Psalter ('The Aspremont Psalter'), Companion Volume to a Book of Hours; France, Lorraine (?), late 13th or early 14th century

Title

Psalter ('The Aspremont Psalter'), Companion Volume to a Book of Hours; France, Lorraine (?), late 13th or early 14th century

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 118

Date

c. 1290–1310

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; added paper leaves at the front and back

Physical extent

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

Hands

Formal Gothic book hands, often with calligraphic descenders on the bottom line of the page, black and brown ink.

Decoration

The style of illumination is related to manuscripts produced in Lorraine in the late 13th and early 14th century, such as the book of hours (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum MS. W. 93); the two-volume breviary of Renaud de Bar, provost of St Madeleine in Verdun in 1301 (London, British Library, Yates-Thompson MS. 8 and Verdun, Bibliothèque municipale MS. 107), and his pontifical, dating to the time when he was bishop of Metz (1301–1316) (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS. 298) (see Oliver, 1988, vol. 1, p. 181; Randall et al., 1989). Signed by an illuminator on fol. 142r: a bird holding in its beak a small bearded figure, a cripple (?), holding a scroll with lettering ‘ nicolausme fecit qui illuminat librum’.

Calendar: Blue and pink KL monograms on gold backgrounds with white tracery, and borders of gold, blue and pink bars, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage and gold discs.

Labours of the Months and the Signs of the Zodiac, set in cusped medallions with gold borders or backgrounds on the right side of each page: January: Janus feasting; Aquarius February: man warming by the fire; Pisces March: man pruning trees; Aries April: man carrying flowering branches; Taurus May: man on horseback with a hawk and a flower; Gemini (naked twins behind a shield) June: man mowing hay with a scythe; Cancer July: man reaping grain; Leo August: man threshing grain; Virgo (a woman with a flower and a staff with fleur-de-lis) September: man treading and eating grapes, and another carrying grapes in a basket; Libra (a woman with scales) October: man sowing; Scorpio November: man knocking down acorns for pigs; Sagittarius December: man slaughtering a pig; Capricorn.

Historiated initials and borders at liturgical divisions, accompanied, apart from psalm 26 (fol. 31v), by decorative panels with the opening words of each psalm in gold. On all panels, apart from psalm 1, the text alternates with the arms of the patrons. Most initials are over half a page tall, decorated with foliage, on blue, pink and gold backgrounds. The pages with the initials have full borders of pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage, human and animal figures and inset panels with religious and secular scenes. There are also smaller, 3-line historiated initials at the beginnings of the canticles and litany. fol. 7r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) King David playing harp in the upper part, David and Goliath in the lower part. (full border) Panels containing the Virgin and Child, Crucifixion, St Margaret emerging from a dragon, mounted Joffroy and kneeling Isabelle wearing their respective arms (see ‘Provenance’); dog chasing a hare; grotesque. fol. 31v Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) King David pointing to his eyes, kneeling before an image of the Virgin on an altar. (full border) Ape with a shield and stick confronting a stork; hare blowing a trumpet; man with a sword and shield; bird; ape; hare. fol. 47v Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)) The Anointing of David; God above. (full border) Hounds chasing a stag; bird; squirrel. fol. 60v Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)) The Fool with a stick and bread, nude apart from a cloak; the head of Christ with cruciform halo in clouds above. (full border) Jousting grotesques; apes blowing trumpets; squirrel. fol. 74r Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) King David praying in waters in the lower part; half-figure of Christ with cruciform halo, holding a book and blessing in the upper part. (full border) Hounds chasing a stag; hare. fol. 92r Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)) King David playing five bells. (full border) Two men jousting; bird; lion; hare. fol. 108r Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)) Five clerics singing from a book open on a lectern. (full border) Hunter blowing horn and a dog chasing a stag; owl. fol. 127r Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) Trinity: two seated figures with cruciform halos, blessing, one holding a book, another an orb; nimbed white dove descending from clouds above. (full border) Panels with kneeling Joffroy wearing his arms, a kneeling woman (Isabelle (?)) and St Margaret emerging from a dragon; two jousting knights bearing the arms of Kievraing and Châtillon in the bas-de-page; man blowing a trumpet; grotesque; lion. fol. 163r Canticles (initial C(onfitebor)) 3-line initial infilled with a prophet holding a scroll with the words ‘Dauid propheta’ on gold background. fol. 178v Litany (initial K(yrie)) Clerics singing from a book open on a lectern. 2-line historiated initials at the beginnings of psalms and canticles, decorated with heraldic insignia, figures of prophets with scrolls and books, saints, men and women in prayer, grotesques, animal figures and masks, coiled tendrils and foliage on gold background. 1-line initials at the beginnings of verses and periods, decorated with human heads, animal figures and masks, and floral designs on gold background.

Borders: see above. Every page has a full or three-quarter border of blue, pink and gold bars, decorated with coiled tendrils, leaves and gold discs, grotesques, animal and human figures.

Decorated initials.

