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The Psalter of Oswald also called the Ramsey Psalter (
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
, Harley MS 2904) is an
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
illuminated
psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters w ...
of the last quarter of the tenth century. Its script and decoration suggest that it was made at Winchester, but certain liturgical features have suggested that it was intended for use at the Benedictine monastery of
Ramsey Abbey Ramsey Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded about AD 969 and dissolved in 1539. The site of the abbey in Ramsey is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Most of the abbey ...
, or for the personal use of Ramsey's founder St Oswald. The litany includes a gold-lettered triple invocation of St Benedict of Nursia, and at the time of writing, probably before Oswald's death in 992, Ramsey was the only English monastery dedicated to this saint. A "Psalter of St Oswald" was listed in a 14th-century catalogue of the library at Ramsey. This manuscript is not to be confused with another Ramsey Psalter in the Morgan Library & Museum, New York (MS M. 302), made between 1286 and 1316. The text is a Latin psalter using the Gallican version. The "elegant English caroline minuscule" of the script inspired the influential "foundational hand" developed by the 20th-century calligrapher Edward Johnston. The two most famous illuminated pages are at the start of the manuscript and are illustrated here and discussed below. Apart from another very large illuminated initial at the start of Psalm 101, the rest of the illumination consists of smaller decorated initials with colour at the start of each psalm, and gold initials for each verse.


Illumination

Unsurprisingly for a manuscript with such strong connections to Oswald, a leader of the English Benedictine Reform, the decoration shows the "Winchester style" associated with the reform, including continental influences. The famous tinted line drawing of the Crucifixion is in the version of the English form of the coloured outline drawing that draws on the style of the Utrecht Psalter, and the painted miniatures use sprawling acanthus leaves, the Winchester version of decoration derived from Carolingian and
Ottonian art Ottonian art is a style in pre-romanesque German art, covering also some works from the Low Countries, northern Italy and eastern France. It was named by the art historian Hubert Janitschek after the Ottonian dynasty which ruled Germany and no ...
. Equally, however, there is use of Insular interlace, restricted to the ends of the vertical element of the Beatus initial of Psalm 1 and the "D" at
Psalm 101 Psalm 101 is the 101st psalm from the Book of Psalms. The Latin name is Misericordiam et judicium. It is attributed to David, and provides warnings for the wicked, while explaining the benefits the righteous will reap. In the slightly different nu ...
. The artist of the Crucifixion miniature seems also to have worked at
Fleury Abbey Fleury Abbey (Floriacum) in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, France, founded in about 640, is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, and possesses the relics of St. Benedict of Nursia. Its site on the banks of the ...
, where both Oswald and his uncle, Archbishop
Oda of Canterbury Oda (or Odo; died 958), called the Good or the Severe, was a 10th-century Archbishop of Canterbury in England. The son of a Danish invader, Oda became Bishop of Ramsbury before 928. A number of stories were told about his actions both prior to ...
, had trained, as well as the
Abbey of Saint Bertin The Abbey of St. Bertin was a Benedictine monastic abbey in Saint-Omer, France. The buildings are now in ruins, which are open to the public. It was initially dedicated to but was rededicated to its second abbot, . The abbey is known for its L ...
, Saint-Omer, both of these in France. At St Bertin he worked on the Boulogne Gospels (municipal library there, MS 11) and at Fleury on the Harley Aratea (BL, Harley MS 2506). The figure of Christ is very similar to that on an
Anglo-Saxon reliquary cross The Reliquary Cross is a late 10th-century Anglo-Saxon ivory figure of Christ, set on an earlier Ottonian cross to make a reliquary in the form of a crucifix. It is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London (Cat. 7943-1862, usually on di ...
in the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, which was set on a small
reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including '' phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it is housed a ''fer ...
in Germany around 1000. The Beatus initial appears to be the first to use the "lion-mask" in the bridge, which was to be widely copied in England and abroad.Pächt, 86-89


Notes


References

* J. Backhouse, D. H. Turner and L. Webster, eds.: ''The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966-1066''. London: British Museum, 1984. *British Library
Detailed record for Harley 2904
in the BL Catalogue of illuminated manuscript (with several images and bibliography). *
Michelle P. Brown Michelle P. Brown is Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She was previously (1986–2004) Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library. She has been a historical c ...
: ''Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age''. London: British Library, 2007. , p. 119. *Otto Pächt: ''Book Illumination in the Middle Ages: an introduction''. London: Harvey Miller, 1986. .


Further reading

* (see index)


External links

{{commonscat, Psalter of Oswald (c.975-1000) - BL Harley MS 2904
images
on ramseyabbey.co.uk

Illuminated psalters 10th-century biblical manuscripts Harleian Collection 10th-century illuminated manuscripts Later Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts