King Alfred's Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms Medieval Academy Books, No
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King Alfred's Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms Medieval Academy Books, No. 104 King Alfred's Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms edited by Patrick P. O'Neill The Medieval Academy of America Cambridge, Massachusetts 2001 Copyright © 2001 By The Medieval Academy of America Library of Congress Control Number: 2001132139 ISBN 0-915651-13-0 Printed in the United States of America Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii INTRODUCTION 1. THE MANUSCRIPT 1 I. Description 1 II. Contents 9 III. Purpose and Audience 19 IV. Date and Place of Origin 20 2. THE OLD ENGLISH INTRODUCTIONS 23 I. Structure, Sources, Method of Composition.. 23 II. Relationship to the Paraphrase 27 III. The Vitellius Psalter Fragments 28 3. THE SOURCES 31 I. Latin Psalters 31 II. Psalter Commentaries 34 HI. Other Sources 40 IV. Conclusions 40 4. METHOD OF TRANSLATION AND STYLE 45 5. LANGUAGE 55 I. Spelling and Phonology 55 II. Accidence 60 III. Vocabulary 64 6. AUTHORSHIP 73 THE TEXT 97 COMMENTARY 165 GLOSSARY 273 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY, SHORT TITLES, AND ABBREVIATIONS 349 Acknowledgements In preparing this edition of the Prose Psalms I have incurred debts to a number of people and institutions. It is a pleasure to acknowledge their help without implicating them in my errors. I am grateful to the University of Pennsylvania for a Penfield Research Fellowship (1979-80), which allowed me to work on the Prose Psalms for my dissertation, and to the late Professor James Rosier who directed that dissertation. Also very helpful in the early stages of the edition was a printed concordance to the Prose Psalms provided by the Dictionary of Old English Project (University of Toronto). Subsequently, my own institution, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provided a Junior Faculty Development Grant (Summer 1982) to examine manuscripts of the Prose Psalms at the Bibliotheque nationale de France (Paris) and the British Library (London). I am grateful to both libraries for generously permitting me full access to their collections. Over many years the Department of English at Chapel Hill supported my work with generous computer and secretarial help. A number of scholars helped enormously with advice, moral support, and professional expertise; in particular, Janet Bately, David Dumville, Allen Frantzen, David Ganz, George Kane, Malcolm Parkes, Ellie Roach, Fred Robinson, Eric Stanley, Patricia Stirnemann, Joseph Wittig, and several anonymous readers of the manuscript. For her patience and skill in typing (and retyping) the manuscript I am indebted to Frances Coombs; for help with making last-minute changes, to Fiona Sewell. I was also very fortunate to have a patient and meticulous copyeditor, Deborah A. Oosterhouse. Lastly, I thank Richard Emmerson, Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America, for expediting the publication of this edition. Patrick P. O'Neill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 2 March 2001 vu Chapter 1 THE MANUSCRIPT I. Description1 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS Fonds latin 8824, known to Old English scholars as the Paris Psalter, contains the only attested copy of the Old English Prose Psalms (Pss. 1-50),2 aside from fragments preserved in another manuscript.3 It also has, conjoined to the Prose Psalms, an Old English metrical version of the psalms (Pss. 51-150), the two together providing a full vernacular translation side by side with a text of the Latin Romanum psalter. A. HISTORY AND NOTICES. The earliest mention of the manuscript occurs in the inventory of goods belonging to Jean, Due de Berry (1340-1416), made in August 1402, which describes it as "un tresancien psaultier long ystorie d'ovrage romain: et au commencement de David jouant de la harpe: et sur les fueillez peinct des armes de France et de Boulongne; couvert de vielle soie a deux tixuz, done en l'un n'a point de fremouer."4 This description broadly agrees with its present condition except for the different binding and the loss of the Davidic picture. Moreover, Jean's ownership is confirmed by his signature "Jehan" at the bottom of fol. 186r after the words "Ce Iiure est au due de Berry," a formula 'items A-F of this section rely heavily on the preface to the facsimile edition, The Paris Psalter (Copenhagen, 1958), general ed. Bertram Colgrave, hereafter referred to as Facsimile preceded by the name of the relevant contributor. For other descriptions of the manuscript, see Leroquais, Les Psautiers, 2:76-78; Ker, Catalogue, no. 367; Vezin, "Manuscrits," pp. 291-92; Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 99-100; and Francois Avril and Patricia D. Stimemann, Manuscrits enlumines d'origine insulaire, VIF-XX1 siecle(Paris, 1987),pp. 18-19(no. 25). 