Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1980, Side 118

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F. (1), in the National Museum, Reykjavik, no. 4678, is a full-page
representation of the Crucifixion. In the upper margin is an owner’s note in a
fifteenth-century hånd, Istud psalterium pertinet domui de Carehowe, that is,
the Benedictine nunnery of Carrow outside Norwich (ibid., Plate 4). Did it
formerly precede the calendar, forming a pair with f. 7 of the calendar?
F. (2), Reykjavik Lbs. fragm. 51 is a damaged leaf with one side legible,
containing ps. 27, 26-35 (ibid., Plate 3).
F. (3), Reykjavik IB 363 8° is part of a leaf with 16 lines extant. The recto
contains ps. 37, 14-21; the verso ps. 38, 1-6; the historiated D of ps. 38 (Dixi
custodiam) is a representation of the Adoration of the Magi (ibid., Plates 1-2).
c) Twenty-nine leaves, formerly used by Ami for the bindings of Icelandic
manuscripts, are Copenhagen AM Access. 7d Psalter V. The margins have
been trimmed when used for bindings, and some leaves have been shom of one
or two text-lines. Twenty-four leaves are whole as regards the written space
with 19 lines to the page. Leaves 1-25 contain part of the psalms, from ps.
40,7 to ps. 148,13. Leaves 26-28 contain the first canticle, Confitebor tibi (Is.
12, 1-6), from the second verse to the end; the second canticle, Ego dixi (Is.
38,10-20), from the beginning to verse 19; and the sixth canticle, Audite celi
(Deut. 32, 1-43), verses 8-35. Leaf 29 contains the Athanasian symbol from
‘Et in hac trinitate’ to the end, followed by the beginning of the Kyrie.
The initials of the psalms, finely decorated, extend over three lines of text.
The only extant psalm marking a division is that of ps. 80, with an E over
eight lines (Exultate Deo), historiated in the same style as that of ps. 38,
studied by Selma Jonsdottir. This initial deserves a full analysis.
As will be seen from the plates of Selma Jonsdottir’s article, this is a
staggeringly beautiful book, on a par with the finest English psalters of the
same period.
Curiously enough, the name Carrow also crops up in connection with
another psalter fragment from Iceland, Copenhagen MS AM 921 IX 4°,
containing an historiated initial S of ps. 68 (Salvum me fac). The psalter in
question probably came from Carrow; see Selma Jonsdottir, Heilagur
Nikulås i Åmasafni: Afmælisrit Jons Helgasonar (Reykjavik 1969), pp. 260-
69. With an English summary.
Ff. 141r-142r, and ff. 143r-144v of Åmi’s note-books, contain remarks on
the large letters found in the psalters (at their liturgical divisions), and on the
‘semigrandes’ (at the beginning of each group of ten psalms). Ami’s comments
go to show that 150 or so years after the Reformation the liturgical divisions of
the Psalter as well as those per decadas had been completely forgotten. Next,
he comments on these psalters in general:
F. 146rv: framan vid 611 (eda flest 611) 'Palteria Latina in membranis, hafa
vered Calendaria Romano-Ecclesiastica. Permulta vidi.
hia morgum af fessum Calendariis hafa vered skrifader dies emortuales
eima og annarra (præcipué benefactorum cleri, ut arbitror). Vidi nonnulla
istiusmodi in Islandiå, et plura in Germaniå.