Portable psalter; Germany (Hildesheim?), 13th century, first half

Title

Portable psalter; Germany (Hildesheim?), 13th century, first half

Shelfmark

MS. Lat. liturg. e. 1

Place of origin

German, Hildesheim (?)

Date

13th century, first half (after 1194)

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; modern paper flyleaves

Physical extent

iv + 137 leaves

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand, black and brown ink.

Decoration

Red and blue penwork KL monograms in the calendar; gold architectural arches framing pages and subdividing them into two columns; medallions with miniatures on gold background, depicting the Signs of the Zodiac and the Labours of the Months: January: man with a drinking bowl warming legs by the fire (damaged); Aquarius February: man digging with a spade; Pisces March: man pruning a tree; Aries April: man grafting (?) plants; Taurus May: man on horseback with a hawk; Gemini June: bird feeding its young in a nest; Cancer July: man mowing hay with a scythe; Leo August: man reaping grain; Virgo September: man cutting grapes; a basket of grapes in his hand; itembra October: man sowing; Scorpio November: man slaughtering a pig; Sagittarius December: Janus feasting; Capricorn.

11-line initial infilled with Archangel Michael piercing a dragon (almost completely rubbed off) with a spear at psalm 51 (fol. 47v).

Full-page Beatus-initial (fol. 10v), decorated with interlace, animal figures, human and animal heads, floral and geometric designs on gold background. Similar initials, normally 11 lines high, at liturgical divisions, at psalms 26 (with nude human figure, fol. 27v), 38 (fol. 38r), 52 (7-line, fol. 48r), 68 (13-line, fol. 58v), 80 (12-line, fol. 71r), 97 (fol. 82v), 101 (fol. 84r), 109 (fol. 95r).

3-line blue initials with red penwork, alternating with gold initials with red and blue penwork at the beginnings of psalms.

1-line plain alternating red or blue initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Added full-page drawing (fol. 10r) in brown and red ink, and red, blue and yellow wash, depicting Christ rising from the tomb, holding a standard in his left hand, with the words O data est mihi om[nis] … emerging from his right hand (late 13th or early 14th century).

Musical notation

Antiphons are added in the margins in 14th-century hands, some with musical notation for the incipits.

Binding

Brown leather over wood boards.

Rebacked in the Bodleian with fragments of the earlier spine pasted to the new, including a black leather title-piece lettered in gilt PSALTERIUM. The base of the spine is lettered in gilt MS. || Lat. liturg. || e. I ; a circular paper label at the top is inscribed 935.

Acquisition

Bought at an auction at Messrs. Puttick and Simpson’s, 14 July 1887 (lot 935, cf. label on spine) for £2 4s (as recorded on fol. i recto); 127 (fol. i recto).

Provenance

Owned by the Leyben family in Hildesheim in the 15th century: obit in the calendar; Henning Leyben, his widow and children are mentioned in charters from Hildesheim (see Kroos, 1972, p. 129).

Belonged to chapel children in common , presumably in Hildesheim, in the 17th century: inscription on the inside of the upper board and a note on fol. i recto by Lee (see below), stating that on the old binding was a note: Dieser salter horett den Cappen kinderen ins gemein undt ins gemein der dess will lehren der must den erst zum besten keren undt must er sich rutten weren and on the outside of the cover were the letters and figures: DEM. || 16xx.

William Henry Black(1808–72), c. 1850 (fols. 1–2).

John Lee(formerly Fiott) (1783–1866), antiquary and astronomer, see ODNB, of Hartwell House near Aylesbury: inscribed J. Lee, Doctors Commons. R[e]paired 8. January 1836, No 10/97 London (fol. i recto); 10/97in pencil (fol. 3r); armorial bookplate with the motto Verum atque decens (fol. i recto).