Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4085

Fragmentary Psalter

Introduction: Samuel Sandars (1837-1894) was one of the most important benefactors of Cambridge University Library in modern times. As well as providing funds for the acquisition of early printed books and manuscripts for the Library, Sandars was an important collector in his own right. As David McKitterick relates in his history of Cambridge University Library, Sandars' actions in both regards were cultivated and guided by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), University Librarian 1867-1886, and his successor-but-one Francis Jenkinson (1853-1923), University Librarian 1889-1923. At his death, Sandars bequeathed the funds that established the eponymous Readership in Bibliography. The Sandars Lectures given by the holder of this position take place each year and continue to this day. In addition to this, Sandars left his entire collection - amounting to some 1,600 printed books and close to a hundred manuscripts - to the University Library. The richly illuminated Psalter shown here was among these donations. Its 74 leaves are, however, only a portion of the manuscript's original extent, and they are, moreover, arranged out of their proper sequence. Their appeal to Sandars was certainly their decorative rather than their textual contents - an interest reflected in the rest of his collection, the majority of which is illuminated. Sandars acquired these leaves for £43 at auction on 25 May 1893 (with Bernard Quaritch acting as his agent). The under-bidder was the Arts and Crafts pioneer William Morris (1834-1896), who, according to a note by Sandars on f. [i] verso, 'asked me to let him have it', a request that Sandars evidently declined. The leaves had previously been part of the large archaeological and antiquarian collections of Thomas Bateman (1821-1861) of Youlgrave, Derbyshire, whose bookplate may be seen on the front pastedown. Suzette van Haaren has suggested that it might be Bateman who was responsible for tracing in pencil the outlines of some of the decorative motifs on the other side of the leaves on which they are found (see, for example, ff. 14r, 19r-20r, 23v, 27v, 30r, 31r and elsewhere). Bateman is known from another manuscript - Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4166 - to have either made or commissioned a tracing of an otherwise unattested prayer or creed in Old English. As Rebecca Rushforth observed, 'The fact that the prayer was traced rather than simply transcribed shows some interest in the form of the artefact itself rather than in the text alone, which accords with Bateman's collecting habits.' It may be, van Haaren has speculated, that these leaves may have likewise served Bateman as a collection of specimens of medieval decoration and script. The earlier provenance of the leaves remains obscure. They had presumably been extracted from their parent manuscript after the addition of antiphons to several margins by a 17th-century French hand, and perhaps before they were acquired by Bateman in 1840. It is known that the binder, James Hayday (1796-1872), was given business by the source of Bateman's purchase, the bookseller William Pickering (1796-1854), and moreover was introduced to potential patrons by him. However, without further evidence it is unclear whether Bateman acquired the leaves already bound or in unbound form and was subsequently guided by Pickering to employ Hayday to bind them. As to the origins and medieval ownership of the manuscript, there is little certain information. In an unpublished description of the manuscript (now UA ULIB 7/3/74/75), M.R. James remarked, 'I am reminded of the MS B.11.22 at Trinity College, which is certainly Flemish.' Both this manuscript and Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.11.22 do indeed contain many similar border decorations, including hunting scenes, games, musical activities, and human, animal and hybrid forms, some of which are suggestive of satirical comment on the adjacent text, and James's observation has informed the subsequent localisation of the manuscript's production and its dating to the end of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th century. Among these marginal decorations is one clue as to the manuscript's original or early ownership, recorded in unpublished notes (now UA ULIB 7/3/72/25) but not reported in subsequent published descriptions. On f. 37v, a human-animal hybrid figure is battling a beast, wielding a sword and a shield bearing the design azure, a lion rampant argent, the coat of arms of the Montalt family. Dr James Freeman|Medieval Manuscripts Specialist|Cambridge University Library

