Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Add MS 24686
- Record Id:
- 032-002031972
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002031972
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000043.0x0000c0
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 24686
- Title:
-
Psalter ('The Alphonso Psalter')
- Scope & Content:
-
The work on the Alphonso Psalter (formerly known as 'The Tenison Psalter') was begun in c. 1284 when, as the arms on f. 11r suggest, the manuscript was intended as the wedding gift to Prince Alphonso of England (d. 1284), son of Edward I, and his bride Margaret, daughter of Florent V, count of Holland and Zeeland. This first campaign of production comprised the Psalms, Canticles and Litany, and the decoration of the first gathering of the Psalter (ff. 11r-135v). The second campaign was probably initiated in 1297 when Alphonso's sister Elizabeth was about to marry John I, count of Holland and Zeeland, brother of Alphonso's bride Margaret, and comprised three phases: 1) the calendar was probably added before 1298 (see additions below); 2) the Psalm initials were possibly added some time between 1297 and the early 14th century; and 3) the prefatory miniatures were probably added after Elizabeth married Humphrey de Bohun in 1302 (see McKendrick et al, Royal Manuscripts (2011), no. 17).
Contents:
ff. 2r-4v: Prefatory miniatures of saints.
ff. 5r-135v: Psalter with calendar, canticles, Athanasian creed, litany of the saints, and collects.
f. 136r: An Anglo-Norman French translation of the popular medieval prayer known as the Deus Propicius Esto (see Stanton, 'Design, Devotion and Durability' (2014), p. 99).
Decoration:
6 full-page miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 2r-4v). 1 large historiated initial in colours and gold (f. 11r). Full and partial borders with zoomorphic and foliate decoration in colours and gold throughout. Smaller historiated initials in colours and gold throughout. Line fillers, bas-de-page scenes and armorial decoration in colours and gold throughout.
The Alphonso Psalter is considered one of the best examples of the refined 'Court Style' of manuscript illumination. The style evolved in the royal court at Westminster during the second half of the 13th century, emulating the highly sophisticated French royal court in Paris (see Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts (1986), II, no. 1). The original decoration, which is of superlative quality, was completed and added to by several later owners, one of whom, around 1316, pasted in illustrations from an earlier Bible from the north of France (ff. 3v-4v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Royal Manuscripts Digitisation Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002031972", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 24686: Psalter ('The Alphonso Psalter')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "040-002354457", "parent" : "032-002031972", "text" : "Add MS 24686, ff 2r-4v: Prefatory miniatures" },{ "id" : "040-002354460", "parent" : "032-002031972", "text" : "Add MS 24686, ff 5r-135v: Psalter" },{ "id" : "040-002354478", "parent" : "032-002031972", "text" : "Add MS 24686, f 136r: Prayer" }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002031972
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Contains:
- Add MS 24686, ff 2r-4v : Prefatory miniatures
Add MS 24686, ff 5r-135v : Psalter
Add MS 24686, f 136r : Prayer
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Add MS 24686 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002031972
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 24686
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_24686 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1279
- End Date:
- 1316
- Date Range:
- c 1284-1316
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 245 x 165 mm (text space: 160 x 105 mm).
Foliation: ff. 136 (+ 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the end; ff. 1 and 136 are medieval parchment flyleaves).
Collation: i4 (ff. 1-4); ii6 (ff. 5-10); iii8 (ff. 11-18); iv8-1 (ff. 19-25, 1 folio missing after f. 22); v-xii8 (ff. 26-89); xiii8-1 (90-96, 1 folio cancelled); xiv-xviii8 (ff. 97-136). Catchwords.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Red leather with tooling.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ff. 11r-18v: England (London or Westminster); ff. 2-4, ff. 5r-135v: England (South-East or East Anglia).
Provenance:
Probably commissioned (1284) to celebrate the proposed marriage of Alphonso (b. 1273, d. 1284), earl of Chester, son of King Edward I, and Margaret, daughter of Florent V, Count of Holland and Zeeland, aborted by Alphonso's death in August 1284: their arms (f. 11r).
Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (b. 1282, d. 1316), Alphonso's sister, wife successively to John I, son of Florent V, Count of Holland and Zeeland and Humphrey de Bohun, 4th earl of Hereford and 3rd earl of Essex; adapted and completed for her, perhaps as the wedding gift to celebrate her first marriage in 1297 to John I of Holland and Zeeland: obits of Elizabeth's mother, grandmother and sister, as well as her own included in the calendar (5 May 1316, f. 7r).
