Psalter, in Latin with Middle English Supplements [southern Netherlands (Ghent?), c.1250, and England, 15th century]

c.120×90mm, vellum, ii+208 leaves (the first two and last fourteen 15th-century), several quire signatures in plummet and one catchword in ink, lacking 3 leaves of the calendar, probably also a Beatus page, a leaf after f.61 doubtless with an illuminated initial to Psalm 52, the added Office of the Dead ending imperfect, and a few final blank leaves cancelled, 18 lines, c.80x50mm, by two scribes, changing at f.97, each psalm and alternate verses with an illuminated initial, SIX MINIATURES in the calendar of the Occupations of the Months and NINE HISTORIATED INITIALS with partial borders at the divisions of the psalms and the first Canticle, generally worn throughout with some rodent damage, cockling, flaking of gold and pigments and occasional smudging, but still appealing and attractive, bound in 19th-century English blind-tooled brown leather, worn but sound

PROVENANCE

(1) This is an early example of professional book-production for the laity, doubtless made in a major Flemish book-making centre; the non-specific calendar and litany (with Vedast and Amand, Walburga, Bertin, Donatian of Bruges, and Bavo of Ghent) suggest that is was produced without a specific patron in mind, perhaps for export to England. (2) It was certainly in England by the 15th century when various additions were supplied by English scribes. (3) Probably owned in Long Bredy, a few miles west of Dorchester, Dorset, by the 16th century, when a flyleaf was used for a pen-trial: ‘From Longbriddy Church … within the Countie of Dorset …’ (f.208v). (4) Perhaps owned at the Reformation by a member of the Weld family (later of Lulworth Castle, Dorset, about 20 miles east of Long Bredy), as they were recusant and the names of popes have not been effaced in the calendar or litany. (5) Thomas Weld (d.1810), former owner of the Luttrell Psalter and the Bedford Psalter-Hours, with his large armorial bookplate; by descent through the family until sold in our rooms, 24 June 1980, lot 55, bought by Quaritch. (5) Sold again in our rooms, 18 June 1991, lot 121, bought by Ferrini. (6) The Schøyen Collection, Oslo, MS 1371, with bookplate.

TEXT AND ILLUMINATION

The 13th-century text consists of a Calendar (f.1r); Psalms (f.3r); Canticles (f.175r), creeds (f.192v), a litany and collects.

At the beginning is an added Latin prayer and three not entirely legible lines of Middle English, ‘[O] man unkynde have thou in mynde. My passion smerte …’ (f.ir), and a note of papal indulgence of Gregory, confirmed by Nicholas V in 1449 and Calixtus III in 1456 (f.i v).

At the end is an added Office of the Dead, Use of Sarum (f.197r), and in a different more formal hand a series of MIDDLE ENGLISH CONFESSIONS, ‘How a man schall confesse hym to god and to hys gosteley fadyr thys holy tyme of lent and odyr tymes af ye yere …’ (f.206r), divided into four sections based on:

(i) the Seven Deadly Sins, with sections headed ‘Pryde’, ‘Envie’, ‘Wrathe’, etc., ending with ‘Lecherye’ (longer than any other section, including ‘In dremys I have made pollicion’, and ‘I have synnid in syght of virgyns’);

(ii) the Ten Commandments, ‘Also I have synnyd in brekyng of ye .x. commandmentis. I cry god mercy. I. I have not lovid my lorde god above al thyng. II. Nor my neybor as myselfe …’;

(iii) The Five Senses, ‘Also I have mispent my .v. wyttys I cri god merci. I. In handyllyng. II. In smellyng. III. In heryng. …’;

(iv) the Five Works of Mercy, ‘... I. I have not gyf mete to ye hungery. II. I have not gyf drink to ye thirstie. …’. See I. Taavitsainen, The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist X, 1994, pp.31–2; on this form of confession (not citing this manuscript) cf. P. Jolliffe, Check-List of Middle English Prose Writings of Spiritual Guidance, 1974, nos C22–26, especially C24, C32.

The style and palette of the decoration is typical of mid 13th-century manuscripts from Flanders and the adjacent regions. The subjects of the calendar miniatures are: (1) Janus feasting; (2) a woman holding a Candlemas candle; (3) a man with a bird of prey and lure; (4) a man carrying a bundle of faggots; (5) a man scything; (6) a man reaping; the subjects of the psalm initials are: (7) David pointing to his eyes, before Christ; (8) David pointing to his mouth, before Christ; (9) David and a devil, the margin with a man shooting an arrow at an owl; (10) David(?) in water, Christ above; (11) David playing a carillon of bells; (12) three white-clad clerics singing at a lectern; (13) a seated saint with a book; (14) the Trinity, the border with a dragon attacked by a marginal axe-wielding hybrid creature; (15) a seated saint with a book.

The subjects of the calendar miniatures are typical of Flemish Psalters; Janus feasting in January, but not warming himself at a fire, suggests Ghent rather than Bruges (see K. Carlvant, Manuscript Painting in Thirteenth-Century Flanders, 2012, tables 1–4). Several subjects of the Psalm initials are also found in the French tradition, but the inclusion of David and a Devil at Psalm 51 is distinctly Flemish. Curiously, the seated figures (who, unlike David, each have a halo but no crown) at Psalm 101 and the first collect seem to depend on the alternate ‘Apostolic’ tradition of Flemish Psalter illumination, in which there is a seated apostle in each initial.