Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Cotton MS Galba A XVIII, ff 2v-200v
- Record Id:
- 041-002363208
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000002023.0x0003de
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Galba A XVIII, ff 2v-200v
- Title:
-
Gallican Psalter with additions
- Scope & Content:
-
The Psalter, copied in the 1st half of the 9th century, contains:
ff. 30v-32r: Origin of the Prophet David.
ff. 32r-33r, 33v: Prefaces to the Psalter.
ff. 34v-162v: The Psalter in three divisions, beginning with Psalms 1, 51 and 101 and including the Psalm 'Pusillus eram' after Psalm 150.
ff. 163r-174v: Canticles, hymns and prayers, including the Gloria, Creed and the Lord's Prayer.
Additions made in the 2nd half of the 9th century:
ff. 22r-30r, 33r, 34r, 174-177v: Prayers, with obituaries of Charlemagne and other Carolingian rulers on f. 28r, which was originally a flyleaf.
Additions made in the 1st half of the 10th century:
ff. 2v, 21r and 120v: Three full-page images (see Decoration below for descriptions).
ff. 3r-14v: Metrical calendar of saints' days, the 'Hampson calendar' (see McGurk 'Metrical Calendar' (1986), 79-125), with part of a short poem on the months and with the death of King Alfred recorded on 26th October and his wife Ealswith on 5th December 902.
ff. 15r-20v: Computus for the years 532-1007.
ff. 178r-199v: Prayers to accompany each Psalm: the 'Romana' series of Psalter collects.
ff. 199v-200v: The Litany in Greek, transliterated into Latin.
Decoration:
3 full-page miniatures in colours, 2 in frames with acanthus decoration (ff. 2v, 21r) and 1 in a plain rectangular frame (f. 120v). 2 further images are now detached from the manuscript; one is lost (the Crucifixion, visible from paint-rubbing on the facing folio to psalm LI (f. 81r) and the other, of the Virgin Mary, is now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson B. 484 (S.C. 11831), f. 85. 3 full-page initials in colours with gold outlines, in-filled with interlace and foliate patterns (ff. 35r, 121r) one supported on a lion's back (f. 80r). 12 roundels with signs of the Zodiac, images of saints in square frames and initials with zoomorphic and foliate decoration, one for each month of the calendar (ff. 3r-14v). Computus tables ruled in red (ff. 18r-20v). Numerous initials in-filled in red, blue or red and blue. Display script in red or gold (e.g. f. 32r).
The subjects of the 3 full-page miniatures are:
f. 2v: Christ in Majesty with the instruments of the Passion, surrounded by angels and prophets, with disciples beneath.
f. 21r: Christ in Majesty with saints, nuns, martyrs and confessors.
f. 120v: The Ascension with the Virgin Mary, 'viri Galilei' (men of Gallilee) and angels.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102765
041-002363208 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Galba A XVIII : Gallican Psalter (‘Athelstan’ or ‘Galba Psalter’), with additions including a metrical calendar, computistical…
Cotton MS Galba A XVIII, ff 2v-200v : Gallican Psalter with additions - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0672]/040-001102765[0001]/041-002363208
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- Item
- Extent:
- Part of a parchment codex, 199 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Galba_A_XVIII (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Greek
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0800
- End Date:
- 0849
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Script:
ff. 22r–177v: Carolingian minuscule.
ff. 2v–21r, 178r–200v: (additions of the 10th century), Insular minuscule.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
ff. 22–119, 121–177: North-East France.
ff. 1–21, 120, 178–200: England.
Provenance:
? Old Minster, Winchester: according to tradition, given by Aethelstan (b. 893/4, d. 939), King of England.
Thomas Dakcombe (d. c. 1572), a Winchester priest, his note of 1542 that this manuscript was owned by Athelstan (f. 1r).
John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley (b. c. 1533, d. 1609), collector and conspirator: in his catalogue of 1609 (see Jayne and Johnson, The Lumley Library (1956), no 755).
