The Eleventh-Century ‘N’ Psalter from England: New Pieces of the Puzzle

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of two recently found fragments of a Latin psalter with a continuous Old English gloss. The fragments were used as endleaf guards in an early modern book from the collection of Samuel Meienreis, currently held at the C. Norwid Library in Elbląg. We argue that the newly found parchment pieces match four other membra disiecta from the same eleventh-century codex produced in England. Since the formerly identified fragments were removed from the bindings of unknown books, their provenance and the origin of the manuscript from which they were removed have not been established, so far. The new findings partially fill this gap. In this paper we explore palaeographical and linguistic evidence, and the historical context of the manuscript waste found in Elbląg in an attempt to reconstruct the history of the so-called N Psalter to which all the extant pieces once belonged.