Psalter : with calendar, canticles and litany : in Latin

Item Information

Title:
Psalter : with calendar, canticles and litany : in Latin
Creator:
Catholic Church
Former owner:
Frost, H. Harvey
Former owner:
Bartlett, F. W., Mrs.
Former owner:
Maggs Bros.
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Date:
[1300–1350]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Illuminations
Gothic scripts
Psalters
Inscriptions
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Netherlands
Manuscripts, Medieval--Netherlands
devotional calendars
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Places:
Flanders (former primary political entity)
Extent:
247 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 121 x 80 (70 x 45) mm bound to 14 cm, in box 16 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/8c97rg645
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[Flanders]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1-12v: calendar (lacking 1 leaf after fol. 7, the last half of June and the first half of July)
2. fol. 13-216v: psalter, eight-partite division. Begins imperfectly in the middle of Psalm 1: "...qui non abiit" (one leaf lacking, presumably with an historiated initial [B] for "Beatus vir").
3. fol. 217-239: canticles.
4. fol. 239-242v: Litany.
5. fol. 243-247v: Hours of the Virgin (Matins only).
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in Flanders in the first half of the 14th century; eight lalter paper endleaves added, the first of which is numbered fol. 247 in a 15th-century hand, with contents to replace a lost leaf.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: The calendar includes rubrics in Flemish and the Flemish saints Foca (5 March), Gaius (10 March), Quirinus (30 March), Balbinus (31 March), Eutropius (30 April), Remaclus of Trier (3 Sept., in red), Severinus of Trier (24 October, in red), and Hubert of Lüttich (3 Nov., in red). Early inscription mentioning St. Agnes, fol. 13. Fifteenth-century additions to the calendar of Franciscan saints such as Paul the First Hermit and Clare. Sold Sotheby's London 5 March 1934, lot 109; Mrs. F. W. Bartlett (her sale, Sotheby, 3 Dec. 1951, lot 2); H. Harvey Frost, his bookplate on fol. i.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by BPL in 1954 from Maggs (cat. 816, 1953, no. 158).
Notes (date):
This date is inferred.
Notes (citation):
Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 215.
Notes (object):
Collation: Parchment, with eight paper leaves added at end (no visible watermarks), fol. i (later parchment) + 247 + i (later parchment) ; 1¹²⁻¹ (lacking one leaf after fol. 7) 2¹⁰ 3-6¹⁰ 7¹²⁻¹ (lacking one leaf after fol. 66) 8-12¹⁰ 13⁴⁻¹ (one leaf cancelled after fol. 126) 14-25¹⁰ 26⁸ (this quire entirely of paper) ; catchwords in lower right corner, final verso of each quire. Modern arabic pencil foliation, upper outer corner of each folio.
Layout: Single column, 18 lines. Bounding and writing lines in brown ink.
Script: Written in black ink in a gothic textualis formata (textus quadratus).
Decoration (primary): Psalms begin with three-line initials in salmon and blue, some historiated with kneeling figures, others with foliate infill on gold background; gold, salmon and blue bar borders with birds and grotesques, white filigree highlighting; line fillers in similar scheme with grotesque heads, fol. 13-14 only; fol. 15v and following, initials and borders less elaborate, line fillers geometric red and purple penwork.
Decoration (secondary): Twelve miniatures depicting the labors of the month, one on each calendar page (each month begins on the verso and ends on the facing recto, with the miniature in the lower margin of the recto). Lacking the month of June. Seven 8-line historiated initials with full bar border in blue, salmon and gold with white filigree highlighting, one at each Psalter division (lacking that for Psalm 1). Present at fol. 44, 63v, 83, 101v, 127, 148, 171.
Binding: 16th-century pigskin over boards, tooled and stamped, spine in compartments, split bands, bevelled boards, metal clasps (possibly later), modern vellum pastedowns and conjugate flyleaves in front and back. Preserved in a light olive cloth clamshell box with black lettering-pieces.
Notes (language):
In Latin and Flemish.
Identifier:
06_01_018693
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Med.132
MS 1555 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999091846608