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Add MS 28681
- Record Id:
- 032-002020101
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002020101
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000037.0x000333
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 28681
- Title:
- Psalter ('The Map Psalter') with added miniatures
- Scope & Content:
-
The Map Psalter takes its name from its full-page illustration of a map of the world (on f. 9r), whose design shares close parallels with the famous mappa mundi, now housed at Hereford Cathedral. The manuscript was made in London during the second half of the 13th century. The Psalter’s calendar commemorates on 3rd April the feast day of St Richard of Chichester (d. 1253) who was canonised in 1262, suggesting that the manuscript was produced after this date. Most of the Psalter’s decoration was completed at this stage, including historiated initials (enlarged letters containing images) that mark the major divisions of the text and a unique illustration of the Virgin and Child enthroned (on f. 190v), with Mary’s feet resting on a lion. Late in the 13th century, a different artist added a series of six full-page illustrations depicting scenes from the Life of Christ to the beginning of the manuscript (ff. 1-8). These images were bound in the wrong order, with Christ’s Resurrection (on f. 5v) notably appearing before his Crucifixion (on f. 6r).
Contents:
ff. 3-8: 6 full-page miniatures of scenes from the New Testament;
ff. 10v-16v: A calendrical table and calendar;
f. 17r-v: Prayers for a masculine supplicant ('… ego miser & peccator …');
ff. 18r-184r: Psalter with Canticles;
ff. 185v-189v: Litany, including St Peter with a double invocation, and St Benedict first among the confessors;
ff. 184r-185v: Petitions and 15 collects;
ff. 191r-212r: Psalter of the Virgin or Ave Psalter, attributed to Stephen Langton, incipit, 'Ave virgo virginum parens absque pari', consisting of 150 quatrains praising the Virgin, each one based on a Psalm; the prologue, attributed to John Peckham, incipit 'Mente concipio laudes conscribere';
ff. 212v-217r: Prayers to the Cross, in Anglo-Norman French (Dean, Anglo-Norman (1999), nos 899, 970, 973);
ff. 217v-221v: Office of the Dead;
ff. 221v-222v: Prayers in Latin;
ff. 223-226: Prayers or hymns to the Virgin, added in the 15th century.
Original decoration, second half of the 13th century:
2 full-page miniatures, in pen and wash with areas of full colour and gold: a round map of the world, set in a square ornamental frame, Jerusalem being in the centre, with a zone of winds and figures of inhabitants (f. 9r); a diagram of Christ with angels, holding a globe divided into the three continents containing the names of the principal kingdoms and cities of Asia, Europe, and Africa (f. 9v).
1 full-page outline miniature of the Virgin and Child enthroned, with the Virgin's feet resting on a striding lion (f. 190v).
9 large historiated initials in colours and gold, at the major divisions of Psalms 1, 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 80, 97, 101 (ff. 18, 39v, 54v, 68, 68v, 82v, 100, 116v, 118v; the leaf with the Psalm 109 initial is missing).
Smaller foliate initials, often with dragons and mythical creatures in colours and gold, at the other Psalms and Canticles. Small initials, alternately red or blue with penwork flourishing in the other colour. Line-fillers in blue or red ink, often in the form of animals or hybrids, at the beginning of Psalms.
The subjects of the historiated initials are:
f. 18r: David harping;
f. 39v: A kneeling man pointing at his eyes;
f. 54v: A pilgrim with a staff;
f. 68r: A man (Saul) falling on his sword to commit suicide, with two devils on his back;
f. 68v: A fool standing before a seated man;
f. 82v: Jonah coming out of the whale, in the nude, clutching a branch;
f. 100r: Christ between two angels (above); two musicians (below);
f. 116v: Three clerics singing before a lectern;
f. 118v: A Benedictine monk kneeling at an altar with Christ leaning down from above.
The initials are similar in style to work of the Sarum Master and the artist of the Stockholm Psalter (see Morgan, Early Gothic (1988)).
Added decoration, late 13th century:
6 full-page miniatures in colours on a gold ground with tooling (ff. 3v-4, 5v-6, 7v-8); misbound, the correct order is ff. 7v-4, 3v-6, 5v-8. Morgan, Early Gothic (1988), compares the style of the above miniatures to that of Liverpool, Cathedral Library, MS 27.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 3v: The Adoration of the Magi;
f. 4r: The Nativity, with Mary sleeping and Christ in a chalice-shaped manger;
f. 5v: The Resurrection, with Christ stepping out of the tomb;
f. 6r: The Crucifixion, with Mary and Mary Magdelene;
f. 7v: The Annunciation,
f. 8r: Christ in Majesty.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002020101", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 28681: Psalter ('The Map Psalter') with added miniatures" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002020101
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002020101
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_28681 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
French
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1262
- End Date:
- 1300
- Date Range:
- 1262-1300
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: parchment.
Dimensions: 170 x 130mm (text space: 110 x 85mm).
