Portable Psalter; Flanders, Bruges (?), late 13th or early 14th century

Title

Portable Psalter; Flanders, Bruges (?), late 13th or early 14th century

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 38

Date

13th century, late, or 14th century, early

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; added paper bifolium (fols. i–ii); fols. 230–233 cut with a knife and repaired with laid paper

Physical extent

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

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand, brown ink

Decoration

Gold KL monograms on blue and pink backgrounds, and borders made of gold bars on pink and blue backgrounds at the beginning of each month in the calendar.

Miniatures of irregular shapes with the Labours of the Months, often overlapping and obscuring the text. January: man warming his open legs by the fire, next to a table with a jug and cup February: nimbed woman with a candle, standing by an altar March: man pruning a tree with an axe April: man carrying flowering 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 picking grapes and putting them in a basket October: man sowing November: man slaughtering an ox December: man baking in an oven.

Full-page miniatures on gold backgrounds (flaking) in architectural frames and historiated initials, occupying most of the page, at liturgical divisions. The prefatory miniature cycle is probably incomplete. Miniatures preceding psalms 26, 52 and 109, and the text page containing the beginning of psalm 52, have been excised (see ‘Physical description’ (‘Collation’)). Prefatory miniatures and a miniature on a single leaf (fol. 142) are painted on the versos, leaving rectos blank (see Carlvant, 1985, p. 329 n. 14). Other miniatures, painted on leaves forming parts of the ten-leaf gatherings, are on the versos with the psalter text on the rectos. The miniatures and initials are on gold backgrounds (flaking) in rectangular frames. fol. 7v (miniature) Annunciation. fol. 8v (miniature) Annunciation to the Shepherds. fol. 9v Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) King David, seated, playing harp in the upper part; David slaying Goliath in the lower part; coiled tendrils and grotesques. fol. 38r Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) The Last Supper; coiled tendrils and a grotesque forming the tail of D. fol. 58v (miniature) The Betrayal; St Peter cutting off Malchus’s ear. fol. 59r Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)) Flagellation; coiled tendrils and a grotesque forming the tail of D. fol. 95v (miniature) Entombment: body of Christ embalmed by three men. fol. 96r Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) Resurrection: Christ steps out of the tomb, the lid of which is lifted by an angel; guards asleep on the ground; animal head and coiled tendrils, extending into the margins. fol. 119v (miniature) Noli me tangere. fol. 120r Psalm 80 (initial (E(xultate)) Incredulity of St Thomas; coiled tendrils, extending into the margins. fol. 142v (miniature) Ascension. fol. 143r Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)) Pentecost: seated apostles and the Virgin Mary; nimbed white dove descending from above; coiled tendrils, extending into the margins. fol. 166r Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) Coronation of the Virgin (rubbed); grotesque and coiled tendrils forming the tail of D.

Historiated initials: see above.

Borders: see above.

3-line gold initials on blue and pink backgrounds, with gold tendrils on blue and pink backgrounds, extending into margins, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles and litany.

Pink and blue panels in the left margins serving as backgrounds to 1-line gold initials at the beginnings of verses and periods. The litany is laid out in two columns with the panels and initials in the left and central margins.

Red and blue penwork line-endings on fols. 10r and 18v (the outer pages of a single bifolium).

Binding

Red leather, possibly as late as the 18th or early 19th century, over medieval wood boards. Original (?) sewing on tawed thongs. The boards retain under the leather the stations of two clasps at the fore-edge. Three raised bands on spine. Fragmentary paper label on spine with ‘PSALTERIVM’ written in ink; fragment of another label at the bottom of the spine. Paper pastedowns.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: received in 1834 with bequest of Douce.

Provenance

Made for the use of Bruges: evidence of the calendar and litany. The simplicity of the textual contents and the absence of grading in the calendar suggest a lay patron. St Nicholas appears in the litany and in red in the calendar. The litany is followed by a collect to St Nicholas (compare MS. Douce 49). Carlvant notes that several psalters from the Bruges–Ghent area, probably made for lay patrons, include images and prayers to St Nicholas of Myra (1978, pp. 338–9). The psalter has many similarities in codicology, illumination and textual contents with other contemporary psalters from the Bruges–Ghent area, such as MS. Auct. D. 4. 2 (‘Tweede Groep’, Carlvant, 1978, pp. 140–57).

14th-century English (?) addition of ‘Thomas Jonet’ (?) in the calendar.

Erased inscriptions in the margins, possibly of different dates, on pages containing miniatures and historiated initials (fols. 7v, 8v, 9v, 38r, 58v–59r, 95v–96r, 119v–120r, 122v–123r, 142v–143r) and on fols. 16r, 146v–147r, 212r. Fragments of text are preserved in the upper margin on fol. 10r; an erased inscription on fol. 212r left an offset on fol. 211v.

Added psalm numbers and short notes in English and Latin on fols. 13v and 16v (see ‘Text’) and fol. 230r (‘archengle . . . Johannes’ (?)) in a later 16th- or 17th-century hand.

Francis Douce, 1757–1834, see ODNB: bookplate on the upper pastedown. His (?) shelfmark (?): ‘B. 7’ in red ink on the upper pastedown (cf. MS. Douce 23, MS. Douce 24, MS. Douce 49).

Title

A Psalter with canticles (fol. 210), etc., preceded by a calendar (fol. 1), and followed (fol. 229v) by a litany

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 38

Summary

There are several full-page and smaller miniatures (occupations of the months, etc.), but leaves bearing them have been cut out after fols. 6, 8, 37, 77, 165.

The calendar and litany point to the Netherlands.

Date

written in the 13th cent. in the Netherlands

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, illuminated borders (French in style), with miniatures

Physical extent

235 Leaves