Cambridge, Queens' College, MS 29
Psalterium cum Hymnis
Contents
Of the feasts included, the ones of the SS. Wulstan and Egwin are specially indicative of Worcester (James).
Physical Description
Late 19th/early 20th-century foliation:
1-219
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the first leaf of each quire, possibly by M.R. James. Full foliation added after digitisation.Collation
The manuscript comprises nineteen quires, mostly of twelve leaves. Fols. A-C are flyleaves; A is a stub. Fols. 218-219 (a bifolium) are endleaves.
- Quire A6 (ff. i recto-vi verso)
- Quire 110 (ff. 1-10)
- Quires 2-512 (ff. 11-58)
- Quire 610 (ff. 59-68)
- Quires 7-912 (ff. 69-104)
- Quire 1012-1 (ff. 105-115: last leaf, after f. 115, missing)
- Quires 11-1212 (ff. 116-139)
- Quire 1310 (ff. 140-149)
- Quires 14-1512 (ff. 150-173)
- Quires 16-1710 (ff. 174-193)
- Quire 1814 (ff. 194-207)
- Quire 1910 (ff. 208-217)
Quires numbered in pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the first leaf recto of each quire.
Layout
127 × 83 mm. Single columns, 17 lines, frame and lines ruled in leadpoint, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Protogothic bookhand
Decoration
Blue, red and gold bars extending from historiated initial with half-length man in red shooting with bow and arrow upwards at an animal seated at top (f. 1r).
- 1r: David crowned, seated playing the harp (above), David in red tunic, stones in lap, and sling facing Goliath in a sitting posture, with red mail, blue surcoat, and scimitar.
- 4r: Half-length praying figure on gold ground.
- 24r: David, a boy holding a glove, and another standing figure (left); bishop in mitre and blue chasuble speaks to them (right).
- 38v: David kneels with hand pointing to his face, with above the Divine Hand in a red cloud.
- 51v: Warrior in red mail and blue surcoat about to behead a kneeling tonsured man.
- 52r: Fool, bald and clad only in a short cloak, stands holding a stick and eating a cake (left); David throned (right).
- 65v: Above, Christ half-length with red cross-nimbus and globe blessing; below, David half-length nude, crowned in water.
- 82v: David sits playing on two bells hung from a red beam, with a long-headed hammer in each hand; initial ends in a tailed and lion-headed man playing the harp.
- 98r: Three tonsured clerks in red, blue and pink copes before a lectern with an open book, which the foremost handles.
- 100r: David kneels and prays, above Christ's head in a red cloud.
- 116r: God the Father and Christ in blue over red, and cross-nimbi, each with a book, seated; above, Dove in the centre in a red cloud.
- 178r: God the Father with red cross-nimbus seated holds the Crucified Christ before Him; above, outside the initial, the Dove.
- 186v: Christ blessing a kneeling figure: above his head a red cloud with white stars.
- 206v: Three kneeling figures, above, the Divine Hand in a red cloud.
Gold initials (2 ll.) on blue or pink inner and outer grounds, with white foliage infill.
Gold, blue or red initials (1 l.) to subdivisions, some with blue or red pen-flourishing.
Line-fillers of finely drawn vegetal, anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and abstract designs in blue and red.
Additions
On 217v is inscribed a note in a 14th-century hand: 'Pillule gloriosissimi Regis Rogeri scilice(t) quibus utebatur singulis diebus quibus etiam utebatur Alexander qualibet die pre omnibus visum clarificant auditum corroborant spiritualia confortant singulans superfluitates depellunt sanitatem custodiunt humanum corpus ante omnia regunt. vii. vel ix. accipiantur de tertia in tertium vel de quarto in quartum. Ter vel quater ducunt quibus etiam datis non opportet mutare dietam. [Recipe] Calami aromatici [etc.]'. Then a carefully erased note of which a line and a half remains: 'usque finem pasche proxime future anno domini mo. cccmo. nonagesimo quarto [etc.]'. Some notes, possibly in the same hand, have been erased in the Kalendar.
At the foot of ii recto a two-line note, ending 'parte way', has been erased. Above, more erased scribbles include the name 'Broune'. Pen-trials on i recto include the name 'Markham'. At the foot of vi recto 'Herisforde' in a sixteenth-century hand.
F. B recto has a title added in a 17th-century hand: 'Psalterium Lat.' and, in a different hand, name of 'Johannes Caborne' (John Cabourne) is inscribed twice. The same hand has written a long note in English on f. C verso on the method of calculating the changes of the moon from the Kalendar, and Roman numerals next to each day throughout the Kalendar.
Armorial bookplate of Queens' College dated 1700 pasted on inside front board.
Binding
18th-century red morocco with gold-tooled concentric frames composed of double fillets, cornerpieces to inner frames, centrepieces on both covers composed of small tools; gold rolls on board edges; spine with four raised bands and gold-tooled fillets.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
John Cabourne gave the volume as a gift on his matriculation to the College in 1632. His gift is recorded in Queens' Donors' Book, p. 15.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
For further information on the availability of the manuscript, please contact Queens' Old Library and Special Collections.
Bibliography
-
A catalogue of the library of the college of St. Margaret and St. Bernard, commonly
called Queen's College
in the University of Cambridge, Horne, Thomas Hartwell (London, Society of Queen's College, 1827)
A descriptive catalogue of the western manuscripts in the library of Queens' College,
Cambridge, James, M.R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1905)
Funding of Cataloguing
Dr Virge James in memory of the late Dr Nigel James (Queens' mat. 1960)
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