Foliation: ff. 226 (ff. 1-3 and ff. 223-226 are parchment flyleaves + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf + 3 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end + 2 unfoliated parchment leaves after f. 8).
Collation: i4 (ff. 3-6), ii2 (ff. 7-8), iii eleven (2 unnumbered leaves + 9-17), iv-ix16 (ff. 18-114), x14 (ff. 115-128), xi16+1-1 (6th leaf inserted and now missing after f. 133; ff. 129-144), xii-xiv16 (ff. 145-190), xv-xvi16 (ff. 191-222), the remainder uncertain: an unfoliated leaf follows f. 224, and two more after f. 226. Quires i and ii are misbound.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Bound by J. Clarke.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, S. E.? (London/Westminster?).
Provenance:
Written after 1262: the feast of Richard of Chichester on 3 April is included in the calendar (f. 12v).
Probably made in London or Westminster, as indicated by original entries in the calendar, later erased (ff. 10v-16v) and the style of illumination. However the litany includes Worcester saints (see Morgan, Early Gothic (1988)).
Henry III, king of England (b. 1207, d. 1272) perhaps copied from a wall map in his palace at Westminster (see Vincent, 'Great Lost Library', 2013).
Prayers added in a 15th-century hand (ff. 223r-224r).
'Marye Wyndam': a 16th-century inscription (f. 18r) .
Inscribed, 'Anne my eldeast doughter was borne the xiiij day of July in the yere of our lorde God 1557' (f.225v).
An alphabetical list of Psalms from P to V in a later hand (f. 1r)
Henry D. Jones: his armorial bookplate on the inside upper binding; purchased from him by the British Museum on 5 April 1871: a note on f. [iv] recto.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1875 (London: British Museum, 1877), p. 531.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 8.
Ulysse Chevalier, Repertorium hymnologicum. Catalogue des chants, hymnes, proses, séquences, tropes en usage dans l'église latine depuis les origines jusqu'a nos jours, 2 vols (Louvain 1904), III, nos. 24021, 29602b.;
Günther Haseloff, Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhundert : Studien zur Geschichte der Buchmalerei in England, Frankreich und den Niederlanden (Kiel, 1938), p. 61.
History of Cartography, 6 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987- ), I, Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. by J. B. Harley and Daviod Woodward, fig. 18.35, 18.63.
Suzanne Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the 'Chronica Majora' (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1987), pp. 510, 513.
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts (II) 1250-1285, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London: Harvey Miller, 1988), no. 114. [with extensive further bibliography].
Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion, 1992), pl. 1.
Evelyn Edson, Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers viewed their world (London: British Library, 1997), pl. VI, fig. 7.1.
Ruth Dean and Maureen Bolton, Anglo-Norman Literature, A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), nos. 899, 970, 973.
Debra Higgs Strickland, Saracens, Demons, & Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), fig. 4, p. 63.
F. O. Büttner, ‘Der illuminierte Psalter im Westen’, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. Büttner, (Belgium: Brepols, 2004), pp. 1-106 (p. 22).
Daniel Birkholz, The King's Two Maps: cartography and culture in thirteenth-century England (New York, London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 4, 32-35, 38-42, 50-51.
Suzanne Wittekind, 'Die Illustration von Augustinustexten' in Der Kommentar in Antike und Mittelalter, 3 vols, ed. by W. Geerlings and C. Schulze (Leiden: Brill, 2004), II, pp. 101-27 (p. 122).
Nigel Morgan, 'The Trinity Apocalypse: Style, Dating and Place of Production', in The Trinity Apocalypse (Trinity College Cambridge, MS R.16.2) (London: British Library, 2005), pp. 23-43 (p. 27).
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), pl. on p. 177.
Asa Simon Mittman, Maps and Monsters in Medieval England (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 37, fig. 2.4.
Sacred: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their Sacred Texts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 200 [exhibition catalogue].
Evelyn Edson, The World Map, 1300-1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2007), pp. 238-39.
Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), pl. 15-2.
James Robinson, Masterpieces: Medieval Art (London, British Museum, 2008), p. 264.
Peter Barber and Tom Harper, Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art (London: British Library, 2010), p. 78 [exhibition catalogue].
Melissa La Porte: 'A Tale of Two Mappai Mundi: The Map Psalter and its Mixed Media Maps' (Unpublished masters' thesis: University of Guelph, Ontario, 2012), online at: https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10214/3662/LaPorte-final-05-09.pdf?sequence=6
Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2013), pp. 26-27 [exhibition catalogue].
Nicholas Vincent, 'The Great Lost Library of England's Medieval Kings' in 1000 Years of Royal Books and Manuscripts, ed. by Kathleen Doyle and Scot McKendrick (London: The British Library, 2013), pp. 73-112 (pp. 94-95).
- Exhibitions:
- British Library Treasures, (online), 27 February 2016-
Maps, (online), 9 June 2016-
Picturing places, (online), 27 April 2017-
The Middle Ages, (online), 26 March 2015- - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)