Portable Secular Psalter with Antiphons; Flanders, Liège, late 13th or early 14th century

Title

Portable Secular Psalter with Antiphons; Flanders, Liège, late 13th or early 14th century

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 126

Associated place

Italian

Place of origin

Flemish, Liège

Date

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

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves

Physical extent

246 leaves Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, frequently causing the loss of decoration.

Hands

Small formal Gothic book hand, black ink.

Decoration

Pink and blue KL monograms on gold backgrounds and borders, made of pink, blue and gold bars ending with spirals, decorated with foliage and gold discs, in the calendar. Four KL monograms are cut out.

Panels (gold lozenges set on pink and blue quadrilobes) with the Labours of the Months (rubbed, gold flanking): January: hooded man, drinking from a cup and stirring fire with a fork; table to the left February: man pruning a tree March: man digging with a pickaxe April: man holding two flowering branches May: man playing vielle (found in other Liège psalters, see Oliver, 1978, p. 108) June: woman gathering flowers in a basket July: man mowing hay with a scythe August: man reaping grain September: man treading and eating grapes October: man sowing November: man knocking down acorns for pigs December: man slaughtering a pig.

Six (of an original ten (?)) historiated initials with miniatures in architectural frames, on gold background (flaking), occupying most of the page, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage and latticework, at liturgical divisions, all badly rubbed, those at psalms 38, 52, 80, and 101 apparently missing. The initials are accompanied by full borders, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage, hunting scenes, musicians, grotesques and animals. fol. 14r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) The martyrdom of St Lambert and a deacon. (full border) Lady kneeling in prayer, possibly the patron. fol. 45r Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) King David venerating Christ. fol. 79v Psalm 51 (initial Q(uid)) The Massacre of the Innocents. There is an added, partially obliterated inscription in ink on gold background, above the sword held by a soldier: ‘P .....’, probably in an early modern Italian hand responsible for pen trials and drawings in the margins elsewhere in the psalter (see ‘Provenance’). fol. 98v Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) Jonah, praying in the mouth of the whale, between two towers with people, floating on boats (representing the towns of Joppa and Tarshish between which Jonah was sailing (Oliver, 1979, p. 111 and figs. 3 and 4, and Oliver, 1988, vol. 1, p. 70)); Christ and the Virgin enthroned above. fol. 141v Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)) Three clerics, singing from a book open on a lectern. fol. 165r Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) The Throne of Grace: God-the-Father, holding the arms of the Crucifix, dove flying from Father to Son.

Borders: see above.

3-line historiated initials on gold backgrounds (flaking), infilled with busts and halffigures of men and women, some nimbed, holding books or pointing to the text, and borders made of bars and spirals, decorated with grotesques, birds, apes, human and animal heads, foliage and gold discs, at the beginnings of psalms, canticles and prayers.

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

Pages without 3-line initials have gold bars with red and blue penwork in the left margin, and a miniature in the lower margin. The miniatures depict hunts, fights, grotesques, apes, birds, beasts, insects, fish and scenes involving animals and humans, e.g. a shepherd chasing a wolf from the sheep (fols. 45v–46r); a woman with distaff, spinning, and a cat playing with yarn (fol. 94r); a fox with a cloak and staff speaking to a cock (fols. 96v–97r); a cat with a rat in its mouth (fol. 103r); an angel playing the vielle (fol. 142r); a man with a dog jumping over a stick (fol. 145r); a fox pretending to be dead to attract birds of prey (fols. 223v–224r).

Added rubric on fol. 244v in red ink.

Binding

17th century or 18th century, Italian?: pasteboards; parchment covering, sides plain; the flat spine has three horizontal gilt lines at top and bottom, and a gilt title with ornamental border tooled directly onto it, with no label; no clear signs of clasps or ties; edges plain, partly discoloured. 113–115 77–80 c. 43–46 (book closed). The manuscript was in Italy by the 15th century, but has a later ex libris in Portuguese on the front paste-down.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti. Earlier shelfmark: ‘Misc. Liturg. 126’ (upper pastedown, cf. fol. 13v).

Provenance

Made in Liège: evidence of the calendar, litany, decoration, and a prayer for the clergy and people of St Mary and St Lambert (fol. 232r). Perhaps written for a lay noblewoman, depicted on fol. 14r.

In Italy in the 15th century (?): 15th-century additions to the calendar, and a prayer (fol. 244v).

Unidentified Italian (Solopova) or Portuguese (Barker-Benfield) owner: ‘Pertence (or Pertenie (?)) ao P. Azevedo ’ (upper pastedown, 17th century (?)).

Pen trials and crude drawings in the margins in early modern Italian hands, e.g. fols. 1r, 24r, 66v, 109r, 110r, 123r 177r, 244v, etc.

Matteo Luigi Canonici of Venice (1727–c. 1806) : bought soon after 1780 (Mitchell, 1969); not from the libraries of Soranzo or Trevisan.

Title

A Psalter in Latin with Canticles, Creeds, etc.

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 126

Summary

A Psalter in Latin with Canticles, Creeds, etc., preceded by a Calendar (fol. 1v), and followed by a Litany (fol. 227). Leaves are lost after fols. 237, 244. St. Servatius is in red in the Calendar on May 20, and his translation is at June 14: so the volume probably belongs to the district of Maestricht.

There are some miniatures (one at fol. 14 apparently of the murder of St. Thomas a Becket) and borders, etc., and at the foot of each page grotesques: and in the Calendar, vignettes of the occupation of each month.

Date

Written in the first half of the 14th century in the Netherlands (?)

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, illuminated

Physical extent

245 Leaves

Custodial history

'Pertence ao P. Azevedo' (17th cent. ?).