The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark O.3.14
Manuscript Title

Greek Psalter

Alternative Title

Psalterium Graece.

James Number 1186
Century 15th
Physical Description

19 lines to a page. In the peculiar hand of the 'Leicester Codex.' The initial to each Psalm is in pale red, usually with some foliated ornament; quickly and rather poorly done. Each verse has a small initial in the same red. At the top of f.1 in a xvith cent. hand is No. 1255.

Provenance

Part of the Gale collection, given to T.C.C. by Roger Gale in 1738. Marked H. 25. No.339. The interesting point about this MS. is that it is written in the same script as the well-known Leicester Codex of the New Testament. See Rendel Harris, The Ferrar Group (1900: pp. 24 sqq. and plate 1). I am myself inclined to think that the Latin glosses in the MS. are by an English scribe: at any rate not by an Italian.

Donor Gale, Roger (1672-1744), Antiquary
Size (cm) 30.5 x 22
Folio 152 + 7 ff.
Binding Stamped leather over boards. The principal ornaments on the first cover are
1. Square: a fleur de lys with one quatrefoil in upper L corner
2. 3. Square stamps of leaves and flowers
4. Square stamp of crowned lion.
On the second cover, 1, 3 recur, and also a small square stamp of a dolphin, a band of vine-ornament, two large lozenges with four-petalled flower, and the inscription in black letter
B hale
Material Parchment
Language Greek
Collation

4 flyleaves | α88 | 3 flyleaves.
The quires are numbered in the original hand in Greek: the first four leaves are marked in this way (e.g. in quire 5):1. εον. 2. φυλλ β εον. 3. φυλλ γ εον. 4. φυλλ δ εον. Also they are numbered by a Latin scribe from a to t, both in ink and in pencil: the latter marking ceases towards the end. There is a third numbering (partial) in Arabic figures.

IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.3.14/manifest.json
Online Since 29/06/2017

Contents

The first quire is written in a hand slightly larger than the rest: but I see no reason to doubt that it is the same hand. It seems not unlikely that the first quire was early worn out or lost, and supplied by the same scribe.
With the second quire (Ps. xiv) the Latin incipits of the Psalms begin to be added, and are continued to the end of the Psalter. There are none in quire. They are in a late xvth cent. hand, in a pale red not distinguishable from that of the initials.

On the 4th flyleaf are these notes in the hand of Patrick Young:
(1) In hoc codice absunt Psalmorum tituli universi.
(2) Σημειουται collatum esse hoc exemplar cum nouem codicibus.
MS. Regio MS.
Aldina editione A.
Compl. editione C
Romana editione R.
Chrysostomo} Ch.
Theodoreto } in Psalmos. Th.
Euthymio } Eu.
Catena Corderii} In Psalmos CC.
Catena Nicetae } CN.
In a later hand.
Cod: Ravii in Ps. 18.
As a matter of fact the collation does not extend beyond f.17 (Ps. xxii Lat.).

The Psalter.
Various readings from the authorities named above are noted in the margin up to Ps. xxii Lat. xxiii Heb.
There are interlinear Latin glosses in red (in the hand which wrote the incipits), in quire 2: they are few in number in the early part of the book, and soon cease. But in Ps. cxviii (cxix)-Ps. cxxii (cxxiii) they are fairly continuous. They then cease. At the end of Ps. cl in red is written: Finitur psalterium.
Then follow
Ps. cli. Μικρὥς ἤμην.
Song of Moses (1) Exod. xv.
(2) Deut. xxxiii.
Song of Hannah.
Prayer of Habakkuk.
Isaiah xxvi. 9. Ἐκ νυκτὥς ίρθρὀζει.
Prayer of Jonah.
Prayer of Azarias.
Song of Three Children.
Magnificat.
Benedictus.
Prayer of Hezekiah.
Prayer of Manasseh.
Ending f.151a.
f.151b and the flyleaves are blank.

Bibliography

Hobson, G. D., English Binding before 1500: the Sandars Lectures 1927 (Cambridge, 1929), pl. 39 [a London binding by the 'Scales' binder, c. 1470]

Carley, J. P., The Libraries of King Henry VIII, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues 7 (London, 2000), H2.592

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