Samuel Meienreis and His Books From Leiden: Tracing the Provenance of the N-Psalter Fragments

This paper presents the historical background and provenance research into fragments of a Latin Psalter with Old English glosses (N-Psalter), discovered in the bindings of early printed books from the collection of Samuel Meienreis, a Protestant theologian and bibliophile from Royal Prussia, who lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Comparative and material analysis of the volumes with fragments in situ, currently held in the C. Norwid Library in Elbląg, indicates that they must have been bought in the Netherlands and bound in a local bookbinding workshop, most likely during Meienreis’ two-year studies at Leiden University. The data collected during the research made it possible to establish a set of criteria relevant to the Psalter provenance studies and to verify them in light of a new finding at the Library of Pembroke College in Cambridge.