De Laude Psalmorum and Aelfwine's Prayerbook: A Quotation from a Carolingian Psalm Devotional in a Late Anglo-Saxon Programme for Morning Prayer
Kate Thomas
A large number of Latin and English prayers, apparently intended for private use, can be found in Anglo-Saxon monastic manuscripts.1 It often difficult to tell which context these prayers were said. However, a few prayer programmes give very clear guidelines instructing the reader when where pray, psalms say, why it is important say them. One most interesting texts short guide on single leaf eleventh-century Winchester manuscript known as Ælfwine’s Prayerbook. Of particular significance fact that this Old text contains short, carefully translated excerpt from De laude psalmorum, Carolingian treatise praying one’s personal needs using words psalms. The presence hitherto unnoticed quotation Prayerbook suggests psalmorum was not only being read late England, but also accurately into vernacular language, used create wholly new programme morning prayer.
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