The paper discusses the results of a study into almost 2000 corrections found in the Old English gloss to the fi rst 50 Psalms of the Eadwine Psalter, a post-Conquest manuscript produced in mid-twelfth century. It contains the three Latin versions of the Psalter translated by St. Jerome, each accompanied by a gloss: the Gallicanum – Latin, the Romanum – Old English, and the Hebraicum – Anglo-Norman. The exact purpose behind the production of this psalter, its role, as well as the reason for introducing extensive corrections to the Old English gloss remain unknown. By making the corrections the focal point of the study, the present paper builds a case for identifying Thomas Becket (or his associates) as the patron of the Eadwine Psalter, which seems to provide comprehensive answers to some baffl ing questions concerning this manuscript.

The paper presents the results of a study into lexical substitutions found in the Old English gloss to psalms 2-50 in the Eadwine Psalter. The major objectives to determine the possible sources of this manuscript, which clearly go beyond the traditional explanation that originally the gloss was derived from a Vespasian Psalter-type gloss, later revised by the corrector based on a Regius Psalter-type gloss. The analysis shows that the affiliation of the gloss is indeed highly complex for such a resource. Moreover, the paper shows that despite its numerous corrections, the Old English gloss to the Eadwine Psalter is in fact a valuable source of information on the twelfth-century scribal practice of the post-Conquest England.