Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 391: St Wulfstan's Portiforium
- Title:
- Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 391: St Wulfstan's Portiforium
- Alternate Title:
- Portiforium Oswaldi
- Language:
- Latin and English, Old (ca. 450-1100)
- Extent:
- ff. 113 + 24 + 171 + 52
- Dimensions:
- 225 Height (mm) and 135 Width (mm)
- Approximate Date:
- [ca. 1060 - 1069]
- Provenance:
- From Worcester. At bottom of p. 1 in large red letters of cent. xiv? Liber S. Marie Wygornens. ecclesie per S. Oswaldum. A note next to it in John Joscelin's hand given by Nasmith follows: Est ementita inscriptio, nam post Oswaldi mortem librum fuisse scriptum hinc patet, quod in eo sunt preces dicendae in festo translationis Oswaldi.
- Table of contents:
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- Kalendar and Gallican Psalter
- Hymns and Canticles
- Collectar
- Exorcisms and blessings
- Private devotions
- Offices
- Prognostics
- Description:
- CCCC MS 391 is a portiforium, that is a Breviary, from Worcester. It contains a large variety of material, including a psalter and prognostical texts. It was written at a time when the various elements of the divine office were drawn together into a single book, the Breviary. This book represents the text in a primitive form. In the late Middle Ages it was associated with St Oswald, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York, who died in 992. However, the calendar has Oswald's name in the original hand, and the script dates the manuscript later, as was first pointed out by Parker's secretary John Joscelyn (1529-1603). It is now known as the Portiforium of St Wulfstan, after Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester 1062-95, not to be confused with Wulfstan the homilist (d. 1023). It is usually dated to the late 1060s. At the beginning of the psalter there is a framed tinted drawing of David harping and a large ornamental initial for the first psalm.