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Add MS 18043
- Record Id:
- 032-002028523
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002028523
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000050.0x00034c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100064569172.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 18043
- Title:
-
Psalter with commentary in Latin
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript from the Benedictine abbey of Stavelot in the diocese of Liège contains a Psalter with commentary. It also contains songs for the liturgy (canticles), a litany of saints, including St Remaclus, the founder of Stavelot (c. 650), and an exposition on the Athanasian Creed. It is part of a group of manuscripts that was produced around the year 1000, probably during the abbacy of Ravanger II (r. 980-1007), and illuminated in a distinct Mosan style (Millar, The Library of A. Chester Beatty, I (1927), pp. 66-67; Nordenfalk, Codex Caesareus Upsaliensis (1971), pp. 141-42).
This manuscript highlights the importance of the Psalter both textually, through commentary that explains the significance of the individual Psalms, and visually, through decorated pages that highlight the Psalter’s threefold division. The Psalter supported the monks of Stavelot in performing their liturgical duties; the Benedictine Rule required them to communally recite the entire Book of Psalms every week. That this manuscript may have been used for communal worship is suggested by the fact that the Psalter has been combined with liturgical songs.
Contents:
ff. 4r-170v: A Latin Psalter with commentary following each of the Psalms, beginning imperfectly in Psalm 1:1 (fifth word).
ff. 170v-177r: Canticles: the Canticles of Isaiah, Hezekiah, Anna, Moses (Exodus), Habacuc, Moses (Deuteronomy), The Three Children (Benedicite), Ambrosius and Augustinus (Te Deum), Zechariah (Benedictus), the Virgin Mary (Magnificat), and Simeon (Nunc Dimittis).
ff. 177v-180r: A litany of saints, including St Remaclus, founder of Stavelot, and St Hadelin, his disciple.
f. 180v: The Pater Noster and Apostles Creed.
ff. 181r-186r: An exposition on the Athanasian Creed, ‘Fides Catholica Sancti Athanasii’.
The manuscript includes two later additions:
f. 1r: A 19th-century description of the manuscript (French).
ff. 2v-3r: An unidentified 14th-century (?) Latin document.
[ff. 1v, 2r and 3v are blank].
Decoration:
2 historiated initials on painted grounds within full-page borders, of David and Goliath and a crowned figure, at the beginning of Psalms 51 and 101 (ff. 64v and 114r). Full decorated border around the text beginning with the fifth word of Psalm 1 (abiit) (f. 4r); 2 large initials in colours and gold (f. 64v and f. 114r); large and small initials in red throughout the manuscript.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002028523", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 18043: Psalter with commentary in Latin" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002028523
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002028523
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100064569172.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0975
- End Date:
- 1024
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 10th century - 1st quarter of the 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 250 x 210 mm (text space: 200 x 140 mm).
Foliation: ff. 186 ( + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning +3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. 1 is a modern paper flyleaf; f. 2 and f. 3 and f. 187 originally were flyleaves; f. 3 is a stub; 1 unfoliated modern paper leaf between f. 1 and f. 2; the lower halves of f. 180 and f. 186 have been replaced with modern parchment leaves; f. 187 has been cut in two halves that have been rejoined with modern parchment (further repairs with modern parchment throughout the manuscript, e.g. f. 54).
Script: Carolingian minuscle.
Binding: Post-1600. Dark brown leather, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘PSALTERIUM GLOSSATUM CUM CANTICIS.’; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Stavelot, Southern Netherlands (now in Belgium).
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of Stavelot, founded around 650: the manuscript is recorded as a 'Psalterium glosatum' in a catalogue of Stavelot's manuscripts that has been dated to 1104 (Add MS 28106, Volume 1, f. 228v, ed. by Gottlieb, Über Mittelalterliche Bibliotheken (1890), p. 279 (no. 279)); a 15th-century ownership inscription on f. 187r (‘Psalterium glosatum spectans ad monasterium sancti Remacli stabulensis’); a 17th-century ownership inscription on f. 4r (‘Liber Monasterij Stabulensis’); a 19th-century description of the manuscript referring to Stavelot on f. 1r : ‘Manuscrit Provenant de l’abbaye de Stavelot’; owned until 1847 (the sale of its manuscripts).
