Portable Secular Psalter with Antiphons; Italy, Naples (?), 14th century, third quarter

Title

Portable Secular Psalter with Antiphons; Italy, Naples (?), 14th century, third quarter

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 151

Associated place

Italian

Place of origin

Italian, Naples(?)

Date

14th century, third quarter

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves

Physical extent

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

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand, black ink; smaller script used for antiphons, responses, etc.

Decoration

10- to 13-line historiated initials on gold background (painted with floral and geometric designs on fol. 94r), and full borders, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage, gold discs, putti, grotesques and animals, at liturgical divisions. Medallions with coats of arms in several borders (see ‘Provenance’). fol. 7r, Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)), King David, seated, with psaltery at his chest, worn around his neck; pointing up to half-figure of God, holding a scroll; two bearded prophets with scrolls sitting on the steps of his throne; landscape with a tree and river in the foreground. fol. 45v, Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)), Psalmist, kneeling, pointing to his closed eyes, facing up towards God, in blue sky above, blessing. fol. 70r, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)), Psalmist, kneeling in front of three kneeling female (?) figures, pointing up at God, in blue sky above, blessing. fol. 94r, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)), The Fool (?), with shaved head, dressed in a tunic with a ragged hem, holding a snake, walking amidst rocky landscape. fol. 118r, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)), Psalmist praying in waters next to a half-submerged building (?), looking up at God, in clouds, blessing. fol. 146v, Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)), Psalmist, kneeling amidst rocky landscape, playing vielle, looking up at God in clouds, blessing; a group of small nude hairless figures (souls (?)), with outstretched arms kneeling in front of the psalmist. fol. 173r, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)), Tonsured clerics, including a boy, singing from a music book open on a draped lectern; the face of God above, in rays of light. fol. 200r, Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)), A group of kneeling white-, brown-, or blue-clad clerics and laymen, looking up at the Virgin enthroned with Christ. fol. 279r, Litany (initial K(yrie)), Bishop and a group of mourners with hoods over their heads (defaced), kneeling before an altar; a placard (?) on a pole in the background; God above, blessing; winged lion of St Mark (?) in the border.

Borders: see above.

2-line gold (flaking) initials, decorated with penwork, and borders (blue penwork with yellow wash) at the beginnings of psalms, canticles and prayers. Space left for an initial (fol. 106r).

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

Spaces left for KL monograms in the calendar.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

18th century, Italian: pasteboards; brown leather, plain except for two vertical blind lines near the spine on each cover; marbled paste-downs, with a pattern of light blue and white blobs; flyleaves watermarked with a crowned fleur-de-lis over letters ‘F F’; red speckled edges; loose bookmark of green silk; spine lost. Rebacked in similar leather, late 19th or 20th century, for Bodleian. 177–178 129–130 c. 66 (book closed).

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti. Earlier shelfmark: ‘Miscell. Liturg. 151’ (fol. 1r).

Provenance

Made in or near Naples: evidence of the calendar and decoration. Shield of arms occurring six times in illuminated borders: vair argent and azure on a chief or three torteaux (or scallop shells (?)) gules (fols. 7r (erased), 45v, 118r, 146v, 173r (erased) and 200r). Prayer ‘Omnipotens sempiterne deus miserere famulo tuo .p... .’ (possibly altered from ‘f’) (fol. 286r).

Matteo Luigi Canonici of Venice (1727–c. 1806) , but not from the libraries of Soranzo or Trevisan (Mitchell, 1969).

Title

A Franciscan Psalter

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 151

Summary

A Franciscan Psalter, written in Italy, with Canticles and (fol. 279) Litany.

On fols. 45v, 118, 147, 200, are the arms:--vair, on a chiefor three torteaux (?): they are erased on fol. 7.

Date

Written in the second half of the 14th century in Italy

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, with nine good miniatures, illuminatedborders, etc.

Physical extent

292 Leaves