The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Takako Kato

Glasgow, University of Glasgow Library, Hunter 229

Charm for an amulet to cure epilepsy

Date: s. xii2

Summary:

An elaborately illuminated English psalter containing an illustrated calendar, full-page illustrations of Old and New Testament scenes and Psalms from the Gallicanum version of the Vulgate text.

On the last page of the book is an inscription from c. 1200 giving instruction in Latin 'for the preparation and administration of an amulet for the cure of epilepsy: the amulet is to be sanctified at the altar at the Mass of the Holy Ghost and then suspended from the neck of someone afflicted with epilepsy or perhaps in danger of death' (Gardham 2007). There is a charm in Old English. Brown and Voigts (1980) describe this as 'an abracadabra function'.

There are also Latin prayers for a female supplicant (s. xiii), of whose word endings are later changed to masculine plural, and also considerable amount of marginalia in French throughout (Gardham 2007).

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: fol. 210v

   Title (B.23.1.19.EM): Prose Charm

   Incipit: (fol. 210v) + usy + begete + agala + lentotan + domnes + cibu + glaes +.+.

   Date: c. 1200

   Bibliography:

   A transcription is available in Brown and Voigts 1980

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Parchment, arranged HHFF.

Extent:

290 mm x 186 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

216 mm x 114 mm (dimensions of majority of text - size of written space)

20 mm x 35 mm (dimensions of OE text - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: Partial, modern foliation in pencil. Foliation in modern pen in the middle of the bottom margin of the last folio of each quire.

Layout description:

Ruling is by plummet for single columns of 21 lines, apart from the Kalendar which is in 35 lines. The ruling lines are faint.

Hand description:

Number of hands: 1 in English

Hand: Addition
• Scope: Minor
• Script: Diplomatic hand
• Ker reference: n.a.
• Description: fol. 210v. It lacks angularity and biting.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• a is in the rounded insular form; Caroline a is used for Latin, but sometimes the insular a appears in Latin too.
• The ascender of d curves backwards to the right at the top.
• Caroline g with a round top and a flat triangular loop.
• Long s is almost in shape of capital letter 'S', with its descender curving to the left.
• descenders drastically curve to the left.
• Litterae Notabiliores:
• Tironian nota with a crossbar, which looks like 'Z'. Cross-marks are used to punctuate.
• Language: Corrupted Old English as 'an abracadabra function' within a charm (Brown and Voigts 1980).
• Date: c. 1200

Decoration Description:

Lavishly decorated throughout. The calendar is illustrated by historiated 'KL's, the zodiac signs, and the saints' days are listed in coloured inks. After the calendar are thirteen full-page minatures 'intended to open the surface of the psalms for further enquiry, even revelation' (Greenland 1997). The Psalms each begin with an historiated or decorated initial, and gilt letters begin every verse (see Gardham 2007 for more detail and images, and University of Glasgow Manuscripts Catalogue for a complete list of illuminations).

Binding Description:

s. xvii. Millboards, covered crimson morocco, richly gilt-tooled inside margins, edges and sides, panelled back. Entitled 'PSALTERIUM | UETUS | IN MEMBRANIS'.

History:

Origin: Unknown, although it has been suggested that the manuscript might have been made in a scriptorium in the South East of England (Canterbury?), and that it is probably not a monastic production (Gardham 2007). Stirneman (1999) argues that it was probably produced in the same scriptorium as Copenhagen, Royal Library MS. Thott 143 by different artists with access to the same models.

Provenance: Previously known as The York Psalter. As there are a number of Northern saints' days marked in the calendar, it has been traditionally ascribed a Northern provenance. The presence of John of Beverley (Archbishop of York, d. 721) and Paulinus (Bishop of York, d. 644) in the Litany supports this argument. Greenland (1997) argues that the manuscript was possibly made for Roger de Mowbray (d. 1188), a Yorkshire magnate who founded over thirty mainly Augustinian and Cistercian monasteries and nunneries.

Acquisition: Hunter acquired the manuscript at the sale of the library of Louis-Jean Gaignat in Paris, 10th April 1769. His French agent, Jean B. Dessain, bought it for fifty livres and one sou. It was acquired by the University of Glasgow in 1807 with the rest of the Hunter library (Gardham 2007).

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Takako Kato with the assistance of Hollie Morgan (August 2010) and Johanna Green (September 2012). Thanks are due to David Weston for granting access to the manuscript.

Surrogates:

Gardham, Julie, 'The Hunterian Psalter', in Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department Book of the Month (2007) (http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/may2007.html, accessed in 12 March 2010), fol. 210v is available.

---, 'The Hunterian Psalter; A Selection of Images from Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 229 (U. 3. 2)', in University of Glasgow, Special Collections (Glasgow, 2007) (http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/psalter/psalterindex.html, accessed 12 March 2010)

Bibliography:

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Brown, J. H., and Linda E. Voigts, 'University of Glasgow, Hunter MS. U.3.2., f. 210v', Old English Newsletter, 14 (1980), 12-13

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