Turku, Provincial Archives of Turku, Turku Archdiocese Cathedral Chapter, Gummerus-collection, I:1. <hi rend="italic">Psalterium</hi> Cataloguer Jesse Keskiaho Finnish Literature Society (SKS) Codices Fennici Creative Commons BY 4.0 Turku Provincial Archives of Turku Turku Archdiocese Cathedral Chapter Gummerus-collection, I:1 Saec. XIV, Sweden? Psalterium

Fols. 1r–v, 2r–4r, 4r–13v, 14r–v, 15r–20v, <hi rend="italic" >psalterium</hi>. Ps. 9:[26?]32–10:6, 1–9:26, 10:6–37:20, 76:10–77:40, 85:14–103:22.

(Fol. 1r is badly worn, illegible) [1v] ... Dixit enim in corde suo ... In domino confido ... filios hominum. Dominus interrogat [2r] (invitatorium) V[enite ex]ultem[us] domino iubilemus deo salutari nostro. Beatus uir qui non abiit ... [4r] ... sunt viae illius in omni tempore. Dominus interrogat iustum et impium ... [13v] ... sunt super me et multipli| [14r] [misericord]ias suas. Et dixi ... [14v] ... rediens. quotiens exacerbaverunt e| [15r] quaesierunt [animam] meam et ... [20v] ... congregati sunt et in cu|.

On fol. 4r the scribe copied Psalm 9 until the first half of verse 26, and then continued with verse 6 of Psalm 10. The same scribe copied the skipped verses on fol. 1v. (The poor state of this folio makes it uncertain, but it seems that all of the missing verses are present here).

Antiphons, etc. are often listed between psalms; see fol. 4r, 5r, 5v, 6v, 7r, 7v, 9v, 10r, 11v, 12v, 15r, 18v (for a closer listing, see Gummerus 1910, 84–85).

Corrections on fols. 8r, 10v, 16v in a hand of saec. XV.

On the front pastedown there is an illegible text in cursive of saec. XV.

 Parchment 20 folios. 11,5 19 9 13 Modern foliation in pencil in the lower right-hand corners of the recto-sides. 11 + VI13 + I((II–1)17 + I19)20 i.e. fols. 14 and 20 form a bifolium which encloses fols. 15–19.

Throughout, dirty and worn, with the upper parts of folia, especially towards the front and back of the book, torn and frayed and in places reinforced in a modern restoration.

There are quires missing between fols. 13 and 14, and between 14 and 15.

 Text in two columns on 28 lines, no discernible signs of ruling.

Gothic textualis in one somewhat inexpert hand of saec. XIV.

Three sizes of lombards, alternating in red and blue: smallest for the initials of verses, medium-sized for the beginnings of psalms (blue ones flourished in red, the red ones left unflourished), the highest-grade ones (bi-coloured, flourished in red) for Psalms 1 (fol. 2r), 26 (fol. 9r), and 95 (fol. 18v), which are all preceded by an invitatory hymn. The decoration and especially the flourishing, where the execution does not match the evident ambition, suggests that this was a copy of a Continental book, produced perhaps somewhere in Sweden.

Originally a full-leather binding on wooden boards with raised bands. The back board is now missing, and the leather covering has been badly eroded. The volume was closed with clasps at the fore-edge, of which the front halves on the upper board are still extant.

A psalter produced in the fourteenth century in imitation of a Continental book, perhaps somewhere in Sweden, found its way to the diocese of Turku, probably during the middle ages (if, indeed, it were not originally produced there). At some point (or at several), substantial parts of the book have gone missing, including its back board.

No marks of provenance.

Nothing is known of the provenance of the book before was found in the Turku Cathedral Chapter Archives in the early twentieth century. It may have arrived there as the result of the chapter’s request, c. 1826, that parishes send older materials for examination. The materials were at least in some cases returned to the parishes (this happened to the books from Tammela now in the Library of Åbo Akademi), but at least some remained and survived the great fire that destroyed much of the city in 1827 (Schalin 1946, 6 n. 2, cites the circulars of the chapter, no. 237 of 5 November 1828, and no. 264 of 20 June 1833, which indicate that several manuscripts that had been sent to Turku as requested had not been collected and had become disordered in the fire, and were now kept in the archbishop’s household).

 J. Gummerus, ‘Eräs kirjalöytö Turun tuomiokapitulin arkistosta’, Suomen kirkkohistoriallisen seuran pöytäkirjat10 (1910), 81–123, at 84–85. Encoding added