Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Carthusian Use; Italy, Milan (?), late 14th or early 15th century, before 1405 (?)

Title

Choir Psalter with Antiphons, Carthusian Use; Italy, Milan (?), late 14th or early 15th century, before 1405 (?)

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 378

Associated place

Italian

Place of origin

Italian, Milan(?)

Date

Late 14th or early 15th century (before 1405?)

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves

Physical extent

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

Hands

Large formal Gothic book hand, black ink.

Decoration

Red and blue penwork KL monograms in the calendar.

Pink historiated initials on gold background, in rectangular frames, decorated with foliage and sprays of flowers and leaves extending into margins. fol. 7r, Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)), 10-line initial, decorated with monochrome pink foliage, mask and figures of prophets (?), one seated, another standing under architectural canopy. In the lower part is King David, seated in a landscape, playing psaltery; in the upper part is halffigure of God, holding an orb and blessing. (full border) Coiled tendrils with flowers, leaves and gold discs, two birds. fol. 22r, Psalm 20 (initial D(omine)), 6-line initial, infilled with King David, finger raised in a gesture of teaching, trees in the background. fol. 28r, Psalm 26 (initial D(omine)), 6-line initial, infilled with King David, pointing to his eyes, rays of light coming from above. fol. 35r, Psalm 32 (initial E(xultate)), 6-line initial, infilled with lay musicians and singers; one sitting on the cross-bar of the initial, playing bells. fol. 44r, Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David, pointing to his mouth with an extended tongue (smudged). fol. 52v, Psalm 45 (initial D(eus)), 8-line initial, decorated with foliage and a profile face, infilled with kneeling King David, pointing up to the bust of God in clouds above. fol. 59v, Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)), 8-line initial, decorated with foliage and profile faces, infilled with the Fool holding a club. fol. 66v, Psalm 59 (initial D(eus)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David, finger raised in a gesture of teaching. fol. 74v, Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)), 8-line initial, infilled with nude King David praying in waters, looking up at God, holding an orb and blessing, surrounded by seraphim. fol. 82r, Psalm 73 (initial U(t)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David with a raised outstretched hand, the other on his chest. fol. 91v, Psalm 79 (initial Q(ui)), 9-line initial, infilled with seated God, with cruciform halo, holding an orb and blessing, surrounded by seraphim. fol. 97r, Psalm 85 (initial I(ncluna)), 6-line initial, infilled with a tonsured cleric in a white Carthusian habit, kneeling in prayer, in a landscape. fol. 107v, Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)), 7-line initial, infilled with a group of tonsured clerics in white Carthusian (?) habits, singing from a book open on a lectern. fol. 112r, Psalm 101 (initial D(omine)), 7-line initial, infilled with King David, kneeling in prayer, looking up at rays of light. fol. 119v, Psalm 105 (initial C(onfitemini)), 8-line initial, infilled with a tonsured cleric in a white Carthusian habit, kneeling with head bowed and arms crossed in prayer (?), blessed by God in rays of light. fol. 129r, Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)), 9-line initial, infilled with the Trinity: seated God-the-Father, holding a book and blessing, and Christ, displaying wounds, sharing a mantle; white dove between their heads. fol. 181r, Canticles for the year (initial E(cce)), 8-line initial, infilled with King David, pointing above to half-figure of Christ in rays of light. Bird; sprays of leaves extending into margins.

Border: see above.

2- to 3-line alternating red and blue initials, decorated with contrasting blue or red penwork, and red or blue penwork borders with floral designs at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, hymns and sections of the Office of the Dead.

1-line alternating plain red or blue initials at the beginnings of verses and periods.

Guide-letters for initials often survive.

Rubrics in red ink.

Musical notation

Notation on staves (see van Dijk 1957).

Binding

16th century, late, or 17th century, Italian, not the first binding as illuminations and a 16th-century table (fol. 221r) are trimmed: wood boards, rounded outside bevel; brown leather, blind-tooled with multiple lines and with indistinct small centrepieces of a Virgin and Child on crescent moon, in an upright oval within floral tooling; spine lost; traces of two fore-edge clasps with broad straps (lost), perhaps of brown leather on a whiter core, and of 4+1 lost bosses with scalloped edges on each cover, the central bosses once obscuring the centrepieces; edges plain. Perhaps modified later, before reback dated 1958, Bodleian. 345–347 233–236 c. 83–85 (book closed).

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti. Earlier shelfmarks: ‘MS. Liturg. Miscel. 378’ (upper pastedown), ‘E codd. Bodl. Miscell. Liturg 378’ (fols. i verso, 1r).

Provenance

Made for the Charterhouse of Garegnano (?) near Milan. Compare MS. Canon. Liturg. 271, which has an almost identical calendar with the same dedication date; see also MS. Add. D. 47, probably from the same house. Erased inscriptions in the lower margins of fols. 6r and 8r, the latter perhaps beginning ‘Conuentus Gerg[ ... ] p rope Mediol[ ... ]’; compare MS. Canon. Liturg. 271, fol. 8r.

Unknown 16th-century owner added foliation and the index of psalms (see ‘Text’).

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

Title

A Carthusian Psalter

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Liturg. 378

Summary

A Carthusian Psalter, with canticles, etc., perhaps connected with Milan: preceded by a calendar, and followed (fol. 193) by a Hymnal, etc. On fol. 35 is a curious miniature of bell-ringing. There are musical notes.

Date

Written in the 14th century at Milan (?)

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, with miniatures, borders, etc., binding, stamped leather on boards, the back modern

Physical extent

222 Leaves

Custodial history

In the calendar on Apr. 22 is 'Dedicatio ecclesie nostre. Candele', which may indicate Milan (cf. MS. Canon. Liturg. 271, which is also a Carthusian book): on Dec. 7 is 'Ordinatio beati Ambrosii episcopi. Sollenne' in red: on July 24 is st. Christiana (Christina) of Tyro in Tuscany. Some of the trentals are peculiar (Mar. 2, Tricenarium regine Johanne: Apr. 26, Tric, episcopi Mauri: Sept. 3, Tric, domini fundatoris).