Psalterium cum canticis (Caxton): London, British Library, IA.55038

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Material: Paper

Size: 205 mm x 139 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

Collation:

Without the first leaf.

Rubrication and decorated initials:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Hand:

initials

Hand decoration:

throughout.

Additions:

'The text has been corrected throughout in manuscript, sometimes with erasure, in two hands of the late 15th or early 16th century. On the recto and verso of the last blank (y8) is a passage describing the seven masses of St Giles, written in anotehr early hand, beginning "Saint giles command to kyng chrles [i.e. Charlemagne] [...] and followed by the text of accompanying prayers in Latin. Below this, on y8v, is affixed a cut in the form of a triangular fret or knot held by a chain, coloured by hand in red, green, and yellow. The same device, without the chain, is drawn in pen and ink on a7a and b8a. A similar knot appears, repeated several times, in the standard of Thomas Tyrell or Tyrrell of Gipping, Suffolk (see Banners (1904), p. 129) The motto 'Croynge que vodera [...] is written in hte bottom margin of u8b in a 16th-century hand. The small circular engravings of subjects from the life of Chirst are affixed to margin or initial spaces. They are identified as the work of Master E. S., retouched at a later date. See Earler (1992), pp. 188-91, and fig. 2'. (BMC, 123-24)

Binding Description:

'Bound in the British Museum bindery in 19th-century brown morocco, tooled in gold and blind. The spine is tooled with Tudor roses and lettered: Psalterium. Caxton MR'. BMC XI, 124.