Portable Psalter; French Flanders, Diocese of Thérouanne, region of St-Omer (?); c. 1270–1290

Title

Portable Psalter; French Flanders, Diocese of Thérouanne, region of St-Omer (?); c. 1270–1290

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 49

Date

c. 1270–1290

Language

Hebrew

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves

Physical extent

228 leaves Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of text and decoration.

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand, black ink.

Decoration

Gold KL monograms on blue and pink backgrounds in the calendar (cut out on fol. 5).

Miniatures with the Labours of the Months, on gold backgrounds, in frames pointed at the top, by a different artist from that of the historiated initials in the psalter (Pächt and Alexander, 1966–73): January: man warming one bare foot by the fire, holding his shoe in one hand and drinking out of a bowl (rubbed) February: woman holding a lighted candle and a book March: man digging with a spade April: man holding a glove and branches (?) May: man with a hawk June: man carrying a bundle of wood on his back July: man mowing hay with a scythe August: man reaping grain September: man cutting grapes; a basket with grapes on his back October: man sowing November: man knocking down acorns for pigs December: man baking bread in an oven.

Nine historiated initials in the psalter (the Beatus-page is missing) on gold backgrounds, occupying two-thirds of a page, and borders decorated with grotesques, hybrids and animals. The iconography of the initials is related to other Franco- Flemish psalters of the second half of the 13th century, which have a Christological cycle at the eight divisions, and saints at psalms 51 and 101 (see Carlvant, 1978, pp. 473–4). fol. xxx verso: Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)). The Betrayal; Christ healing Malchus’s ear. Hybrid figure with a shield and a sword. fol. xlviii verso Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)). Christ before Pilate; dragon forms the tail of Q. fol. lxiiii verso: Psalm 51 (initial Q(vid)).St Francis preaching to birds, Brother Leo (?) sitting behind him. Grotesque and a crouching dog form the tail of Q. fol. lxv verso: Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)). Flagellation. Ape riding a dog. fol. lxxxii verso: Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)). Christ carrying the Cross. fol. ciii recto: Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)).Crucifixion, with Longinus pointing to his eye, piercing Christ’s side, and Stephaton with the sponge on a reed. Ape with a trumpet. fol. cxxiii verso: Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)). Descent from the Cross: the Virgin holding Christ’s hand, Joseph of Arimathea supporting his body, and Nicodemus removing the nail from his feet; the sun and moon above. fol. cxxvi verso: Psalm 101 (initial D(omine)). St Clare of Assisi (?) in a habit tied with a rope with three knots, giving boots to beggars. fol. cxliiii verso: Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) The body of Christ embalmed by three men.

Borders: see above.

3-line gold initials on blue and pink backgrounds, and borders made of gold, blue and pink bars, some ending with animal heads, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany and prayers.

2-line gold and blue initials, decorated with contrasting blue and red penwork at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Line-endings with gold, white, red and blue geometric and floral designs.

Binding

Brown leather (calf (?)) over pasteboard, 18th century. Gilt floral border round the outer edge of both covers. Rebacked in the Bodleian, with the original, fragmentary spine pasted to the lower pastedown. Panels decorated with gilt floral and geometric designs on the original spine. One of the fragmentary panels has gilt lettering: ‘[PSALTE]RIVM || MS. SÆC. XIV’. Discoloration left by a (Bodleian (?)) paper label at the bottom of the spine. Gilt fillet lines on the edges of covers, gilt decorations on turn-ins. Pastedowns and fly-leaves made of blue marbled paper with white floral designs. Gilt edges of textblock with gauffering.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: received in 1834 with bequest of Douce.

Provenance

Probably made for use of the diocese of Thérouanne: evidence of the calendar and litany. Perhaps made for a female patron with Franciscan connections. The final prayer in the original hand has feminine grammatical forms (fol. ccxiiii verso), Francis appears in the calendar and there are Franciscan saints in the initials.

Many 16th-century additions by an owner with an interest in the Jewish usage of psalms. The additions are in majuscules, Hebrew, or a cursive humanist, Italian (?) hand (see fols. lxiii verso–lxiiii recto). The erased text in the lower margins of fols. lx recto and lxii recto, which preserve fragments of reddish ink, was probably by the same hand.

Francis Douce, 1757–1834, see ODNB: bookplate on the upper pastedown, notes on fols. 2r–v and ccxvii recto–verso, his (?) shelfmark (?): ‘B iiij’ in red ink (upper pastedown and fol. 1v, cf. MS. Douce 23, MS. Douce 24, MS. Douce 38).

Title

A Psalter, with canticles (fol. clxxxv)

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 49

Summary

Preceded by a calendar (fol. 4), and followed by:

(fol. ccii) a litany

(fol. ccviv) the Office for the Dead

The calendar points to Thérouanne or that part of France (st. Audomarus on Sept. 9, st. Maximus on Nov. 27, both in red), but the litany does not.

The first leaf of the Psalter seems to have been left blank.

Date

written at the close of the 13th cent. in France

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, with illuminated calendar, some miniatures, borders

Physical extent

9 Leaves