Cotton MS Vitellius F XI

This manuscript contains an illuminated Gallican Psalter, made in Ireland and dated to the first half of the 10th century (see Alexander, Insular Manuscripts (1978), no. 73).

The Psalter was badly damaged in the Ashburnham House Fire of 1731 and was initially believed to have been completely lost, the 1802 catalogue of the Cotton manuscripts in the British Museum describing it as 'desideratur' (destroyed). It was subsequently 're-discovered', shortly before 1850, and the pages were remounted under the direction of Sir Frederic Madden (b. 1801, d. 1873), Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum. The Psalter is now incomplete, the text comprising 137 of the Psalms, with many leaves lost at the beginning and end, and some leaves bound out of their original order (e.g. the two full-page miniatures of David and Goliath and David enthroned are now placed at the beginning of the manuscript rather than at the major divisions).

Before the fire, the manuscript had its own colophon, written in Irish, that was recorded by James Ussher (b. 1581, d. 1656), Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, in one of his notebooks in which he listed and collated surviving Gallican Psalters (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Add A 91). The transcribed colophon references an Abbot 'Muiredach', probably to be identified with Muiredach mac Domhnaill (d. c. 923), abbot of Monasterboice, an early Christian monastic settlement in County Louth (see O'Sullivan, 'The Colophon of the Cotton Psalter' (1996), 179-180). It has been noted that the Psalter's miniature of David killing Goliath (f. 1r) shows similarities with the same scene depicted on the east face of the High Cross of Muiredach, a large stone cross dating to the 9th or 10th century, and now located in the ruins of the monastic site (see Henry, 'Remarks on the decoration of three Irish Psalters' (1960), 27-33; Henry, Irish Art (1967), II, pp. 58-59).

According to the descriptions of the volume in the earliest catalogues of the Cotton collection (Harley MS 6018; Add MS 36682), the Psalter was once bound together with a charter of King Offa of Mercia (r. 757-796) now lost.

Contents:

ff. 1r-59v: Gallican Psalter with Canticles, incomplete, beginning at Psalm 9: 17 and ending at Psalm 146: 7.

Decoration:

The decoration of the Psalter follows a three-fold division, with decorated openings at Psalm 51 (f. 15r) and Psalm 102 (f. 38r), the first opening now wanting. On the style of the decoration and parallels with other Irish Psalters, see Henry, 'Remarks on the decoration of three Irish Psalters' (1960), 27-33; Openshaw, 'Symbolic illustration' (1992), 47-48.

2 full-page miniatures in colours, with frames containing panels of interlace and fretwork, depicting David killing Goliath (f. 1r) and David enthroned, playing a harp (f. 2r). The miniatures were once located at the openings of Psalms 51 and 102, where they faced framed initial pages (cf. The Southampton Psalter (Cambridge, St John's College, MS C.9); see Henry, 'Remarks' (1960), p. 31).

2 large zoomorphic initials set within full-page frames, containing panels of zoomorphic interlace and fretwork in colours, at the beginnings of Psalm 51 (f. 15r) and Psalm 102 (f. 38r).

Large 'strapwork' initials with zoomorphic decoration, made up of the bent bodies of ribbon-shaped animals and/or small animal-heads and legs, in black ink with coloured in-fill, some outlined with red dots, at the beginning of each Psalm.

Small initials in-filled with colour at the beginning of each Psalm verse.

Line-fillers. Rubrics.