Portable Psalter; French Flanders (?), 14th century, second quarter

Title

Portable Psalter; French Flanders (?), 14th century, second quarter

Shelfmark

MS. Rawl. G. 21

Place of origin

Flanders, French Flanders(?)

Date

14th century, second quarter

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

158 leaves Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of decoration.

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand, black and brown ink.

Decoration

Historiated initials on gold backgrounds and borders decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage, gold discs and grotesques at liturgical divisions: fol. 1r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) 8-line initial with seated King David (?) (badly rubbed; the upper half missing). (full border) David with a sling and stones, and seated Goliath (?) (badly rubbed and mutilated); panel with a mask. fol. 26v Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) 8-line initial with King David kneeling before an altar, pointing to his eyes; the head of God in clouds above. fol. 67v Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) 8-line initial with Jonah emerging from the whale and a building with towers on the shore (Nineveh?); half-figure of God in clouds above, holding an orb and blessing. fol. 127v Psalm 119 (initial A(d)) 3-line initial with a portrait head of a bearded man. fol. 141v Psalm 143 (initial A(d)) 3-line initial with a portrait head of a bearded man. fol. 147v Weekly canticles (initial C(onfitebor)) 5-line initial with seated Christ, holding an orb and blessing (defaced).

Borders: see above.

2-line gold initials on blue and pink backgrounds, decorated with foliage, at the beginnings of psalms and canticles.

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

Red and blue penwork line-endings.

Binding

Late 17th-century binding, possibly made for Thomas Noble (see ‘Provenance’). Brown leather of suede finish over pasteboard. Single blind fillet line border round the edges of both covers. Blind roll rectangular decoration, made of floral and arabesque designs, with floral corner-pieces on both covers (very faint). Gilt decoration on the edges of covers. Edges of textblock painted red. Rebacked in the Bodleian. Gilt lettering on spine ‘MS. || RAWL. G. || 21’. Laid paper pastedowns, contemporary with the binding, and fly-leaves with two different watermarks (one with the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam with initials ‘H G’).

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson; accessioned in 1756. Earlier Bodleian shelfmark: ‘Auctarium Rawlinson 21’ (fol. iii recto).

Provenance

Made in French Flanders (?) in the second quarter of the 14th century: evidence of decoration.

‘iesu marya’ and ‘amen’ written in the upper margins of fols. 134v–135r, 16th century (?).

Partly erased 16th-century (?) note in English and added verse numbers (fols. 101v–102r).

17th-century (?) English owner who numbered the psalms, and wrote notes in the margins about the missing text.

‘Thom : Noble: Anno Domini 1694’ (fol. 153r). Possibly Thomas Noble of Butterwick, Westmorland, who matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1686 and was Canon of York and rector of churches in York (Foster, 1891–92, p. 1073).

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755), see ODNB.