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A manuscript of The Psalms of David, i + 145 folio leaves, in contemporary vellum richly gilt, the volume possibly prepared for presentation to Queen Elizabeth. Late 16th century.
Formerly in the library of Walter Aston (1583-1639), Baron Aston of Forfar, of Tixall, Staffordshire, diplomat. Bequeathed by Dr Bent Juel-Jensen (1922-2006), Oxford physician and book collector.
The MS as a whole
• SiP 81: Sir Philip Sidney, The Psalms of David
A formal copy of Psalms 1-150, in a calligraphic italic hand, untitled, with two dedicatory poems by his sister, Mary, Countess of Pembroke (PeM 1, PeM 2).
Described by B.E. Juel-Jensen in BC, 15 (Summer 1966), 156 (with a facsimile of two pages in Plate 3), and in Book Collector, 18 (Summer 1969), 222-3. Described in Ringler, pp. 550-1. (1988), I, 102-4 and 110-12. Discussed in Noel Kinnamon, ‘The Sidney Psalms: The Penshurst and Tixall Manuscripts’, EMS, 2 (1990), 139-61.
Psalms 1-43 translated by Sidney. Psalms 44-150 translated by his sister, the Countess of Pembroke. First published complete in London, 1823, ed. S.W. Singer. Psalms 1-43, without the Countess of Pembroke's revisions, edited in Ringler, pp. 265-337. Psalms 1-150 in her revised form edited in The Psalms of Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke, ed. J.C.A. Rathmell (New York, 1963). Psalms 44-150 also edited in The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert Countess of Pembroke (1988), Vol. II.
ff. 1r-2v
• PeM 1: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, ‘Even now that Care which on thy Crowne attends’
A dedicatory verse epistle to Queen Elizabeth. First published in Whole Workes of Samuel Daniel (London, 1623). Collected Works, I, 102-4.
ff. 3r-4v
• PeM 2: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, To the Angell spirit of the most excellent Sir Philip Sidney (‘To thee pure sprite, to thee alone's addres't’)
Copy.
Facsimile in Noel Kinnamon, ‘The Sidney Psalms: The Penshurst and Tixall Manuscripts’, EMS, 2 (1990), 139-61 (p. 145).
Collected Works, I, 110-12 (a variant text on pp. 113-15).
See SiP 81.