The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark R.8.6
Manuscript Title

Psalter

Alternative Title

Psalterium Hebraico-latinum

James Number 782
Century 13th14th
Physical Description

Triple columns, 23 lines of Hebrew, 48 of Latin, to a column. Well written with good penwork initials.

Provenance

Given by Nevile.

Second Folio (Lat.) Exsurge or populi que.
Donor Neville [Nevile], Thomas (c. 1548–1615), College Head and Dean of Canterbury
Size (cm) 30.5 x 22
Folio 84 ff. + fly-leaves
Material Parchment
Language HebrewLatin
Collation

a2 18-108 114 (4 stuck to cover).

IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/R.8.6/manifest.json
Online Since 20/04/2015

Contents

2 fly-leaves which contain portions of 1 Chronicles, in Hebrew, with spaces left for an intercolumnar Latin version, and an interlinear Latin gloss.
Psalter in three versions.
Column 1 contains the Hebrew well written (probably by a Jew) with points and accents, and an interlinear literal (Latin) rendering for each word.
Col. 2. Jerome's Psalterium Hebraicum.
Col. 3. The Gallican Psalter.

The catchwords are in Hebrew, which rather implies that the Hebrew was written first (as in the case of the fly-leaves). The book is an important monument of the mediaeval study of Hebrew in England. It may very probably have belonged to a Franciscan house. Other MSS. exist, containing further portions of the Old Testament in Hebrew with interlinear Latin translation, and, in several cases, the Latin Vulgate, viz. at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, no. v (the Pentateuch), no. vi (Jos. Jud. Sam. Eccl. Esther), no. ix (Sam. Chron.), no. x (Psalter, with the Gallican and Jerome's 'Hebrew'), no. xi (Psalms, Prov.); at St John's College, Oxford, no. cxliii (Jos. Jud. Cant. Eccl.). All these MSS. are of cent. xiii or xiv, and resemble ours in execution. They may owe their existence either to the influence of Roger Bacon, or to that of Grosseteste. In favour of this latter supposition is the fact that Henry of Costessey in his Commentary on the Psalms (MS. Christ's College F. I. 17) frequently quotes the "superscriptio in psalterio domini Lincolniensis ubi tria vel quatuor psalteria coniunctim continentur." By the "superscriptio" it is evident that he means an interlinear Latin gloss on the Hebrew, such as is contained in this MS.See on these MSS. the tract of M. Samuel Berger: Quam notitiam linguae Hebraicae habuerint Christiani medii aevi temporibus in Gallia. (Paris, Hachette, 1893, pp. 49-53.) And the extant MSS. of this mediaeval version from the Hebrew are of English origin and in English libraries.

Bibliography

Loewe, R., 'Latin supercriptio manuscripts on portions of the Hebrew Bible other than the Psalter', The Journal of Jewish Studies 9 (1958), 63-71.

Smalley, B., Hebrew scholarship among Christians in XIIIth century England, as illustrated by some Hebrew-Latin psalters, Lectiones in Vetere Testamento et in rebus Judaicis 6 (London, 1939?)

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