The Office of the Trinity in the Crowland Psalter (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 296)

Abstract

The main part of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 296, consists of a psalter (9r–105v), together with the usual accompaniments of calendar (1r–6v), tables (7r–8r), canticles (105v–116v), litany (117r–119v) and prayers (119v–127v). The main part of the manuscript, written by a single scribe, ends halfway down 127v, in the centre of a gathering of six folios. The lower part of 127v and the remaining three folios are taken up by an Office of the Trinity, written by a different scribe. The manuscript is attributed to Crowland on the basis of entries in the calendar and litany. Guthlac's name is entered in capitals in the litany, as are those of SS Mary and Peter; more importantly, Guthlac, like Peter, is invoked twice, a distinction accorded to no other saint in the Douce manuscript. The entries in the calendar include the translation of St Guthlac on 30 August, and a feast of his sister, St Pega, on 8 January, in addition to the usual feast of St Guthlac on 11 April; Pega also occurs, uniquely, in the litany of the Douce manuscript. The Psalter had probably left Crowland by 1091 when most of the monastery, including its library and service books, was destroyed by fire. By the early twelfth century it was in the possession of the Cluniac priory of St Paneras, Lewes, when theobitsof Lanzo, prior of St Pancras (ob. 1 April 1107), Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury (ob. 21 April 1109) and Hugh, abbot of Cluny (ob. 29 April 1109) were entered on 2v. It is possible that the book was in female hands between leaving Crowland and arriving at Lewes, since the prayers at Lauds in the Office of the Trinity contain feminine forms.