Gorleston Psalter

• Illustration — Marginalia: a fox carries a goose • Illustration — Marginalia in Gorleston Psalter The Gorleston Psalter is richly illustrated, with frequent illuminations, as well as many bas-de-page (bottom-of-the-page) illustrations or drolleries as marginalia. The bulk of the manuscript is taken up by the psalms (foll. 8r–190v), which is preceded by a calendar (1r–6v, with twelve roundels) and a prayer (7v), and followed by a canticles (190v–206r), an Athanasian Creed (206r–208v), a litany (208v–214r), collects (214r–214v), an Office of the Dead (223v–225v), prayers (223v–225v), a hymn (225v–226r), and a litany (226r–228r). The prayer on fol. 7v, Suscipere dignare domine dues omnipotens hos psalmos quos ego indignus peccator, was added after the manuscript passed to Norwich Cathedral Priory, along with a miniature of the crucifixion on vol. 7r, as was the litany on foll. 226r–228r, similar to the litany in the Ormesby Psalter. There are thirteen large historiated initials, marking the beginning of Psalms 1, 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 80, 97, 101, 109, 119, the beginning of Canticles, and the Office of the Dead (showing the funeral of a bishop), besides 145 historiated minor initials. The Beatus initial to Psalm 1 (a B for beatus), shows the Tree of Jesse surrounded by a border showing the arms of England and France (fol. 8r). One famous image from the Psalter shows a fox carries a goose away in its mouth, while the goose says queck. The scene is probably an allusion to the tale of Reynard the Fox. Armorial illustrations showing in the manuscript have been identified as those of Roger Bigod, (f. 70b), Gilbert Peche, (f. 86), and Aymer de Valence, (f. 107v). Written in Latin in at least three separate hands, the Psalter consists of the original text from its creation in around 1310, with a few later additions. The added material is a prayer before the psalter on f.7b and an added litany, ff. 226b–228. The first hand in the manuscript is identified as being the scribe of the original work, with two later hands identified as being responsible for the additions c. 1320-1325. The first of these two later hands has been co-identified with the text hand of the Stowe Breviary and Douai Psalter. The third hand, that of the prayer on f.7b, is described as smaller and much more irregular and unsteady. Nigel Morgan, in his catalogue of a 1973 exhibition in Norwich, has drawn attention to stylistic similarities between the Gorleston Psalter and the Stowe Breviary, Douai Psalter, Castle Acre Psalter (Yale University Library, MS. 417), and the Escorial Psalter (Escorial MS. Q II 6.). It is believed that the Gorleston Psalter is an earlier output from the scriptorum that later produced the Stowe Breviary, Douai Psalter, and the Escorial Psalter.