PSALTER, in Latin, with Canticles and Litany, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
PSALTER, in Latin, with Canticles and Litany, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [southern Germany, mid-13th century] 200 x 148mm. 117 leaves: 1-10 8 , 11 6 , 12 8 , 13 7 (of 8, iii cancelled due to scribal error), 14 8 , 15 7 (of 8, lacking viii), the text of psalms and canticles complete but litany imperfect and with no calendar, ruled in brown ink for 19 or 20 lines written below top line in formal gothic bookhands apparently by several scribes, in dark brown ink, occasional rubrics in red (usually just P[salmu]s), one-line initials to verses in red or alternately in red or blue, three-line initials to psalms alternately blue flourished in red or in red flourished with light blue, some puzzle initials in red and blue flourished in blue, one three-line painted initial to Psalm 2, FIVE LARGE FOLIATE INITIALS, some with dragons, THREE HISTORIATED INITIALS, and a NEARLY FULL-PAGE BEATUS INITIAL, all in colours and gold (severe damage to initials f.1 and 1v, damage and wear to other large foliate and historiated initials, some wear to text throughout, margins eroded ff.43, 103 and into text f.117, some original repairs unstitched). MEDIEVAL BINDING: sewn on three bands and bound in thick 13th(?)-century wood boards with cushioned edges almost flush with the textblock, covered with alum-tawed skin, originally with a single-strap-and-pin fastening closing from front to back, refurbished in the 14th or 15th century with two clasps fastening from the back to the front board (recesses visible on front board), these subsequently replaced by straps, and with five metal bosses arranged in a saltire pattern on the front board, the spine with the remains of a paper label inscribed in the 19th century '.3.9'(?), previously described as a 'contemporary binding' but the cropping of marginalia at f.65v perhaps makes it unlikely to be the original (the covering skin somewhat defective, modern repairs to the spine). In a fitted lined box with gilt spine. PROVENANCE: (a) The writing below top line makes it unlikely to be earlier than c.1230-40; the cropped marginalia f.65v indicate that the binding is not the original. (b) Inscribed with a note in German with the date 1467 (f.116). (c) Sotheby's 10 July 1972, lot 81, bought by Segre Amar for the Comites Latentes Collection, Geneva, MS. 99; deaccessioned and sold at Sotheby's 1 December 1998, lot 69. CONTENT: Psalms 1-150 in the Gallican version ff.1-107v; the six ferial canticles and creeds, ff.107v-118; Litany, lacking end, f.118v. The Litany and calendar were presumably too liturgically specific for a later owner, who had them removed. Scribal errors were corrected and omitted passageswere added in the margins. Psalm 88:29-35, supplied in the margin f.65v, was later crossed-through and the text added on a slip of parchment, sewn in and foliated 66. An eye-skip caused the repetition of Ps.133:2-3 after Ps.134:2 and the extra verses were cancelled in red, f.99. The back pastedown is a 13th-century bifolium from Gilbert Crispin's (d.1117) Disputatio de fide Christiana; the front pastedown is a partial leaf from a late 13th- or 14th-century Breviary. ILLUMINATION: The major decoration marks the usual ten-part divisions of the Psalter, with three historiated initials, a nearly full-page Beatus initial and foliate/dragon designs at the other divisions, typically nine-lines high (ff.27v, 37v, 48, 60, 71v and 84); Ps.2 was also marked by a large painted initial (f.1v). In Psalters from Southern Germany, St Michael killing the dragon often opened Ps.51 as a suitable embodiment of its content, f.37. The subject also suited the letter form with the dragon constituting the tail of the 'Q'. The use of saints for Psalter illustration has been linked to the development of the Psalter as a text for private devotion from the later 12th century (see E. Klemm, 'Die Darstellung von Heiligen als Thema der Psalterillustration', in The Illuminated Psalter, F.O.Büttner ed,.2004, pp.362-376). The presence of Sts Fran
