Described Thomas James 305; Stanley I. 1; Nasmith 387; James, Corpus 387; Hope Emily Allen, Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle Hermit of Hampole, and Materials for his Biography, Modern Language Association of America Monograph Series 3 (New York, 1927), p. 171; Friedrich Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi, vol. 5 (Madrid, 1955), no. 7303, pp. 95–96; Index of Images 103.

[1]

f. 1ra

Gret abundance of gostly comfort and ioie in god cometh in ye hertes of men yat seie or syngen deuoutely þese psalmes in louyng of ihesu crist and yei droppen swetnesse in mannes soule and ʒeten delite in here tunges and kyndlyn here willes yat is ye fyr of loue makyng hem hoot & brennyng withinne and fayr & lufli in cristes light …

f. 1rb

… for it may come in som enuious mannes hond yat knowith noght what he schulde seye yat wele seye yat i wist noght what i seyde and so do harm to hym and to oyere if he despise ye werk yat is profitable to hym and to oyere mo here is ended ye prologe.

Richard Rolle's Prologue to the English Psalter. (Wells VIII:14; Wells Rev 2:538 [12]; Wells Rev 9:3415 [2]; IPMEP 271). Ed. H.R. Bramley, The Psalter or Psalms of David and Certain Canticles (Oxford, 1884), pp. 3–5, from Oxf. Univ Col 64, supplemented by BodL Laud misc. 286 and collated with Camb. Sidney Sussex Col 89. Apart from Laud misc. 286, which has a revised Prologue and a unique metrical preface, these MSS contain the Prologue in the original version. Bramley was aware of the present MS (p. xxi), but did not make use of it. The prologue is also printed in Hope Emily Allen, ed., English Writings of Richard Rolle Hermit of Hampole (Oxford, 1931), pp. 4–7; edited from BodL Hatton 12, supplemented by Oxf. Univ Col 64 and Windsor, Eton College 10 (all original version). For discussions of this text and of versions of the main text of the Psalter, cf. item [2] below. The apparently original and the interpolated versions of the Prologue are very close and it can be difficult to distinguish individual eccentricities from a full-scale revision (Anne Hudson, pers. comm; her information about revised versions of the Prologue in previously indexed MSS follows below in parentheses).