribe 3 wrote fols 141v-143r/12, 143v-148v, 149v-151v/8, 152r-164r/24, 170v/12-172v, 253r-260v
    • Old English scribe 4 was the main corrector of the the first half of the Psalms, and copied fols 276v-77v, 278va/5-280vb/19
    • Old English scribe 5 wrote fols 266v/1-34, 271r/23-271v/22, 274r/15-34, 277v-278rb/7
  • Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Broadly speaking, all of the scribes write with an upright aspect and a narrow duct, as one might expect from glossing hands.
  • a is found in its single- and double-compartment versions.
  • The components of æ are generally the same size.
  • d is consistently round-backed with the stem the same size as, or a little shorter than, ð. In OE 3, the top of the ascender sometimes hooks down to the right.
  • e is rounded, with an extended tongue. Very occasionally a high e is used.
  • f is both Caroline and insular in the hands of OE 1, and occasionally insular in the hands of other scribes, such as OE 4.
  • g is usually insular.
  • h is usually Caroline.
  • p has a rounded bowl and the descender often ends with a serif.
  • r is usually insular, but occasionally looks like a Caroline r with a descender; a form typical of diplomatic hands in this period. In the hand of Scribe 1, the shoulder of r almost closes at the baseline to create a shape like p.
  • s can be long, high, low and round. In OE 1 and 3, it is often long.
  • the stem of t often transects the headstroke.
  • þ has a pointed bowl and a tagged or wedged ascender.
  • ð is sometimes formed with one stroke in the shape of an arabic numeral 4. In the hand of OE 3, the top of the ascender sometimes curves round to the right.
  • ƿ has a pointed bowl.
  • y is straight-limbed and dotted.
  • ascenders are wedged or tagged to the left.
  • descenders usually curve to the left, and often have a backward-leaning aspect.
  • Abbreviations:
  • The Tironian nota is seen in a variety of forms, most with descenders. The abbreviation mark is often straight.
  • Punctuation:
  • hyphens generally do not occur in the gloss.
  • punctus is usually placed just above the baseline.
  • Ligatures:
  • d and e ligatures occur throughout the manuscript. sand t ligatures are also common.
  • Litterae Notabiliores:
  • Decorated initials are part of the elaborate ornamentation. Some of them might be iconographically significant.
  • Correcting technique: Corrections are very frequent, particularly in the hand of OE 4, and are often written over erasure. There is no doubt that the English glosses were very carefully treated, and they contain a mine of information about contemporary linguistic forms.
Binding Description

Seventeenth-century leather binding, tooled, with metal boss in middle and broken hinges on back board. Some of the leather has come off now. 5 covered bands on spine.


Additional Information

Administration Information

Manuscript described by Elaine Treharne with the assistance of Christopher Tracy and Hollie Morgan (2010; 2013)

Surrogates

Digital surrogate: http://trin-sites-pub.trin.cam.ac.uk/james/viewpage.php?index=1229 (accessed 18 July 2018)

James, Montague Rhodes, The Canterbury Psalter (London: Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, 1935)

Pulsiano, Phillip, Peter J. Lucas, and A. N. Doane, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, 343 (Temple, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, 2008), vol. 16: Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan: The 'Eadwine Psalter' Group


History

Origin

Origin: Produced at Christ Church, Canterbury, and recorded in the catalogue in Prior Eastry's inventory there in the early fourteenth-century.

Acquisition: Given by Thomas Nevile, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral to Trinity College in the early seventeenth-century.

