YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 191 Germany, s. XII^^ex
Psalter, etc.
1. ff. 1r-175v Biblical psalter beginning defectively in Ps. 9.11
and missing Pss. 51.1-53.1 after f. 56, and Pss. 67.29-68.4 after f.
72; text occasionally interrupted by "Gloria patri. Sicut." as, e.g.,
after Pss. 9.19, 17.25, 36.26. Several later 15th-century hands have
traced over faded portions of the text and added antiphons (some with
neumes) and ferial divisions in the margins.
2. ff. 175v-194r (no break in text) Six ferial canticles (Audite
celi [f. 182v] is divided at "Ignis succensus est"), Benedicte,
Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis ("Canticum Simeonis"), Te deum
("Ymnus Ambrosij"), Quicumque uult ("Fides catholica").
3. ff. 194r-198v Litany and prayers; in the first set of 27 martyrs
Pantaleon (18), Gereon (26); in the second set of 11 martyrs Ewald (2),
Lambert (4), Nabor and Felix (9, 10), Oswald (11); among the 26
confessors Eucharius (12), Valerius (13), Maternus (14), Willibrord
(15), Cunibert (16), Heribert (17), Ludger (18), Suitbert (19),
Benedict (20), Maurus (21), Columban (22), Gallus (23), Simeon (25);
among the 19 virgins Walburgis (15), Ursula (18), Cordula (19), 11,000
Virgins (20).
4. ff. 199r-207v Hours of the Virgin, use unidentified (large
portions of the text have been effaced, and others have been written
over in a later hand, s. xv); antiphons and capitula at Prime and None
are [ant. at Prime erased], Ego sapiencia [rewritten?], Sub tuum
presidium, Transite ad me.
5. ff. 207v-210v Office of the Dead; lessons and responses at Matins
are: Lectio I. Ne des alienis honorem, Resp. Credo quod; Lectio
secunda. Melius est nomen bonum, Resp. Qui lazarum; Lectio
iii^^a,
Memento creatoris tui; Resp. Domine quando.
Parchment (ff. 56v-57r palimpsest?), ff. i (later paper) + 210 +
ii (later paper), 189 x 120 (147 x 94) mm. Written in 16 long lines;
double vertical and horizontal bounding lines, full across; ruled in
lead.
I-VII^^8, VIII^^8 (-1, 2), IX^^8, X^^8 (-3), XI^^8, XII^^10,
XIII-XIV^^8, XV^^12 (-3, no loss of text), XVI^^10 (-3, no loss of text),
XVII-XX^^10, XXI^^4, XXII-XXIII^^8, XXIV^^8 (-7), XXV^^10 (-1), XXVI^^6
(-4, 5, 6).
Written by a single scribe in well formed late caroline minuscule,
above the top line. Marginal notes, some with neumes above them (e.g.
ff. 63v, 65r), in several later hands have been partially lost due to
trimming.
Initials for text divisions, 11-line (f. 115r: Ps. 101) and 7-line
(f. 22r: Ps. 26, f. 40r: Ps. 38, f. 93r: Ps. 80, f. 112v: Ps. 97, f.
133r: Ps. 109), gold, with symmetrical gold tendril ornament,
occasionally with dragon-head terminals, against green and mauve
panelled grounds covered with dense red cross-hatching set in red and
mauve frames. 7- to 2-line initials for other Psalms, red or green with
red and/or green flourishes. 1-line initials for verses, alternating
red and green. Headings in red and/or green throughout.
Binding: s. xvi. Resewn on four tawed, slit straps. Wooden boards
chamfered and indented. Edges gilt. The spine is square and now lined
with cloth. Covered in dark brown calf, blind-stamped with portraits of
saints (one of whom may be Rochus) and fleurons in concentric panels
[?]; very little of the earlier cover remaining. Clasp-and-catch
fastening, the catch on the upper board, the brown leather straps
attached through metal plates to the lower. Rebacked with one half of
the leather on the boards replaced with old leather from another book.
Catches and clasps wanting. Upper sewing supports broken.
Written in the Rhineland at the end of the twelfth century; the
saints in the litany indicate with near certainty that the manuscript
is from the diocese of Trier. An inscription from the 16th century
inside front cover: "Diss boich is Marien Van Der ie [? partially
covered by paper] genant Erlenbach" suggests the book belonged to a
member of the important family von der Ecken, prominent in Trier from
the 15th to the 17th century; perhaps she was a member of a Trier
convent. [We thank J.-C. Muller and J. Schiffauer for this
information.] Unidentified bookstamp on f. 1r: "G. W. B. I." Purchased
from Bernard Rosenthal by Thomas E. Marston who presented it to Yale
in 1955.
secundo folio: [inpi]us incenditur
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 38, no. 191.
Barbara A. Shailor