Secular Psalter with Antiphons; France, South (?), 15th century, second half

Title

Secular Psalter with Antiphons; France, South (?), 15th century, second half

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 85

Place of origin

French, South(?)

Date

15th century, second half

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

fine, light parchment, resembling Italian parchment; paper fly-leaves; at the beginning and end many leaves are mutilated and repaired with parchment

Physical extent

82 leaves Leaves were trimmed in rebinding.

Hands

Rounded Gothic script with a strong humanistic influence, black ink; smaller script used for antiphons, etc.

Decoration

4-line plain red and blue initials at the beginnings of psalms 52 (fol. 17v) and 109 (fol. 51r). The opening words of psalms are written in capitals.

3-line plain red and blue initials at the beginnings of psalms 68 (fol. 25r), 80 (fol. 34r), 97 (fol. 42v) and the beginning of the litany (fol. 76v).

2-line plain alternating red and blue initials at the beginnings of psalms, hymns, canticles and prayers.

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

Rubrics in red ink, some in capitals; some rubrics are not filled in (e.g. fols. 5r, 51v–52v).

Guide-letters for illuminators and rubricators are often visible.

Binding

Brown laid paper over pasteboard. Brown leather spine with four raised bands, framed with gilt fillet lines. One of the bands is covered with a paper label printed ‘Canonici || Bibl [ ...]’. Another paper label is printed ‘85’. Red leather label with gilt lettering ‘PSALT. || ET || HYMN. || ETC. || COD. M.’. Gilt fillet lines at the top and bottom of the spine. Paper pastedowns and fly-leaves.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bought in 1817 from Canonici’s nephew Giovanni Perissinotti.

Provenance

Made in southern France (?): evidence of the litany, parchment and script.

Still in use in the 16th century when the manuscript was foliated and folio references were added to an alphabetical index of psalms (fols. 79v–80v).

A short description of the manuscript in Latin on a strip of paper pasted to fol. i recto ‘Psalterium. Codex membran. in 4. saec. circ. xiii. Fuisse videtur descriptus in usum privati cuiusdam Monachi Benedictini et Galli, uti indicant Litaniae M. in fine descriptae: est initio mancus.’. The description is in an Italian, 18th-century (?) hand, but not the hand of Canonici or any of the earlier owners and librarians whose handwriting is illustrated in Mitchell (1969). Such descriptions are also found in MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 42, MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 88, MS. Add. D. 47, MS. Canon. Liturg. 105, MS. Canon. Liturg. 155, MS. Canon. Liturg. 377 and MS. Canon. Liturg. 393.

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

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Title

Psalter (secular, with antiphons)

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 85

Date

15th century, second half

Language

Latin

Physical extent

1 volume