Provenance

Canterbury Christ Church

Bibliography

Biblia Latina cum Glossa Ordinaria: Facsimile Reprint of the Editio Princeps, Adolph Rusch of Strassburg, 1480/81, introduced by Karlfried Froehlich and Margaret T. Gibson, 4 vols (Turnhout: Brepols, 1992), II

Baker, Peter S., 'A Little Known Variant Text of the Old English Metrical Psalms', Speculum, 59 (1984), 263-81

Brou, Louis, ed., The Psalter Collects from V-VIth Century Sources (Three Series), Henry Bradshaw Society, 83 (London: Harrison for HBS, 1949)

Burnett, Charles, 'The Eadwine Psalter and the Western Tradition of the Onomancy in Pseudo-Aristotle's Secret of Secrets', Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Âge, 55 (1988), 143-67

---, 'The Earliest Chiromancy in the West', Journal of Warburg and Courtauld Instititue, 50 (1987), 189-95

Gibson, Margaret, 'Normans and Angevins, 1070-1220', in A History of Canterbury Cathedral, ed. by Patrick Collinson, Nigel Ramsay and Margaret Sparks (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 36-68

Gibson, Margaret T., T. A. Heslop, and Richard William Pfaff, eds, The Eadwine Psalter: Text, Image, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury, Publications of the Modern Humanities Research Association, 14 (London, University Park: Modern Humanities Research Association, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992)

Harsley, Fred, ed., Eadwine's Canterbury Psalter: Part II, Text and Notes, EETS, OS 92 (London: Trübner, 1889)

Heslop, T. A. , 'Art and the Man: Archbishop Wulfstan and the York Gospel-book', in Wulfstan, Bishop of York: The Proceedings of the Second Alcuin Conference, ed. by Matthew Townend (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 279-308

James, Montague Rhodes, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1903)

---, The Canterbury Psalter (London: Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, 1935)

---, 'Four Leaves of an English Psalter: 12th Century', Walpole Society, 25 (1936-1937), 1-23

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 91

Keynes, Simon, 'Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Trinity College', Old English Newsletter (CEMERS, SUNY Binghamton), Subsidia 18 (1992)

Krapp, George Philip, The Paris Psalter and the Meters of Boethius, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 5 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932)

Markey, Dominique, 'Le Psautier d'Eadwine: Édition critique de la version hébräique et sa tradition interlinaire anglo-normande (MSS Cambridge, Trinity College R. 17.1, et Paris, B. N. latin 8846)' (unpublished Ph.D, University of Ghent, 1989)

Ohlgren, Thomas H., Anglo-Saxon Textual Illustration: Photographs of Sixteen Manuscripts with Descriptions and Index(Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1992)

O'Neill, Patrick, 'Another Fragment of the Metrical Psalms in the Eadwine Psalter', Notes and Queries, 233 (1988), 434-46

Pfaff, Richard W., 'Eadui Basan: Scriptorum Princeps?', in England in the Eleventh Century: Proceedings of the 1990 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Carola Hicks (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1992), pp. 267-83

Pulsiano, Phillip, Old English Glossed Psalters: Psalms 1-50(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001)

---, 'William L'Isle and the Editing of Old English', in The Recovery of Old English: Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Centuries, ed. by Timothy Graham (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, 2000), pp. 173-206

Pulsiano, Phillip, Peter J. Lucas, and A. N. Doane, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, 343 (Temple, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008), vol. 16: Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan: The 'Eadwine Psalter' Group

Robinson, Fred C., and E. G. Stanley, Old English Verse Texts from Many Sources: A Comprehensive Collection, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 23 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1991)

Verfaillie-Markey, Dominique, 'Deux Inscriptions Grattées dans le Psautier d'Eadwine (Ms. Cambridge, Trinity College R. 17. 1)', Scriptorium, 39 (1985), 97-102 + plate

---, 'Le Psautier d'Eadwine: Édition Critique de la Version Hébräique et sa Tradition Interlinaire Anglo-Normande (MSS Cambridge, Trinity College R. 17. 1, et Paris, B.N. latin 8846)' (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Ghent, 1989)

 

Weberet, R., ed., Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam uulgatam uersionem: Liber Psalmorum, ed. by the Benedictines of St. Hieronymus in Urbe (Rome: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1953)