Psalter

Calendar leaf f.1 (Jan) was studied using fluorescent light and the very faint marginal inscription on the right hand side of page, opposite 16 Jan, appears to read "Obitus Henrici de Shrel..patris mei" (see Manion p.119).

ff.1-6v Calendar; ff.7-174v psalter with short introduction to each psalm, interpreting it in prophetic terms which relate to Christ and the Church, with decorated initials 'B' Beatus vir (f.7.), 'D' Dixi Custodiam (f.48v), 'D' Dixit insipiens custodiam (f.64), 'S' Salvum me fac deus (f.80),'E' Exultate deo (f.99), 'C' Cantate domino (f.117), 'D' Dixit dominus (f.136); ff.174v-175 non-canonical psalm 151; ff.175-192v canticles and prayers; ff.192v-197v litany including SS. Edward, Edmund, Oswald, Swithun, Dunstan, Botulph, Francis, Dominic, Clare, Genevieve, Walberga, Affra [sic], followed by a list of monastic sins; ff.197v-199v collects; ff.199v-200 Veni creator spiritus.

Source of title - Supplied title

Single column, 20 lines, ruled in red ink, written space 114 x 65 mm, written in dark-brown ink in a well-formed gothic liturgical hand, rubrics and Psalm numbers in bright red. Some medieval and later scribbled additions.

Quantity: 1 volume(s).

Physical Description: Vellum, 201 leaves (last originally blank), bound; 194 x 129mm. Single column, 20 lines, ruled in red ink, written space 114 x 65 mm, written in dark-brown ink in a well-formed gothic liturgical hand, rubrics and Psalm numbers in bright red. Some medieval and later scribbled additions.

Finding Aids: Manion, M.M. Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in New Zealand collections, no. 135; Taylor, D. M. The Oldest manuscripts in New Zealand, no. 25.

Connolly, Margaret. "A London widow's psalter: Beatrice Cornburgh and Alexander Turnbull Library MS MSR-01", in Sources, exemplars, copy-texts: influence and transmission, ed. William Marx, special issue of Trivium, 31 (1999):101-116..

Provenance: Executed in England (probably London) in the first quarter of the 15th century. A first owner has recorded in the calendar the obits of his father, brother, wife and eldest son:"Obitus henrici de Shrel[..] patris mei" ( 16 January, cropped and erased), "Obitus Willelmi fratris mei" (21 June), "Obitus Elizabethe consortis mee" (29 August, partially erased), and "obitus Ricardi primogenti m[..]" (17 November, cropped and partially erased). Given by Beterice Carneburgh to the Franciscan abbey of nuns of the Virgin and St Francis without Aldgate, London, the donation inscription (f.2) asking the nuns to pray for the names entered as obits in the calendar "M[emoran]d[um] that this Sawter was gevyn by Beterice Carneburgh unto Dame Grace Centurio to have it to her for terme of her lyfe and aftir her discesse to remayne unto what syster of the meneres that it shall plese the seme grace to gyf it nev[er] to be gevyn awey solde nor lent but onely to the meneres, they to pray p[er]petually for the sawles named in this present Sawter". Sideways on f.201v in a 16th century italic hand is an inscription "Nouton in Nor: one myle from Danitrier/either to William Carter, or William Cartwright, Clearlie of the kitchin: uppon one of the Easter Holydaies"; at top of ff.1 and 200 are part of some accounts in a tiny 16th-century hand; a pasted-in label reads "Bernard Edward/Duke of Norfolk"; armorial bookplate of J.G. Leeming, and a faint erased pencil inscription apparently signed by Leeming and dated 1889. Later belonged to Mrs Harvey Staunton of London and was lot 202 in her sale, Sotheby's 27 July 1925; purchased by Albert Clemas and sold by him to the British and Foreign Bible Society of New Zealand in 1933.