Volume 1

Catalogue of the Stowe manuscripts in the British Museum.

  • British Museum. Department of Manuscripts (Stowe MSS)
Date:
1895-1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Catalogue of the Stowe manuscripts in the British Museum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a bequest of the volume by John Chevrot de PoHgnac, Bishop of Toumay [1437-1460], to his godson John, son of Peter Falquerius, dated 1458, and attested by the signature “ De Butoville.” Below is the signature “ Le Gouz,” as subsequent owner, and on f. 1 is the inscription “ dono et liberalitate DD. Le Goux (sic), fratrum, haeredum Domini de Vallepelle Patris, in supremo Burgundiae senatu Advocati Generalis [Guillaume Le Gouz, Seigneur of Velle- pesle and Gurgy, near Auxerre, appointed Advocate General to the Parlement of Burgundy in 1586, cf. Palliot, Parlement de Bourgogne, p. 340], anno 1615, 1 octob.” Small Folio. 2. PsALTEE, in Latin of the Vulgate version, with interlined Saxon glosses. At the end of each psalm a prayer is added, identical with those in the similar and contemporary Cotton MS. Tib. C. vi. The Psalms are followed by the Canticles (f. 168 b), which are incomplete, two leaves having been cut out at the end. The glosses appear to be contemporary with the Latin text. Vellum; ff. 180. xith cent. English half-uncials; the titles of the Psalms in red rustic capitals. One large ornamental initial letter, at the beginning of Psalm i., closely resembling the corre- sponding letter in Tib. C. vi.; elsewhere plain coloured initials. In the margins ritual directions and antiphons have occasionally been added in a 15th-cent. hand. On f. 9 is written the name of “Kateryn Eudston,” in a 16th-cent. hand. The MS. belonged to Sir Henry Spelman, whose autograph is on ff. 1 and_180 b, and the text of it was published by his son, Sir J. Spelman (Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum vetus, a Johanne Spelmanno D. Hen. fit. editum, e vetustissimo exemplari MS. in bibliotheca ipsius Henrici, et cum tribus aliis non minus vetustis collatum, Londini, 1640). The official imprimatur for this edition, on behalf of the Bishop of London, is at the end of the MS. (f. 180 b), dated 17 May, 1638. Subsequently the MS. belonged to T. Astle, who refers to it (as “ King Alfred’s Psalter ”) in his Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 86, and plate xix. no. 6, and erroneously assigns it to about the year 880. Bound in leather (17th cent.), with tooled borders. Small Folio. 3. The Four Gospels, in Latin: Vulgate version. Preceded by the prologue “ Plures fuisse ” (f. 9), and the Epistle of St. Jerome to Pope Damasus, “ Novum opus facere ” (f. 10). Each Gospel is pre- ceded by its usual argument (“ Matheus ex iudea,” etc.), and by a “ breviariuin ” or table of chapters; but while St. Mark and St. Luke are divided into the usual number of 46 and 94 chapters respectively, St. Matthew and St. John are divided into the smaller