Bosworth Psalter

Description

Like the majority of biblical books in Western Christendom, the texts of this Psalter are in Latin. They comprise one of the translations traditionally ascribed to St Jerome (d. 420), one of the four Fathers of the Western Church. Over a period of nearly 25 years, St Jerome translated biblical texts from Greek and Hebrew into the Latin vernacular, and perhaps completed three versions or revisions of the Psalms. The first is now commonly known as the Roman or Romanum Psalter because it was adopted at an early date by the church in Rome. The Romanum version appears in this Psalter, which was produced in southern England during the 3rd quarter of the tenth century. The manuscript features an Old English translation that was added above some of the Latin text, and major divisions of the Psalms are marked by large capital letters in alternating colours, inhabited with open-mouthed beasts.    

An inscription shows that the book was once owned by Thomas Cranmer (d. 1556), archbishop of Canterbury, who had a leading role in the development of church services in English during the Reformation. It is now known as the Bosworth Psalter, because it was housed at Bosworth Hall in Leicestershire, during the 19th century. 

This manuscript was digitised with the support of The Polonsky Foundation.