The Donohue Rare Book Room’s Chertsey Breviary, a fourteenth-century liturgical manuscript, was recently digitized and is now available online in the Library’s Digital Collections. The vellum manuscript is a psalter, a volume containing the Book of Psalms. Psalters were frequently owned by wealthy individuals and were often richly illuminated. The Donohue Rare Book Room manuscript, which is from the Abbey at Chertsey, a Benedictine monastery in England, is a fragment. One of the leaves has a striking historiated initial D that depicts the anointing of David. Library patrons may wish to know that this treasure is complemented by a collection of early manuscript leaves that are available for individual and classroom use in the Rare Book Room.
John Hawk
Head Librarian, Donohue Rare Book Room