5. Online Facsimiles of Individual Manuscripts

  • The Aberdeen Bestiary: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/. A much celebrated manuscript.
  • The Aucklinleck Manuscript (National Library of Scotland, Advocates MS 19.2.1): http://auchinleck.nls.uk. A collection of Middle English verse, produced in London in the 1330s.
  • The Book of Margery Kemp: http://english.selu.edu/humanitiesonline/kempe/index.php. Edited by Joel Fredell, this site provides a new facsimile and a documentary edition of this curious work, produced in about 1440.
  • The Burnet Psalter: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/heritage/collects/bps/. A psalter made in north-eastern France or Flanders in the fifteenth century.
  • The Canterbury Roll: http//:www.canterbury.ac.nz/canterburyroll. Covering the succession of British and English kings down to Edward IV, this roll, which belongs to the ‘Noah family’ of English genealogical texts, was originally drawn up by an anonymous scribe between 1429 and 1438 as a pro-Lancastrian document. Its uniqueness lies in the fact it was heavily modified later in the century to create a piece of Yorkist propaganda favourable to Edward IV.
  • The Eadui Psalter (London, British Library, Arundel MS 155): http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_155. A fine late Anglo-Saxon psalter largely copied and possibly also illustrated by Eadwig (also spelled ‘Eadui’) Basan, a monk of Christ Church Canterbury between c.1012 and 1023.
  • The Eadwine Psalter (Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS R.17.1): http://trin-sites-pub.trin.cam.ac.uk/james/viewpage.php?index=1229. Adapted from the Utrecht Psalter at Canterbury around the year 1150 and full of magnificent illuminations, this psalter was produced by Eadwine ‘the chief of scribes’. It is an illustrated copy of the Psalms in three Latin versions with translations into Old English and Anglo-Norman French.
  • Le graduel de Bellelay: http://el.enc.sorbonne.fr/bellelay/. Hosted by l’École des chartes, this site provides a complete facsimile of one of the earliest sources for the liturgy of the Praemonstratensian Order. The index is particularly useful.
  • The Harley Psalter (London, British Library, Harley MS 603): http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_603. Adapted from the Utrecht Psalter at Canterbury around the year 1000 and full of elaborate line drawings, the Harley Psalter is one of the most finest artworks of the Anglo-Saxon era even though the many of the illustrations remain unfinished.
  • Das Jenaer Martyrologium: http://martyrologium.thulb.uni-jena.de. A thirteenth-century martyrology famous (or notorious?) for the violence of its illustrations.
  • Opening the Geese Book: http://geesebook.asu.edu. The site presents the full facsmile of New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS Morgan M.905, vols. I and II, a lavishly and whimsically illuminated gradual that was produced in Nuremberg between 1503 and 1510. The site includes a codicological report, archival sources, bibliography, videos with background information and critical commentary in English and German and recordings of selected chants performed by Schola Hungarica.
  • The Psalter of Eleanor of Aquitaine: https://www.kb.nl/en/themes/medieval-manuscripts/psalter-of-eleanor-of-aquitaine-ca-1185. A full reproduction with a very useful introduction of a deluxe psalter now thought to have been made for Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of England (1153–89; died 1204) in about 1185.
  • The St Alban’s Psalter: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/stalbanspsalter/english/. An illustrated psalter which may have been made for Christina of Markyate.
  • The Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS 32): http://bc.library.uu.nl/utrecht-psalter.html. Described here as the most valuable manuscript to be found in any Dutch collection, this lavishly Psalter was made in 820-830, in Reims or in the nearby abbey of Hautvilliers. The book ended up in Canterbury around the year 1000, where it was a direct inspiration for the production of the Harley Psalter (11th century), the Eadwine Psalter (12th century) and the Paris (Anglo-Catalan) Psalter (12th century).

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