The Psalter of Caimín is a medieval Irish
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...
likely produced in the 11th century, possibly on the island of
Inis Cealtra in
Lough Derg. It is badly damaged, with only fragments surviving. These consist of six folios, containing verses 1-16 and 33-116 of
Psalm 118 (''Beati Inmaculati...''), a psalm that would have had 176 versus in total, and was a favourite of the early Irish church. It is possible that the Psalter only ever consisted of this full psalm, perhaps also with notes and commentary,
[O'Neil, 34] although it may have been much larger, containing the entire Psalter.
[Blom, 76] It kept in the library of
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
(MS.A.i)
The main text recounts the Gallican Psalter, and is set in a single narrow column in the middle of each folio, and written in large half-uncial
minuscule
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing system ...
case. The margins are thus wide, and contain extensive
glosses in both Irish and Latin;
it is, along with the Southampton Psalter, one of only two surviving manuscripts to contain annotation in both of these languages.
Saint Caimín died in 654, but the book is generally believed to have been produced much later. Based on the style of Irish and the decorations found in the glosses, an approximation of the late 11th century is generally accepted,
although it was believed to be a genuine relic of Saint Caimín for a short period. Little is known of its origins or early provenance. It is first mentioned in 1639 by Archbishop James Ussher, when it was described as "among the books of the Convent of Franciscans at
Donnegall".
[Esposito, 78] It was taken to St Isidore's in Rome during the
French Revolution, returning to Ireland in 1872.
Notes
References
*Blom, Alderik. ''Glossing the Psalms: The Emergence of the Written Vernaculars in Western Europe from the Seventh to the Twelfth Centuries''. Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2017
*Esposito, M. "On the So-Called Psalter of St. Caimin". ''Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy''. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, vol. 32, 1914
*O'Neil, Timothy. ''The Irish Hand: Scribes and Their Manuscripts from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century''. Cork: Cork University Press, 2014.
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Irish-language manuscripts
Psalters
Manuscripts in Latin