A 13th century illuminated manuscript that has been in St John’s College, University of Cambridge, for nearly 400 years has been digitised so it can reach a new audience.
St John's College, Cambridge MS D.6 folio 87r. By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
Detailed images from the early medieval religious text have been published online for the first time in the University of Cambridge Digital Library.
The 377-page manuscript is a psalter that belonged to Robert de Lindsay who was abbot of Peterborough from 1214 to 1222. ‘Manuscript (MS) D.6’ was given to St John’s College in 1635 by Thomas Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, from the library of his friend, William Crashaw, and is one of two psalters that were once owned by de Lindsay.
The St John’s manuscript is ‘glossed’, meaning it is annotated in the margins and between the lines to aid the reader in understanding the text, providing commentaries and translations.