2The numbering of psalms and verses throughout the present work, for both the Latin text and the corresponding Old English, follows that of the Gallicanum (Vulgate) psalter. 'London, BL, MS Cotton Vitellius E. xviii, on which see Chap. 2.III. "Preserved in Paris, BnF, MS franc. 11496, fol. 78; printed by Jules M.-J. Guiffrey, Inventaires de Jean due de Berry (1401-1416), 2 vols. (Pans, 1894-96), 2:131 (no. 1027). 2 The Manuscript found in other manuscripts owned by him.5 Subsequently, it was donated to his favorite foundation, the Sainte Chapelle de Bourges, as attested by its appearance in a list of manuscripts received there in July 1406.6 More than a century later, an inventory of Sainte Chapelle manuscripts, drawn up in November 1552, lists a "Psalterium Davidicum," which should probably be identified with the present manuscript since all of the other psalters mentioned are described as glossed.7 It was still there in 1708 when the Benedictine scholar Dom Martene singled it out for comment: L'un des plus curieux manuscrits de la sainte Chapelle, est celui qu'on appelle les heures du due Jean. C'est un pseautier latin avec une version angloise de six ou sept cens ans. Ceux qui me la montrerent, croyoient que e'etoit de l'allemand ou de l'hebreu. Mais sitot que l'eus vu, je connus Ie caractere Anglo-saxon. J'en fiis encore plus convaincu, lorsqu'examinant les litanies qui font a la fin, je trouvai que la plupart des Saints etoient d'Angleterre. Ce livre est conserve dans le chartier.8 In 1752 the canons of Sainte Chapelle presented the manuscript to the Bibliotheque du Roy (the precursor of the Bibliotheque nationale), where it was rebound and numbered Supplement latin 333.9 A description of it from that time10 matches the present contents; it mentions the pencil drawings, but no illumination. Subsequent descriptions of the manuscript by Silvestre (1841) and Delisle (1856) add no new information, except evidence about the nineteenth-century pencil and ink foliations." Notably absent from the post-medieval accounts of the manuscript is any mention of the Davidic picture or of illumination (traces of which still survive on two folios); presumably, they were already missing by this time.12 But when 5See Delisle, "Notes," pp. 151,155,158. 6A contemporary list drawn up for the Sainte Chapelle repeats verbatim the description of the psalter given in Jean's inventory; see Alfred Hiver de Beauvoir, La Librairie de Jean due de Berry au chateau de Mehun-sur-Yevre, 1416 (Paris, 1860), p. 92 'Printed by Delisle, "Notes," at p. 145. Voyage Litteraire de deux Religieux Benedictins de la congregation de Saint Maur (Paris, 1717; repr. 1969), p. 29. 'Recorded on the verso of what is now the fourth flyleaf, immediately preceding Ps. 1. l0In Paris, BnF, MS Fonds lat. 17173, fol. 237; full text printed in Facsimile, p. 12. "Joseph B. Silvestre, Paleographie universelle... accompagnes d"explications historiques et descriptives par mm. Champollion-Figeac et Aime Champollion fils, 4vols. (Paris, 1841), vol. 4, plate CCXXXI and accompanying text, and Delisle, "Notes," pp. 147-51; see also Bromwich in Facsimile, p. 12. l2For the extent of the loss, see section I.D below. The Manuscript 3 and in what circumstances they were removed is not known. Bruce13 and earlier scholars attribute their loss to the sack of Bourges in 1582, but pillaging soldiers are hardly likely to have taken the time to single out the illuminated leaves. Equally unconvincing is Bromwich's theory14 that they were lost in the general neglect of the library witnessed by Martene, since the latter expressly mentions that the manuscript was kept separately in the charter room and implies that because of its strange language and script it was an object of curiosity and special attention. The most that can be conjectured is that the missing illuminated leaves were removed between 1406 and 1752 by someone who had ready access to the manuscript, possibly a member of the community at Sainte Chapelle. B. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION. Fols. iv+186+iii are of parchment; the first and last pairs of flyleaves are of the eighteenth century; the remaining leaves are medieval.15 Originally there were twenty-five quires of eight leaves each, but fourteen leaves are now missing (see section D below). Written leaves are of good quality, measuring on average 526 x 188 mm.; written space 420 x 95 mm., divided into two narrow columns of 45 lines each. These dimensions give the manuscript the shape of a modern ledger.16 C. FOLIATION. There is no medieval foliation or quire signatures. There are two nineteenth-century foliations:17 the earlier, in pencil, foliates the 186 written leaves, numbering them 1-196 by including missing leaves (discussed in the next section); the other, in ink, foliates the written leaves and a final medieval flyleaf, 1-187, and is the foliation still used. D. MUTILATION. Fourteen leaves are now missing: 13See The Anglo-Saxon Version.pp.