The Bohun family: the arms of the Bohun family depicted in the background of a miniature (f. 4r); obits of the members of the Bohun family and household, included in the calendar, 14th-century (ff. 5r-10v).
A number 'III' and a note mentioning a burial of 'Mannynge' on 27 October 1584: 'On the even of S Symon and Jude [27 October] in anno d[omi]ni 1584 et anno Regni Regine n[ostr]e Eliz[abethi] xxvi m (?) manynge was buryed' (f. 1r).
Edward Graveley: his inscription, 16th century (f. 1v).
'Number 59 (erased) 35', 18th century (inside upper board and ff.1r-1v).
Thomas Tenison (b. 1636, d. 1715), archbishop of Canterbury: his sale by his heirs, Sotheby's, 1 July 1861, lot 75, purchased for Nicholas Tite and returned by him to Sotheby's.
Included with 3 other Tenison MS in the Sotheby's, M.J. Johnson sale, 27 May 1862, lot 61: purchased by the British Museum.
- Administrative Context:
- England (London or Westminster) and (South-East or East Anglia).
- Information About Copies:
-
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
E. A. Bond, 'Description of an Illuminated Latin Psalter', Fine Arts Quarterly Revue (1863), 77-96.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the years 1854-1875 (London: British Museum, 1877), pp. 97-98.
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. 6.
Schools of Illumination: Reproductions from Manuscripts in the British Museum, 6 vols (London: British Museum, 1914-1930), II: English 12th and 13th Centuries (1915), pl. 15.
[J. A. Herbert], British Museum: Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 3, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1925), pl. xxiv.
Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1926), pl. 96.
Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages (London, 1954), pp. 118, 124.
Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London: British Museum, 1967), no. 19.
C. A. Robson, 'Vernacular Scriptures in France', in The Cambridge History of the Bible, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963-1970), 2: The West from the Fathers to the Reformation, ed. by G. W. H. Lampe (1969), pp. 436-52 (p. 447).
Bruce Watson, 'The Place of the Cuerden Psalter in English Illumination', Gesta, 9 (1970), 34-41 (p. 40).
Francis Klingender, Animals in Art and Thought to the end of the Middle Ages, ed. by Evelyn Antal and John Harthan (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971), p. 413, pl. 246.
Philippe Verdier, Peter Brieger and Marie Farquhar, Art and the Courts: France and England from 1259 to 1328, The National Gallery of Canada, 27 April-2 July 1972 (Ottowa: National Galley of Canada, 1972), p. 62, fig. 56 [exhibition catalogue].
François Avril, L'enluminure à l'époque gothique 1200-1420 (Paris, 1979), p. 39.
Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385 II, 2 vols., ASurvey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, V (Harvey Miller: London, 1986), I, pp. 24, 27, and II, no. 1.
G. Evelyn Hutchinson, 'Attitudes toward Nature in Medieval England: The Alphonso and Bird Psalters', Isis, 65 (1974), 5-37.
A.G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library (London, 1979), I, no. 296.
The Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England 1200-1400, ed. by Jonathan Alexander and Paul Binski (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987), no. 357 [exhibition catalogue].
Susan H. Cavanaugh, 'Royal Books: King John to Richard II', The Library, 6th series, 10 (1988), 304-16 (p. 306).
Michelle Brown, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (London: British Library, 1990), pl. 29.
John A. Goodall, 'Heraldry in the Decoration of English Medieval Manuscripts', Antiquaries Journal, 77 (1997), 179-220 (p. 180).
Ruth Dean and Maureen Bolton, Anglo-Norman Literature, A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), no. 854.
John Higgitt, The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and the Gaelic West (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 61, 69, 85, 97, 116, 117, 122, 124, 159.
Nigel Morgan, ‘The Decorative Ornament of the Text and Page in Thirteenth-Century England: Initials, Border Extensions and Line Fillers’, in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 1-33 (p. 6).
Michaela Braesel, ‘The Influence of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts on the Pre-Raphaelites and the Early Poetry of William Morris’, Journal of William Morris Studies, 15 (2004), 41-54 (p. 52 n. 19).
The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), pp. 191, 281.
Jean A. Givens, Observation and Image-Making in Gothic Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 164, pl. II.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 16.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 17 [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. 97-98).
Anne R. Stanton, 'Design, Devotion, and Durability in Gothic Prayer Books', in Manuscripta Illuminata: Approaches to Understanding Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, ed. by Colum Hourihane (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), 87-107 (pp. 93-101). - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)