Language(s): Latin

1r-74v

Fragmentary Psalter

The psalter is incomplete and the leaves are misbound in the following order:

f. 1: Psalm 97
f. 2: Psalm 51, 52
f. 3: Psalm 52, 53
f. 4: Psalm 55, 56
f. 5: Psalm 62
f. 6: Psalm 58
f. 7: Psalm 59, 60
f. 8: Psalm 50, 51
f. 9: Psalm 53, 54
f. 10: Psalm 49, 50
f. 11: Psalm 47, 48
f. 12: Psalm 54, 55
f. 13: Psalm 45, 46
f. 14: Psalm 40, 41
f. 15: Psalm 38, 39
f. 16: Psalm 34, 35
f. 17: Psalm 87, 88
f. 18: Psalm 88, 89
f. 19: Psalm 118:97-106
f. 20: Psalm 118:145-155
f. 21: Psalm 118:126-136
f. 22: Psalm 105, 106
f. 23: Psalm 108
f. 24: Psalm 118:1-9
f. 25: Psalm 118:50-60
f. 26: Psalm 118:78-87
f. 27: Psalm 118:166-174
f. 28: Psalm 103, 104
f. 29: Psalm 105
f. 30: Psalm 118:107-116
f. 31: Psalm 118:136-145
f. 32: Psalm 146, 147
f. 33: 1 Samuel 2, Exodus 15
f. 34: Psalm 147, 148
f. 35: Isaiah 38, 1 Samuel 2
f. 36: Psalm 149, 150
f. 37: Isaiah 12, 38
f. 38: Psalm 148, 149
f. 39: Psalm 28, 29
f. 40: Psalm 31
f. 41: Psalm 32, 33
f. 42: Psalm 22, 23
f. 43: Psalm 21, 22
f. 44: Psalm 13
f. 45: Psalm 23, 24:1-7
f. 46: Psalm 24:17-22, 25
f. 47: Psalm 11, 12
f. 48: Psalm 9, 10
f. 49: Psalm 2, 3
f. 50: Psalm 7, 8
f. 51: Psalm 3, 4
f. 52: Psalm 8, 9
f. 53: Psalm 36, 37
f. 54: Psalm 31, 32
f. 55: Psalm 43, 44
f. 56: Psalm 65, 66, 67
f. 57: Psalm 63:7-11, 64
f. 58: Psalm 62, 63:1-7
f. 59: Psalm 93, 94
f. 60: Psalm 91, 92
f. 61: Psalm 94, 95
f. 62: Psalm 90, 91
f. 63: Psalm 95, 96
f. 64: Psalm 92, 93
f. 65: Psalm 77
f. 66: Psalm 87
f. 67: Psalm 89, 90
f. 68: Psalm 82, 83
f. 69: Psalm 84, 85
f. 70: Psalm 80, 81
f. 71: Psalm 78, 79
f. 72: Psalm 72, 73
f. 73: Psalm 70, 71
f. 74: Psalm 68, 69

The correct order of the leaves is ff. 49, 51, 50, 52, 48, 47, 44, 43, 42, 45, 46, 39, 40, 54, 41, 16, 53, 15, 14, 55, 13, 11, 10, 8, 2, 3, 9, 12, 4, 6, 7,5, 58, 57, 56, 74, 73, 72, 65, 71, 70, 68, 69, 66, 17, 18, 67, 62, 60, 64, 59, 61, 63, 1, 28, 29, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 19, 30, 21, 31, 20, 27, 32, 34, 38, 36, 37, 35, 33.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: Codex: ii + 74 + ii leaves. 105 × 75 mm.

Foliation:

20th-century foliation

[i-ii] + 1-74 + [iii-iv]

Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos by an unidentified hand of the 20th century.

Foliation:

19th-century foliation

1-74

Written in pencil in the upper left-hand corner of the rectos, by two or more unidentified hands of the 19th century.

Collation

Leaf signatures in the typical late medieval alphanumeric form, written in ink in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. The crosses in red or black seen in both the lower margins of the rectos in red (f. 3r) and black (ff. 21r and 53r) and in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos (f. 59r) might indicate the first leaf of the second half of each quire, in the manuscript's original structure.

Condition

Some dirt and staining throughout the manuscript. A patched parchment repair contemporary with the production of the manuscript on f. 50. Later paper repairs, presumably contemporary with the binding (ff. 32, 46). Contemporary correction of the text throughout, either by erasure or strikethrough, and indicated by marginal crosses in pencil / leadpoint (not necessarily contemporary themselves) (see ff. 3r, 4v, 7v, 13r, 18v, 20r, 28r, 31v, 47v, 48v, 51v, 56r, 57r, 61r, 66v, 68v, 69v, 73r, 74r).

Layout

55 × 35 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line. Single column. 14 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Written by a single hand in littera textualis.

Decoration

Two historiated initials:

f. 1r: two clerics singing (8 lines, Psalm 97)
f. 2r: fool with club and bread before king (6 lines, Psalm 52)

Three-line figural initials in red or blue on burnished gold ground, usually containing human heads, grotesques, animals or foliage scrolls. Often formed of or extending into the margins, housing hybrid creatures and grotesques painted in blue, red, green, orange and grey on burnished gold ground.