Many pages contain scenes, usually in bas-de-page, featuring the patrons in prayer, saints, knights, hunts and theatrical performances. Several scenes illustrate subjects from the Bestiary, such as a unicorn with its head in the lap of a virgin, killed by a hunter (fol. 32v), a fox pretending to be dead to attract the birds of prey (fols. 56v, 102v, 121r), a pelican feeding its young with its blood (fols. 66r, 142v) and a beaver castrating itself to escape from hunters (fol. 107v). Other subjects include: St Margaret emerging from a dragon (fol. 23r); St Catherine (fols. 27v, 103v, 121r); the Fool with a club and bread (fol. 42v); a female saint with a book, a palm and the Lamb of God (fol. 63r); St Stephen (fol. 66v); a figure with a scroll inscribed ‘zacharias propheta’ (fol. 173r); a man beating a dog to tame a chained lion (fols. 124r, 173v–174r); St Athanasias writing (fol. 176r); nimbed prophets (?) and a king, each with a scroll inscribed ‘vere languores nostras ipse tulit’ (Isaiah 53: 4) (fols. 39r, 130v , 177v), ‘tv es devs christvs’ (fol. 90v), etc.

Line-endings, decorated with floral designs, animal figures and heads, grotesques and arms of the patrons.

Rubrics in red ink

Binding

Blind stamped brown leather over boards, French, 14th or 15th century. On the upper cover a central column of small stamps, c. 10 × 8 mm (‘a pelican in her piety’); surrounded by a border of stamps, c. 13 × 13 mm (an animal with long horns); surrounded by two further borders of stamps, the first c. 20 × 20 mm (three flowers and four leaves), the second c. 9 × 16 mm (vine). The first three stamps are also used on the lower cover together with another stamp, c. 12 × 38 mm (coiled tendrils, flowers and leaves). Sewn on six stations. Rebacked, probably in the Bodleian. Gilt lettering on spine ‘MS. || Douce. || 118’. Fragments of the fittings of two straps on the upper cover and impressions left by the fittings of two pins on the lower cover. Gilt edges of textblock. Parchment pastedowns.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: received in 1834 with bequest of Douce.

Provenance

A companion of the book of hours, Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria MS. Felton 173/1, produced by the same team of scribes and illuminators and possibly originally bound together (described in Manion, 2005). Probably made for Isabelle of Kievraing, wife of Joffroy d’Aspremont (d. 1302): their arms, correspondingly, gules a cross argent, and or a chief bendy of six argent and gules, appear throughout (Manion, 2005, pp. 114–19). The companion volume in Melbourne uses feminine grammatical forms. The arms of other noble families to which Isabelle and Joffroy were related are occasionally depicted. Thus jousting knights in bas-de-page of fol. 127r bear the arms of Kievraing and Châtillon (Châtillon-Porcien, a branch of the Châtillon-Marne family in the Champagne; see Morgan, 2003, pp. 8 and n. 29, 19, and Manion, 2005, pp. 114–15). Some arms have not been identified (see Morgan, 2003, pp. 7–8; Manion, 2005, p. 115). The borders and 2-line initials also contain images of a woman wearing Aspremont arms, and of nuns in a grey-brown, Franciscan (?), habit and in a black, Benedictine, habit. These images may represent the members of the patrons’ family.

A list in a 14th-century hand on the upper pastedown, containing the opening words of psalms and canticles followed by (incorrect) running numbers. The psalms at liturgical divisions in the psalter, but also some other psalms, are marked with paragraph marks. An ownership (?) inscription is cut from the lower pastedown.

Abbaye du Perray (Cistercian nunnery, Abbaye du Perray-aux-Nonnains, diocese of Angers (?)): erased 16th-century (?) ownership inscriptions of ‘Madame l’abesse du Perray’ (fols. 69r and 182r). An erased inscription, possibly in the same hand, on fol. i recto. 16th-century addition of prayers in honour of St Giles (fols. 181v–182r).

The companion volume of the hours belonged in the 16th century to Walter Cramer, physician of King Henry VIII (Manion and Vines, 1984, p. 176).

Thomas Payne (?) (1752–1831), London bookseller and publisher, see ODNB: ‘Payne’ (?), written by Douce in pencil on the upper pastedown. Price ‘10. 10. 0’ in pencil (fol. i recto).

Francis Douce, 1757–1834, see ODNB: bookplate on the upper pastedown; notes on fol. 183r.

Title

A Psalter, preceded by a calendar (fol. 1)

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 118

Summary

Followed by:

canticles (fol. 163)

litany (fol. 178v)

The calendar points to the neighbourhood of Metz and the Netherlandish frontier. On fol. 181v is an office of st. Giles, added in the 15th cent. Several coats of arms occur in the marginal grotesques, the commonest being gules a cross argent, and party per fess, in the upper part bendy gules and argent, the lower part or.

Date

written in the second half of the 13th cent. in France

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, with illuminated capitals, borders, grotesques, etc., binding: panels containing flowers, dragons, pelicans, etc., French (?) 15th cent. (?), on leather covering boards

Physical extent

148 Leaves

Custodial history

A half effaced inscription of the 16th cent. at fol. 182 shows that the volume once belonged to 'madame l' abesse Du Perray', cf. fol. 69.