Henry Frederick, prince of Wales (b. 1594, d. 1612), eldest child of James I: listed by Cotton as among 'Books I want' from the collection of John Lumley or Prince Henry (c. 1609-1612) in Harley MS 1879, 130.21 (see Colin G. C. Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), pp. 74-75).
- Publications:
-
Alexander, J. J. G., Insular Manuscripts: 6th to the 9th Century: A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), pp. 46, 81.
Backhouse, Janet, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 9.
Bischoff, Bernhard and Michael Lapidge, eds., Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 10 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 146, 168-9, 171-2.
Boutemy, André, 'Un manuscrit rémois peu connu du British Museum: Les Évangiles D’Eller', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 23 (1969), 1-12 (p. 2).
Deshman, Robert, ‘The Galba Psalter: Pictures, Texts and Context in an Early Medieval Prayerbook’, in Eye and Mind: Collected Essays in Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Art by Robert Deshman, ed. by Adam Cohen (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2010; originally published in Anglo-Saxon England, 26 (1997), 109–38), pp. 35-57
Gneuss, Helmut, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Tempe, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), no. 334.
Jayne, Sears and Francis R. Johnson, eds., The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609 (London: British Museum, 1956), no. 755.
Ker, N.R., ed., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 200.
Keynes, Simon, ‘King Athelstan’s books’, in Michael Lapidge & Helmut Gneuss (eds.), Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies presented to Peter Clemoes on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 193–96.
Koehler, Wilhelm and Florentine Mütherich, eds., Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, 6 vols (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1930-99), 6 Die Schule von Reims, 2 vols (1994-99), I Von den anfängen bis zur mitte des 9. Jahrhunderts, esp. pp. 167-71 [with additional bibligraphy].
Lapidge, Michael, ed., Anglo-Saxon Litanies of the Saints, Henry Bradshaw Society, cvi (London: Boydell, 1991), pp. 13–25, 70–71, 172–73.
Marsden, Richard, ‘The Old Testament in Late Anglo-Saxon England: Preliminary observations on the Textual Evidence’, in The Early Medieval Bible: Its Production, Decoration and Use (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 101-24 (p. 108 n. 42).
McGurk, Patrick, ed., 'The Metrical Calendar of Hampson. A new edition', Analecta Bollandia, 104 (1986) pp. 79-125.
McKendrick, Scot, & Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), fig. 33.
McKendrick, Scot, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 3 [exhibition catalogue].
Pfaff, Richard W., The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 69.
Rella, F. A., 'Continental Manuscripts acquired for English Centres in the Tenth and Early Eleventh Centures: A Preliminary Checklist', Anglia, 98 (1980), no. 12.
Temple, Elzbieta, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066 (London: Harvey Millar, 1976), no. 5, pp. 11, 39, 42, 44, 48, 49, 94, 104, 107.
Watson, Andrew G., ‘A sixteenth-century collector: Thomas Dackomb, 1496-c.1572’, The Library (1963), 204-17 (p. 212, no. 5).
Watson, Andrew G., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 532.
Wilmart, André, The Psalter Collects From V-Vith Century Sources, Louis Brou (ed.), Henry Bradshaw Society, 83 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1949), pp. 46-47 (as 'C').
Wood, Michael, ' "Stand strong against the monsters": kingship and learning in the empire of King Æthelstan', in Lay intellectuals in the Carolingian World, Patrick Wormald and Janet L. Nelson (eds.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 192-217 (pp. 206-08).
Wood, Michael, 'A Carolingian Scholar in the court of King Æthelstan' in England and the Continent in the Tenth Century: Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947), David Rollason, Conrad Leyser and Hannah Williams (eds.) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), pp.135-62 (pp. 152-57).
Wormald, Francis, 'An English Eleventh-Century Psalter with Pictures: British Museum, Cotton MS Tiberius C. VI', Walpole Society, 38 (1962), 1-14, pls 1-30 (p. 3).
Wood, Michael, 'King Athelstan's Psalter (BL Cotton Galba A. xviii)' in 1000 Years of Royal Books and Manuscripts, ed. by Kathleen Doyle and Scot McKendrick (London: The British Library, 2013), pp. 37-55.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)