THE NATIVITY and THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT: two historiated initials on two leaves from a Noted Choir Psalter in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum. [Germany, late 13th century]

THE NATIVITY and THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT: two historiated initials on two leaves from a Noted Choir Psalter in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum[Germany, late 13th century]
two leaves, each c. 300 × 205mm, ruled in leadpoint for up to 18 lines of text, or text and music in square notation on four-line staves ruled in red, written in fine formal gothic bookhands in two sizes, with rubrics, capitals stroked in red, the text comprising Pss. 37:13–38:5 and Pss. 96:3–97:5, the psalms separated by antiphons and cues to other psalms, thus including the start of two of the major divisions of the psalter at Psalms 38 and 97, with TWO LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS with ornament extending into the margins, one two-line initial in red with blue penwork, one in blue with red penwork, one-line initials alternately red or blue-green, marginal Psalm numbers added in bold numerals in the 17th or 18th century; some marginal staining and rubbing to both initials; in a modern blue cloth binding with gilt leather title-piece.
PROVENANCEBernard M. Rosenthal (1920–2017), bookseller, of New York and San Francisco (on whom see Jackson, 2017): with his pencil number ‘II/201’; presumably sold in 1968 to:Mark Lansburgh (1925–2013), teacher, hand-press printer, and book collector (on whom see Dutschke, 2024): inscribed in pencil by him ‘Rosenthal .M?. 1968’ and ‘(Utrecht)’, with another inscription recording its loan in 1989 to the Baker Library, Dartmouth College, his alma mater; acquired from him in 2003 by:The Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 1218.
ILLUMINATIONThe scenes are executed as drawings in red and brown inks, with red and blue paints used for the background and for the initial itself. The style is unsophisticated but has considerable charm.
Psalms 38 and 97 are two of the major divisions of the Psalter that usually receive special treatment (cf. lot 25). Psalm 38 itself, which begins ‘Dixi custodiam vias meas’ (I said, I will take heed to my ways), here depicts The Flight into Egypt, with Mary carrying the swaddled infant, and Joseph leading the donkey. Psalm 97 begins ‘Cantate domino canticum novum’ (Sing to the lord a new song), here depicts The Nativity, with the Virgin Mary in bed, Joseph at her side, and the infant Jesus in his manger, with the Ox and Ass, in the background. From these two subjects we can see that the major psalms are not illustrated with imagery inspired by the text of the adjacent psalms themselves (as is often found in English and French Psalters), but instead are based on the life of Christ.
A leaf with the Psalm 52 initial, depicting The Temptation of Christ, was offered by Adam Weinberger & Konstantinopel, Catalogue 15 (April 2024). One other half-leaf of the parent manuscript is known to us, with the Psalm 109 initial depicting a ‘Gnadenstuhl’ Trinity.
REFERENCESI. Jackson, Bernard M. Rosenthal, 5 May 1920 – 14 January 2017: A Biographical and Bibliographical Account by Ian Jackson in the Style of Pierre Bayle (1646–1706) (Berkeley: The Wednesday Table, 2017).
C. Dutschke, ‘Mark Lansburgh: Collector and Seller of Medieval Manuscripts’, in Medieval Manuscripts and Their Provenance: Essays in Honour of Barbara A. Shailor, ed. by A.S.G. Edwards (Brewer, 2024), pp. 116–31.