Add MS 44949

PSALTER, with Calendar, executed in northern England for secular use (see artt. 2, 4 below); 14th cent. (temp. Edw. III). Latin and French. See also A. Långfors, 'Notice et extraits du manuscrit Additional 44949 du Musée Britannique', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen (Bulletin de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki), xl, 1948, pp. 97-123; E. G. Millar, 'The Egerton Genesis and the M. R. James Memorial MS.', Archaeologia, lxxxvii, 1938, pp. 1-5, and pls. I-IV; Brit. Mus. Quart., xi, 1936-1937, pp. 175-177, and pl. LII (a). Contents:-

(1) Prayers and verses in Latin and French. Those in French are described and partly printed by Långfors, op. cit.; cf. J. Sonet, Répertoire d'Incipit de Prières en ancien français, Geneva, 1956, passim. Included are:-(a) Prayer

beg. 'Deus qui nobis signatus lumine'. Cf. V. Leroquais, Les Livres d'Heures Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 1927, i, p. 149. f. 3;-(b) Prayers for the canonical hours, rel. to the Passion of Our Lord, beg. 'Domine Iesu Christe qui hora matutina', cf. Leroquais, ibid., ii, p. 283. ff. 3b-6b;-

(c) Prayer beg. 'Deus qui in cruce pendens'. Cf. Leroquais, ibid., i, p. 34. f. 7;-(d) Verses beg. 'Marie mere douce Iesu Crist'. ff. 7b-10;-(e) Verses, including verse prayers, on the Mass, beg. 'De toutes les choses qe sount'. ff. 10b-16;-(f) Prayer beg. 'Beaus douce sire deus'. f. 18;-(g) Prayer beg. 'Douce sire Iesu qestes soul esperaunce'. ff. 18-19;-(h) 'Ici comence une loenge de la dame en countree lentece de cuer', beg. 'Ieo ai un cuer ml't lent'. ff. 19-20b;-(i) 'une loenge de le douce noun Iesu Crist et la significacioun de chescun lettre Ihesus': verses beg. 'Ihesu ma ioie et mon repose'. ff. 20b-23;-(j) 'une loenge a la dame de euangeil. Missus est': verses beg. 'Dieu vous sauue marie'. ff. 23-24b;-(k) 'un(e) loenge a la dame qe comprent la signifiaunce de son beneite noun qest MARIA': verses beg. 'Marie mere merciable'. ff. 25-27b;-(l)'une loenge ala dame qe comprent ses figures': verses beg. 'Reyne de piete marie'. ff. 27b-29;-(m) 'une loenge a la dame qe comprent ses cynk ioies': verses beg. 'Merciable mire marie'. ff. 29-30b. ff. 3-30b.

(2) Calendar, in red and black, with secular gradings. The feasts are included of the following saints associated especially with northern England:-

in red, SS. John of Beverley (7 May), Godric (21 May), Oswin, k.m. (20 Aug.), Aidan (31 Aug.), Cuthbert (translation, 4 Sept., duplex);-in black, Kentigern, conf. (13 Jan.), Oswald, archbp. (28 Feb.), Wilfrid, bp. and m. (sic) (translation, 24 Apr.), Oswald, k.m. (5 Aug.), Paulinus archbp. (10 Oct.), Wilfrid, bp. (12 Oct.). ff. 32-37b.

(3) Psalter, Canticles, and Athanasian Creed, in Latin, each verse followed by a French translation, beg. 'Beneit soit le bier que ne foreie el consail'. In Latin text of the Psalms and Canticles, words underlined in red have been interpolated to explain or clarify the meaning: in some cases these have been followed by the translator in preference to the original text. See further Långfors, op. cit., pp. 118-122. ff. 39-298b.

(4) Litany, written continuously with art. 3. The invocations include the following saints from northern England:-SS. Oswald, Cuthbert, Aidan, William (of York), Wilfrid, John (of Beverley), Godric, Bede, and Ebba. ff. 298b-303. Vellum; ff. 305. 258 mm. x 175 mm. Mid XIV cent. Executed in Northern England. Gatherings mainly of 12 leaves with catchwords (i¹² lacks 1, ii¹⁰, iii⁸, iv⁶, xxvi¹⁰, xxvii (last)⁶ lacks 5, 6; ff. 1, 2, 304, 305 are fly-leaves). Ruled and written in a good book hand, with rubrics, and with the smaller initials in gold, decorated with blue and mauve. Arts. 1 (b) and (c) are illustrated with eight half-page miniatures divided vertically, except the last, into two compartments, with architectural frames. The subjects, which have been indicated in the upper margin by a contemporary hand as a guide to the illuminator, are as follows:-

(i) l. The Mocking of Christ, r. The Resurrection. f. 3b;-(ii) l. Christ before Pilate, r. Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene. f. 4;-(iii) 1. The Scourging, r. Pentecost. f. 4b;-(iv) 1. The Crucifixion, r. The Annunciation. f. 5;-(v) l. The Death on the Cross, r. The Ascension. f. 5b;-(vi) l. The Descent from the Cross, r. The Last Supper. f. 6;-(vii) 1. The Agony in the Garden, r. The Burial. f. 6b;-(viii) The Crucifixion. f. 7. Art. 3 contains seven pages with large illuminated initials and full borders (foliage and very occasional grotesques), the first representing David with harp (ff. 39, 74, 97, 140b, 168, 192b, 219b). For the resemblance of the style of the illumination to that of Egerton MS. 1894 and Bodleian Library MS. Rawlinson G. 185 see Millar, op. cit., where ff. 4, 4b, 5b, 6, 39 of the present MS. are reproduced, and 0. Pächt, 'A Giottesque Episode in English Mediaeval Art', Journal of the Courtauld and Warburg Institutes, vi, 1943, pp. 51-70. On f. 2b is the erased 14th-cent. inscription 'P[re]c[ium] huius libr[i] clxvj s. iiii d'. Notes in ink of charges for painting, mostly trimmed off by the binder, appear at the foot of ff. 11b, 13b, 23b, 31b, 61b, 229b. Binding of brown leather on boards, 16th cent. Belonged, 19th cent. to the Clifford family, Barons Clifford, of Chudleigh, co. Devon, see G. Oliver, Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis, 1846, p. 36; the otherwise unsupported 18th-19th cent. attribution of medieval ownership to Tywardreath Priory in Cornwall (see the title on the spine and pencil note at f. 2b) suggests that it may have come to this family through the marriage of Charles, 6th Baron Clifford, with Eleanor Mary, daughter of Henry, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour Castle, see the references to other material from Tywardreath at Wardour in Hist. MSS. Commission, Second Report, 1870, App., pp. 33-36.

Add. MS. 44949 was presented in memory of Montagu Rhodes James by a body of thirty-nine of his friends whose names are recorded inside the front cover.