One-line gold or blue verse initials with blue or red pen flourishes. At some points instructions for which letter to paint for the artist are visible, see for example 13v.

Border decoration on the pages with figural initials:

ff. 3r, 29v: hunting scenes
ff. 2r, 16r: games
ff. 21r, 16r: jesters
ff. 6r, 13r, 25v, 36r, 50v, 66r, 74v: musical activities
f. 34r: windmill
ff. 7v, 9r, 10r, 14v, 22r, 54v, 58r and elsewhere: people, animals and grotesques, often interacting with one another
ff. 1r, 32r, 61r: satirical comments on Psalm text or illustrations

Line fillers in blue, red and gold with linear, geometric and floral designs.

Additions

Insertion in the margin of text omitted by the scribe, written by a 14th-/15th-century hand (ff. 33v, 34r).

Antiphons added to the margins thoughout, by a 17th-century French hand.

A note by Samuel Sandars, relating to his acquisition of the volume and its contents (not photographed): 'Purchased May 1893 at the sale of the Library of the Batemans of Youlgrave, antiquaries for two or three generations in Derbyshire Sothebys. I paid £43 for it. Quaritch got it for me. W^m Morris the poet and socialist was the under buyer. He asked me to let him have it. Probably Nth France. Samuel Sandars. The volume seems to be a collection of fragments from a Psalter, followed by the Canticles. The decorations are in a very fine style of art date about 1300. 74 leaves.

Binding

Green morocco with gold-tooling, by James Hayday (1796-1872) (see stamp on rear pastedown).

History

Origin: Late 13th or early 14th century. ; Flanders.

Binski and Zutshi (2011): 1st quarter of the 14th century. Ringrose (2009): c. 1300. Stones (2013): c. 1290-1297?.

Provenance and Acquisition

Marginal grotesque on f. 37v holding a shield bearing the coat of arms of the Montalt family , azure, a lion rampant argent, perhaps the manuscript's original owners.

Sold by William Pickering (1796-1854) , bookseller and publisher: see note on the front pastedown.

Purchased from Pickering in 1840 by Thomas Bateman (1821-1861) , of Youlgrave, Derbyshire, archaeologist, antiquary and collector: his bookplate on the front pastedown.

Inherited by Bateman's son, Thomas William Bateman (1852-1895) .

Lot 1304 in the 'Bateman heirlooms' sale at Sotheby's (25 May 1893).

Purchased for £43 at the sale by Bernard Quaritch (1819-1899) , acting on behalf of Samuel Sandars (1837-1894) , book collector and benefactor (see Additions for further details).

Bequeathed to Cambridge University Library by Samuel Sandars (1837-1894) , following his death in 1894.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Jayne Ringrose, Summary Catalogue of the Additional Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge University Library acquired before 1940 (Woodbridge, 2009) (used here by kind permission of the Boydell Press), and by by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press). It also draws on an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1948 and 1970 by H.L. Pink , now held in the University Archives (UA ULIB 7/3/75/24), and other unpublished notes (UA ULIB 7/3/72/25).

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Custodial History

Former classmark: SSS.20.2 (Sandars donation, 1894 - see Provenance and Acquisition for further details).

Bibliography

Bibliotheca musico-liturgica: a descriptive handlist of the musical and Latin-liturgical MSS. of the Middle Ages preserved in the libraries of Great Britain and Ireland, Frere, W.H. (London, 2, 1894)

Images in the margins of Gothic manuscripts California studies in the history of art, Randall, Lilian M.C. (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1966)

Birds in medieval manuscripts, Yapp, W.B. (London, British Library, 1981)

The Barrow Knight, the Bristol Bibliographer, and a lost Old English Prayer Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Rushforth, Rebecca (13, 1, 112-131, 2004, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41154940)

Summary catalogue of the additional medieval manuscripts in Cambridge University Library acquired before 1940, Ringrose, Jayne (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2009)

Western illuminated manuscripts: a catalogue of the collection in Cambridge University Library, Binski, PaulZutshi, Patrick (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1017/CBO9780511780479)

Gothic manuscripts 1260-1320 A survey of manuscripts illuminated in France, Stones, Alison (London, Harvey Miller Publishers, 2013)

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4085

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