Psalterium (St Albans Psalter) — Markyate, Hertfordshire. Hermitage, later priory of Benedictine nuns.
| Provenance: | Markyate, Hertfordshire. Hermitage, later priory of Benedictine nuns. |
| Location: | Dombibliothek, Hildesheim, Germany |
| Shelfmark: | Hs. 1 |
| Author/Title: | Psalterium (St Albans Psalter) |
| Type of evidence: | c: evidence from locally specific contents, including obits, scribbles, etc. |
| Notes on evidence: | The litany has many St Albans features. Obit of Abbot Gaufridus at 25 February. The hand which wrote the Chanson of St Alexis is found in BL Egerton 3721, a St Albans kalendar. Additions to the kalendar link the book closely to Christina, achoress and later prioress of Markyate (c. 1096–1155/66). Evidence from her Life indicates that her relationship with Geoffrey, abbot of St Albans from 1119–47, gave rise to the compilation of the Psalter in its final form. It is likely to have spent most of the middle ages at Christina's priory of Markyate, near St Albans. The detatched page of Collects was discovered by Professor Hermann Schnitzler in the private collecton of Dr Joseph Lütker and is now in the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne.
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| Date: | s. xii in. |
| Ownership: | 'Fr(ater) Ben(edictus)' (foot of flyleaf, p. 1, s. xvii med.) 'L(iber) Monasterii Lambspring 1657' (top of flyleaf, p. 1, very faint); 'Liber Monast(erii) Lam / spring O.S.B. Cong(regationis) Angl(icanae)' (same leaf, a bolder hand). Lamspringe, about 20 km south of Hildesheim, was given to the English Benedictines in 1643. The only member of the congregation who is recorded as taking the name Benedict in the mid 17th century is Robert Meering, who professed in 1658 and died in 1664. The monastery of Lambspringe was suppressed in 1803. The manuscript is currently owned by the parish church of St Godehard, Hildesheim, deposited in the Dombibliothek. |