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NOTICE OF A MANUSCRIPT OF THE LATIN

PSALTER,

WRITTEN BY JOHN, BROTHER OF RHYDDMARCH, BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S, TO WHOM IT BELONGED.

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THE various specimens of Palæography given above are copied from a small MS. of the Psalter preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, (No. A. 4. 20,) which, from the historical circumstances of its origin, recorded in some verses at the end of the volume, must, it is presumed, render it especially interesting to Cambrian Archæologists.

The manuscript is written upon vellum, measuring six and a quarter inches by four and a quarter, and one inch and three quarters thick, each leaf of the text containing twenty-four lines, two of which are given in the above facsimile. It commences with the spurious Epistles of St. Jerome to Choromatius and Eliodorus, with notices of the apostles, and explanations of their names; a very long and interesting calendar and lunar tables, partly written in Greek capitals, and several of the epistles and prefaces of St. Jerome. To these succeed the Psalter, in which it is to be noticed that the apocryphal psalm of David, when he fought against Goliath, commencing "Pusillus eram inter fratres meos et adolescentior in domu patris mei," which so frequently occurs

in the early Psalters, is here wanting. At the end of the volume is a page of Latin verses, more particularly noticed below, and another containing extracts from Bede, on the Psalter. Three of the psalms, namely, the 1st, 51st, and 101st, (forming the headings of the three divisions of the Psalter,) have two or three of the first verses illuminated, each occupying the entire page, the initial being of large size, and the remainder of the page written in capital letters with ornamental borders. Besides these, the initial letter of each psalm is large, and ornamented in a remarkable manner, and the text itself is written in minuscule letters, with numerous contractions. The peculiar character of the scription of the MS. will be perceived from the two lines copied in the above fac-simile, which are to be read:

that is,

Insr appendit orbe qui ñ comovebit

Firmum soliu tuu ex te ab etño tu es.

Insuper appendit orbem qui non commovebitur
Firmum solium tuum ex tunc ab eterno tu es.
Psalm lxxxii. 2, 3.

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The large letters IN and F, at the beginning of the two lines, agree with the Welsh, Irish, and early Anglo-Saxon capitals, and are used at the commencement of the verses, whilst the long tailed n (r) and r (s), the angular a, the elevated top of the e, and the form of the d, t, x, and b, indicate their Irish or Welsh origin. This particular form of the letters is called by Astle, "set Saxon," with the observation that it "was used in Wales longer than in England"; but the historical circumstances by which Wales and Ireland were so long and intimately united, and the long correspondence maintained between the ecclesiastics of both countries, is sufficient to show that it is not from an Anglo-Saxon school that these letters were derived. The form of the letter r in the word orbem is peculiar, and was a late introduction.

Each psalm commences with a large and singularly formed capital letter, three of which, namely C, D, E, are copied in the wood cut at the commencement of the article. It will be perceived that they are formed of thick intertwining strokes which terminate in dogs' heads, the open spaces being coloured in patches of red, yellow, or green, as indicated above, by the proper heraldic shading. Such peculiarly formed letters are of very rare occurence, as I only know of two or three MSS.

in which they are met with, namely a MS. of Saint Augustine's treatise on the Trinity, in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, a Psalter in the Cottonian Library, Galba, A 5, and a MŠ. of the Psalter in the Library at Rouen, which has greatly perplexed the French Archeologists as to its origin, but which I doubt not was either Irish or Welsh, and perhaps a century earlier than the MS. before us.

The line of capitals given above is copied from one of the three illuminated pages, namely, that containing the commencement of the 51st psalm. These pages are altogether palæographic curiosities, and the one before us (which I have copied in my Palæographia Sacra Pictoria) is ornamented in a manner which at once calls to mind the style of illumination of the early and fine Irish MSS. of the Gospels. The initial Q. (quid) is of a large size, and occupies the chief part of the left hand side of the page, being formed of a monstrous animal with an extraordinarily elongated and interlaced top knot, and with the lower part of the tail of the Q terminating in a pair of legs and a tail. In the middle of the top margin of the page is the great head of a monstrous animal with widely opened jaws, the body of which forms a margin nearly an inch broad along the right hand side and bottom of the page, and is turned up at the left hand bottom corner, where it also terminates in a long interlaced tail and a pair of legs; but the body of the animal itself is strangely ornamented, being filled up with a quantity of long lacertine creatures twining and interlacing with one another, one of which is given in the wood cut.1

With respect to the version of the psalms employed in this MS., it is curious to learn from the following passages that it agrees with the Hebraic, or Jerome's own translation, made immediately from the Hebrew in the year 391, which, although of great esteem, was never used in the public Church offices.

1 The same kind of creatures occur in the fine early Gospels of Mac Regol, St. Chad, and also those at St. Gall; but in the drawing before us there is a peculiarity which is also found in the Harleian Gospels, No. 1802, and other later Irish MSS., namely the foldings of the tails and top-knots are parallel to and touch one another, so as to leave none of the back ground visible. The text in these illuminated pages is entirely written in capitals similar to those in the row given in the above fac-simile, which it will be perceived are of various origin; some, as the first A, the first C, and the second G, being of the form met with in the old carved stones in Wales, and in very ancient MSS. both Irish and Anglo-Saxon; whilst others, especially the second A, are purely Roman, this letter and the N partaking of the form which is termed Rustic capitals.

NOTICE OF A MANUSCRIPT

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But the circumstance connected with this volume, which gives to it its chief interest, consists in some verses written at the end of the psalms, agreeing in the character of the scription with the rest of the volume, whence its origin is clearly established. They commence thus:

Filius Isai David cui patria Bethlem

Pastor crismatus ter, miles, rex, citharedus
Ymnidics, psalmista potens, cantorque propheta
Gesta canit, Plōs erudit moribus altor (vel nutritor),
Sponsu dat thalamo cui spons pacifer uno

Trea contempnit, vultus ad sidera tollit.

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Ergo in nra q dicor gente Ricemarchi
Sulgeni genitus necñ Johannis adelphus
Ithael asscripsit Studium, cui ñ iaurat
Psalmoru pceres depinxit rite Johannes,

Ille sit inscriptus gemma sub pectore vatis (vel sacerdotis)
He capiat hirubin templi pictra sub alis .., 1

The following verses are by Ricemarch, son of Sulgen, in which he commends Jerome's translation of the Psalter, for ascending to the pure source of the Hebrew Scriptures, instead of following other translators, who, at second hand, "darkened the Hebrew sunbeams with their Latin cloud."

Ebræis nablam custodit litera signis:

Pro captu quam quisque, suo sermone Latino,
Edidit, innumeros linguâ variante libellos;
Ebræumque jubar suffuscat nube Latinâ :
Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia labra saporem.
Sed sacer Hieronymus, Ebræo fonte repletus,
Lucidius nudat verum, breviusque ministrat
Namque secunda creat, nam tertia vascula vitat.
Usher, Appendix, p. 135.

These verses, taken in conjunction with the above-mentioned fact, that the Hebraic version was adopted in the Psalter before us, clearly prove the anxiety of this good man to study the word of God in its pure state.

For the following particulars relating to Bishop Sulgen or Sulien, and his family, I am chiefly indebted to the Rev. John Williams, the author of a most interesting work on the early Church of Wales.

1 I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Todd, of Trinity College, Dublin, for a copy of these lines.

ARCHÆOL. CAMB. VOL. I.]

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