Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 478: Armenian Psalter
Abstract/Contents
- Summary
- The Armenian psalter, probably dating from the thirteenth century, contained in CCCC MS 478, is one of the most curious items in the collection. Parker was in correspondence with Bishop Davies of St David's and his collaborator, William Salesbury, regarding the language in which the text was written. The list of Parker's books in the Parker Register (CCCC MS 575) is annotated to record that it had been identified as Armenian by William Patten (d. in or after 1598). Patten produced in 1570 a vocabulary and alphabet in Armenian for which he had made use of this psalter. In the middle of the book are three coloured pictures of the Virgin and Child, the Crucifixion, and Christ surrounded by the Evangelist symbols.
- Contents
- Armenian Psalter
Description
| Alternative title | Armenian Psalter |
|---|---|
| Type of resource | mixed material |
| Extent | ff. 2 + 251 + 2 |
| Date created | [ca. 1200 - 1299] |
| Language | Armenian; Latin |
| Material | Vellum |
| Layout | 17 lines to a page |
| Height (mm) | 138 |
| Width (mm) | 98 |
| Collation | a(2), 1(8) 2(10)-12(10) 13(2) 14(10?) (1, 2 canc. ?) 15(10)-17(10) (wants 8) 18(10) 19(10) 20(12) 21(10) 22(10) 23(12) 24(10)-26(10), b(2). |
| Writing | much of the writing is faint and damaged |
| Foliation | ff. a-b + i-ii + 1-227 + 227a + 228-250 + iii-iv + c-d |
| Research | It appears from Parker's correspondence (pp. 265, 6, 71) that in 1565 he had sent a 'quayr of straynge carecters' (so the MS. 114, p. 493) to Bishop Davies of St David's to decipher. In a letter of Davies' collaborator William Salesbury (MS 114, p. 491) to Parker there is a postscript: προθυστερον. Yit to trouble your grace wth thys piece more τη̑ζ ὑστερολογίαζ. After that my Lord by cwmferryng thies vnacquaynted χαρακτωρ namely in the wordes before tyme extracted cold fynd no consonant agreament, as in իսիո for Sion (meruaylyng to se the same lettre twyse therin) and cold not make of it neither Walsh Englysh Dutche Hebrewe Greke nor Latin his L. gave ouer to bestowe any more tyme theron. (And gave the matter to SalesburySalesbury (see D. N. B.) had some reputation as a philologist and was said to know nine languages. to settle: which he could not do.) This letter shows (a) that the book in question was Armenian, (b) that it had in it words extracted before tyme, by the help of which Davies tried to read it. One of such words was Sion. Now the Psalter before us has, as noted above, many proper names transliterated in the margin, and among these Sion occurs several times. I have no doubt therefore that our book is that which was sent to Bishop Davies. The identity of the person who succeeded in deciphering the book is worth investigating. It has been thought, on the strength of a fragmentary letter in Trin. B. 14. 52, that W. Lambarde the antiquary had worked at Armenian. The evidence is as follows: on the first leaf of that manuscript are six lines of Latin verse signed W. L. (or W. P.) (forte Wilhelmus Lambarde) says Wanley. Below this, in a bad xvith cent. hand, is the following (printed with several mistakes in my Catalogue I 460: I have tried to correct the blunders here. See also Wanley, p. 169; Strype, Parker I 533): Manye will Bragge of their knowledge and haveinge of Antiquities but the writer of the verses above is the onlye man that ever I cold be acquainted with for the readinge of this boke and other Antiquities, his Calender of the Byble maye apere to your grace but I most humblye beseche you that ye paynfull workes by him gathered after your grace hath perused might not be wraped vpp in obliuion how he hath traveled in the Armenian tongue may apere ... Strype Parker I 533 (II 508) quotes the verses and the letter, and adds: The rest is wanting. The person that writ this I strongly conjecture to be Tho. Wotton Esq., and the worshipful, godly, and truly learned in antiquities and a correspondent and friend of the Archbishop's. The identification of the person here alluded to with W. Lambarde depends on the correctness of the interpretation of the initials W. L. (or P.). The Calender of the Byble mentioned in the letter ought to serve as a clue. There was a Calender of Scripture printed in 1575 (Sayle, Early English Books, no. 968) which is attributed to William Patten by Ames. Tanner includes a Calendar of the Bible among Lambarde's works, but merely on the strength of the documents quoted above, which he had read in Strype. Another piece of evidence seems to point strongly towards Patten as the person here alluded to. In Parker's Register, John Parker adds to the entry of this Armenian Psalter the following words: 8o perg. A testimonie of Antiquities etc. cum alphabet' Armenico per Patten. Among the printed books given by Parker to the College there is a tract corresponding to this description, of which I will give particulars here. On the strength of this evidence I claim the position of the first English student of Armenian for William Patten. Plainly the initials in the Trinity manuscript should be read as W. P., not W. L., Professor Burkitt has kindly supplied the following note on the contents of the MS. It contains: Pss. 1-17 (Greek, not English numbers). Exod. xv. Pss. 18-35. Deut. xxxii. 1-21. Pss. 36-54. Deut. xxxii. 22-43. Pss. 55-71. Song of Hannah, I Sam. ii. Pss. 72-88. Isa. xxvi. 9-19 (sic). Pss. 89-105. Isa. xxxviii. 10-20. [f. 188r, originally blank, has a note written by one Gregory, not the original scribe of the MS. I think.] Pss. 106-118. Isa. xlii. 10-13, xlv. 8. Jonah ii. Pss. 119-147 Lauda Ierusalem dominum. Hab. iii. f. 245r-247v. Creed 248r. Prayer of Manasseh 249v-250v. It agrees in the main with the University Library MS. Dd. 6. 76 |
| Additions | On f. iir-iiv are small erasures., On f. iiv (xvi): Psalterium in lingua et charectere armenica. |
Bibliographic information
| M.R. James Date | xiii? |
|---|---|
| Downloadable James Catalogue Record | |
| Superseded Interim Catalogue Record | |
| Contains |
|
| TJames | 384 |
| Stanley | Misc. 25 |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/xm721dj4603 |
| Location | MS 478 |
| Repository | UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Collection
Parker Manuscripts
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