A Psalter is a liturgical manuscript that contains the Book of Psalms, and frequently includes other devotional material. As with this example, they often begin with a liturgical calendar that sets out the Psalms appointed for each day. In this calendar (fols 2r–7v), the most important feast dates are highlighted in red. These include the feasts of King Edward (18 March), St Anne (26 July) and King Edmund (20 November).

Many of the Psalms in this manuscript (including 1, 26, 38, 68, 80, 97 and 109) are decorated by impressive illuminated initials with foliate and floral ornamentation. After the Psalms are the ferial canticles (fols 117v-126v): hymns or chants that are performed on weekdays upon which there are no feasts to be celebrated.

The decoration of this manuscript is characteristic of a number of books associated with Winchester in the early 15^th century and was probably carried out by a bookseller in the city. There is no record of how the book entered the Fellows’ Library. It is therefore tempting to think, though ultimately unprovable, that it was originally for use in College Chapel.

 

Literature: Edward Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae in unum collecti, Vol. 2 (Oxford, 1697), p. 31, no. 1338; Walter Oakeshott, ‘Winchester College Library Before 1750’, The Library, vol. IX, no. 1 (1954), pp. 1–16, 15, no. 1; Neil R. Ker and Alan J. Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, Volume IV: Paisley–York (Oxford, 1969), pp. 608–09; Paul Yeats-Edwards, Winchester College (Warden and Fellows’ Library) Medieval Manuscript Collection: Brief History and Catalogue (London, 1978), p. 13; Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, 1390–1490, vol. 2 (London, 1996), p. 29.

Provenance: Unknown, first recorded at Winchester College in 1634.

Location: Fellows’ Library