Thomas Rodd the Younger (b. 1796, d. 1849), London bookseller: his sale, London, 4-9 February 1850, lot 756 (f. [iv] recto: ‘Purchased at Rodd’s Sale. at Sotheby’s Feb. 1850 (Lot 756.)’) for £53.00.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1848-1853 (London: Woodfall and Kinder, 1868), p. 74.
Walter De Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 3.
Theodor Gottlieb, Über Mittelalterliche Bibliotheken (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1890), p. 279 (no. 279).
James Douglas Bruce, 'The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Book of Psalms Commonly Known as the Paris Psalter', Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 9 (1894), 43-164 (pp. 138 n. 1, 146-47).
Joseph Halkin, ‘Inventaire des archives de l'abbaye de Stavelot-Malmedy’, Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, 5th series, 7 (Brussels: Hayez, 1897), 233-448 (p. 443 (no. 1104)).
Texts and Studies: Contributions to Biblical and Patristic Literature, ed. by Joseph Armitage Robinson, 9 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891-1922), IV (1896): Andrew Ewbank Burn, The Athanasian Creed Coptic Apocryphal Gospels The Old Latin and the Itala, pp. 3, 10-12.
Eric George Millar, The Library of A. Chester Beatty: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Western Manuscripts, 4 vols (London: Johnson at The Oxford University Press, 1927-1930), I: Manuscripts 1 to 43, Text, pp. 66-67 (no. 17).
André Boutémy, 'Nouvelles réflexions sur les Évangiles de Notger (l'activité artistique du Scriptorium de Stavelot au IXe et Xe siècles)', in Annales du XXXVIe congrès de la fédération des cercles d'archéologie et d'histoire de Belgique, 2 vols (Ghent: Fédération des cercles d'archéologie et d'histoire de Belgique, 1956) II, pp. 481-95.
Maurice Coens, ‘Les plus anciennes litanies de Stavelot’, Analecta Bollandiana, 75 (1957), 5-17 (pp. 5-6).
André Boutémy, ‘Le manuscrit à peintures’, in Trésors des anciennes abbayes de Stavelot-Malmedy et dépendances: Extraits du catalogue de l'exposition (Stavelot: n. pub., 1965), pp. 9-14.
Carl Nordenfalk, Codex Caesareus Upsaliensis: An Echternach Gospel-Book of the Eleventh Century, 2 vols (Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell, 1971), commentary volume, pp. 141-42.
Anton von Euw, ‘Zur Buchmalerei im Maasgebiet von den Anfängen bis zum 12. Jahrhundert’, in Rhein und Maas: Kunst und Kultur 800-1400: Eine Ausstellung der Schnütgen-Museen der Stadt Köln und der belgischen Ministerien für französische und niederländische Kultur vom 14 Mai bis 23 Juli 1972 in der Kunsthalle Köln; vom 15 September bis 31 Oktober 1972 in den Königlichen Museum für Kunst und Geschichte in Brussel, 2 vols (Cologne: n. pub., 1972-1973), II, pp. 343-360 (pp. 346, fig. 3 and 5).
Rainer Kahsnitz, Der Werdener Psalter in Berlin Ms. theol. lat. fol. 358: Eine Untersuchung zu Problemen mittelalterlicher Psalterillustration (Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1979), pp. 98 n. 40, 123, 130, 149 n. 184, 152, 154 n. 218, 155, 162, 164, 165-66 n. 282.
Marie-Rose Lapière, La lettre ornée dans les manuscrits mosans d'origine bénédictine, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de philosophie et lettres de l'Université de Liège, 229 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1981), pp. xxv, 250, 252 fig. 234, 410 (no. 131).
Roger Gryson, Altlateinische Handschriften/Manuscrits Vieux Latins 300-485, Vetus Latina 1/2B (Freiburg: Herder, 2004), p. 276 (no. 447).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
-
This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.