Cistercian Liturgical Psalter, in Latin [Germany (perhaps Rhineland?), c.1400]

97×70mm, vellum, iii+i+208+iv leaves, apparently COMPLETE, the calendar misbound between the other texts, with blanks (or possibly a litany) cancelled after f.179, 16 lines, 70×42mm, with a LARGE GOLD INITIAL with purple and green infill and A blue and gold border, SMALLER GOLD INITIALS with flourishing in red, blue or purple at the beginning of monastic and secular psalter divisions (Pss.20, 26, 32, 38, 45, 52, etc.), some thumbing, f.192 torn, bound in plain vellum over pasteboards, detached at the back joint

PROVENANCE

Made for use in a Cistercian house, as indicated the Office of the Dead and the calendar (with Robert, Dominic, Bernard, Malachi, Edmund, and others). Cistercian liturgy was standardised across Europe, which makes manuscripts more difficult to localise, but somewhat easier to date. The inclusion of Anne with 12 lessons in the calendar (26 July) confirms a date after 1375, and the absence of the octave of Purification of the Virgin suggests a date around 1400 or a little later. The church for which the manuscript was written has its dedication in the calendar on 23 May, and thus a precise localisation may be possible in due course.

TEXT

Psalms, with antiphons, and the major divisions with lections (f.1r), canticles and creeds (f.164r); Office of the Dead, Cistercian Use (f.180r); Calendar (f.188r); antiphons and collects for major feast days (f.200r), including Sts George and Wenceslas; added prayers (flyleaf).