PSALTER, in Latin, with Canticles and Litany, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
PSALTER, in Latin, with Canticles and Litany, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [southern Germany, mid-13th century] 200 x 148mm. 117 leaves: 1-10 8 , 11 6 , 12 8 , 13 7 (of 8, iii cancelled due to scribal error), 14 8 , 15 7 (of 8, lacking viii), the text of psalms and canticles complete but litany imperfect and with no calendar, ruled in brown ink for 19 or 20 lines written below top line in formal gothic bookhands apparently by several scribes, in dark brown ink, occasional rubrics in red (usually just P[salmu]s), one-line initials to verses in red or alternately in red or blue, three-line initials to psalms alternately blue flourished in red or in red flourished with light blue, some puzzle initials in red and blue flourished in blue, one three-line painted initial to Psalm 2, FIVE LARGE FOLIATE INITIALS, some with dragons, THREE HISTORIATED INITIALS, and a NEARLY FULL-PAGE BEATUS INITIAL, all in colours and gold (severe damage to initials f.1 and 1v, damage and wear to other large foliate and historiated initials, some wear to text throughout, margins eroded ff.43, 103 and into text f.117, some original repairs unstitched). MEDIEVAL BINDING: sewn on three bands and bound in thick 13th(?)-century wood boards with cushioned edges almost flush with the textblock, covered with alum-tawed skin, originally with a single-strap-and-pin fastening closing from front to back, refurbished in the 14th or 15th century with two clasps fastening from the back to the front board (recesses visible on front board), these subsequently replaced by straps, and with five metal bosses arranged in a saltire pattern on the front board, the spine with the remains of a paper label inscribed in the 19th century '.3.9'(?), previously described as a 'contemporary binding' but the cropping of marginalia at f.65v perhaps makes it unlikely to be the original (the covering skin somewhat defective, modern repairs to the spine). In a fitted lined box with gilt spine. PROVENANCE: (a) The writing below top line makes it unlikely to be earlier than c.1230-40; the cropped marginalia f.65v indicate that the binding is not the original. (b) Inscribed with a note in German with the date 1467 (f.116). (c) Sotheby's 10 July 1972, lot 81, bought by Segre Amar for the Comites Latentes Collection, Geneva, MS. 99; deaccessioned and sold at Sotheby's 1 December 1998, lot 69. CONTENT: Psalms 1-150 in the Gallican version ff.1-107v; the six ferial canticles and creeds, ff.107v-118; Litany, lacking end, f.118v. The Litany and calendar were presumably too liturgically specific for a later owner, who had them removed. Scribal errors were corrected and omitted passageswere added in the margins. Psalm 88:29-35, supplied in the margin f.65v, was later crossed-through and the text added on a slip of parchment, sewn in and foliated 66. An eye-skip caused the repetition of Ps.133:2-3 after Ps.134:2 and the extra verses were cancelled in red, f.99. The back pastedown is a 13th-century bifolium from Gilbert Crispin's (d.1117) Disputatio de fide Christiana; the front pastedown is a partial leaf from a late 13th- or 14th-century Breviary. ILLUMINATION: The major decoration marks the usual ten-part divisions of the Psalter, with three historiated initials, a nearly full-page Beatus initial and foliate/dragon designs at the other divisions, typically nine-lines high (ff.27v, 37v, 48, 60, 71v and 84); Ps.2 was also marked by a large painted initial (f.1v). In Psalters from Southern Germany, St Michael killing the dragon often opened Ps.51 as a suitable embodiment of its content, f.37. The subject also suited the letter form with the dragon constituting the tail of the 'Q'. The use of saints for Psalter illustration has been linked to the development of the Psalter as a text for private devotion from the later 12th century (see E. Klemm, 'Die Darstellung von Heiligen als Thema der Psalterillustration', in The Illuminated Psalter, F.O.Büttner ed,.2004, pp.362-376). The presence of Sts Fran
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