Cambridge. Cambridge University Library, MS Ff.1.23
- Source
- Cambridge Digital Library
- Library
- Cambridge. Cambridge University Library
- Shelfmark
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- MS Ff.1.23
- Biblissima authority file
- Date
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- 11th century, possibly second quarter
- Language
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- Latin
- Old English
- Title
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- Table of incipits
- Prayers and Supplications
- Roman Psalter
- Canticles
- Litany
- Prayers
- see more
- Agent
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- Preferred form
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- Nicholas Bacon (1509-1579?)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- Sir Nicholas Bacon
- Bacon, Nicholas, Sir, 1509-1579
- Other form
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- Nicholas Bacon
- Bacon, Nicholas, Sir
- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Matthew Parker (1504-1575)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- Matthew Parker (1504-1575)
- Parker, Matthew, 1504-1575
- Other form
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- [Matthew Parker]
- Matthew Parker
- Matthew Parker archbishop of Canterbury
- Archbishop Matthew Parker
- Parker, Matthew (1504-1575)
- see more
- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Description
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Cambridge University Library MS Ff.1.23, known as the Winchcombe Psalter, principally comprises a copy of the Psalms in Latin and Old English, dated between 1025 and 1050. In addition, the manuscript contains two sets of prayers on folios 4r and 276r-281v); Canticles, on folios 251r-274r, and a Litany (folios 274r-276r). A sixteenth-century table of incipits has been added on folios 2v-3r.
Evidently conceived as a bilingual Psalter, a striking feature of the manuscript is the parity that is accorded the Old English and Latin texts. Far from merely providing an interlinear gloss, the alternating Old English text has been properly ruled and written in a script almost as big as the Latin. Written in black and red respectively, the alternation of the Latin and Old English forms a pleasing balance on the manuscript page, underscoring the extent to which the two languages were seen as an equally valid means of presenting the holy text.
The manuscript’s illumination, characterised by successive scholars as "crude" (Kendrick, 1949) and "mediocre" (Gameson, 1995) comprises full page miniatures and decorative initials that are yet engaging and inventive. Four miniatures preceding Psalms 1, 51, 101 and 109 show, respectively, David playing the harp (folio 4v), Christ’s Crucifixion (folio 88r), Christ in majesty (folio 171r) and Christ trampling the beasts (folio 195v). The Crucifixion miniature, which may be compared to other near-contemporary examples such as those in the Ramsay Psalter (London, British Library, MS Harley 2904); the Aelfwine Prayerbook (London, British Library, MS Cotton Titus D XXVII) and the Judith of Flanders Gospels (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 709), shows John as an eyewitness to Christ’s death, recording his account of the Crucifixion ("Et ego vidi et testimonium") on a writing tablet.
Initial decoration, which is abundant throughout the manuscript, is, on occasion, very innovative, showing a fluidity of form and execution that offers a counterpoint to the heaviness of the foliate frames used in the full-page miniatures. Initials made into the shape of acrobatic figures, as in the letter ‘M’ on folio 169v, or the ‘C’ on folio 13v, showcase an artistic ability to adapt the shape of the letters to a particular theme: the grace of the floating and tumbling bodies picked up in the arched backs of the angels above Christ’s mandorla in the full-page miniature on folio 171r. Elsewhere in the manuscript, and unusually, there are realistic attempts to depict human faces, as in that of a monk on folio 224r.
Though not the highest grade of work, either in script or artistic execution, the manuscript can still be counted amongst the most important illuminated Psalters of the late Anglo-Saxon period. Its relationship to other manuscripts produced during or after the Benedictine Reform, both artistically and in terms of liturgical content, remains a topic for further investigation, and promises to reveal much more about the production and reception contexts for late Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.
Elizabeth Wright, University of York
- Place
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- Preferred form
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- Winchcombe Abbey (United Kingdom) (?)
- Original form
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- Possibly Winchcombe or Canterbury
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- Preferred form
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- Canterbury (Kent, United Kingdom) (?)
- Original form
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- Possibly Winchcombe or Canterbury
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- Rights
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- Provided by Cambridge University Library. Zooming image © Cambridge University Library, All rights reserved. Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0) This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
- Digitisation
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