Add MS 39810

PSALTER, etc., in Latin, known as the Psalter of the St. Omer family. Contents:- (1) Calendar. f. 1 ;- (2) Psalter, Gallican version. f. 7 ;- (3) Canticles. " Audite, celi " wants Deut. xxxii, 25-38, through loss of one leaf after f. 162, and " Quicumque vult " is imperfect through loss of a leaf after f. 166. f. 156 ;- (4) Litany. f. 167. The Calendar (15th cent., in blue, red, and black) is of Sarum use. Entries include St. Anne (26 July), SS. David. Chad (1, 2 March), and Winifred (3 Nov.) ; St. John of Beverley (introd. 1416) is omitted. Entries of St. Thomas of Canterbury and the title " Papa " are not erased. Vellum; ff. ix + 175. 13 1/4 in. x 8 7/8 in. XIV and early XV cent. Executed in England (East Anglia). Gatherings of 8 leaves (i⁶, a single leaf, f. 103, after xiii, xx², xxii wants 2, 7) mostly with catchwords; last two leaves blank. The MS. was begun probably about 1325, but was left unfinished, the writing of the Calendar (ff. 1-6), and of ff. 95-103, 128-153, 168-173 of the text being of the 15th cent. The illumination is similarly of two periods, although the later work is not confined to the 15th cent. leaves. That of the original portion (ff. 7-23 b, 25-28 b, 30-40 b, 42-43 b, 45-56 b, 57 b-59 b, 61-62 b, 64-69 b, 70 b, 120, 127) comprises four pages with large historiated initials and full borders, with decorative initials, partial borders, and line-endings of more commonplace character (except for ff. 7-14 b) on the other pages : it is by no means certain that the whole even of this part is contemporary, many comparatively plain line-endings (e.g. ff. 25-28 b) being coloured over designs of mitres, lions passant, etc. The four fully illuminated pages are of superb execution, the first in particular (f. 7) representing the highest achievement of the East Anglian school in point of delicacy. The subjects are:-

(1) Ps. I. Large B, containing Tree of Jesse. in medallions in lower and outer borders, beginning bottom 1.: - (i) The Almighty between cherubim. (ii) Creation of Eve; Hellmouth on 1. (iii) The Almighty warning Adam and Eve, and the Fall. (iv) Adam and Eve hiding from the Almighty, and the Expulsion. (v) Adam digging, Eve spinning; offerings of Cain and Abel, and death of Abel. (vi) Lamech killing Cain, and

death of the boy Jabal. (vii) Building of the Ark. (viii) Noah and family entering the Ark; outside, the raven feeding on dead horse. (ix) Drunkenness of Noah. These borders contain also minute figures, animals, birds, insects, and foliage of extraordinary delicacy, and at the top of the lower border are two medallions of a knight and his lady, the former on r. having the arms of the St. Omer family, of Mulbarton, co. Norfolk (az., a fess between six cross-crosslets fitchés or). The other two borders and two spaces of the B contain characteristic heads, etc. f. 7 ;-

(2) Ps. LII. In initial D, David arguing with a fool. In small medallions, beginning top 1. :-(i) Moses and the Burning Bush, and before Pharaoh. (ii) Crossing of the Red Sea and drowning of the Egyptians. (iii) Giving of the law to Moses ; worship of the Golden Calf ; Moses breaking the Tables. (iv) Moses raising the Brazen Serpent, Israelites lying dead, etc. (v) Building of the Tabernacle. (vi) Samson carrying off the gate of Gaza ; Samson with hands bound. (vii) Samson and the lion ; Samson and Delilah. (viii) Samson pulling down the Philistines' house. The line-endings and verse-initials

are apparently of the 15th cent. f. 57 b ;-

(3) Ps. LXVIII. Square miniature in two compartments:-

(a) Jonah thrown overboard, (b) Jonah cast up by the whale in front of Nineveh. In small medallions in border, beginning top 1. :--(i) Battle with the Philistines and loss of the Ark; Eli on r. receives the news. (ii) David (outside, in margin) slings at Goliath ; cuts off Goliath's head, Saul behind; kneels with the head before Michal. (iii) Battle on Mount Gilboa. (iv) David anointed King at Hebron, and receiving sceptre. (v) David and Uriah (?). (vi) David, sick, addressing Solomon ; Solomon, in crown, etc., on horse [l Kings i. 33]. (vii) Judgment of Solomon. (viii) Building of the temple. The lineendings are of the 15th cent. (cf. border, f. 63 b). f. 70 b ;-

(4) Ps. CIX. In initial D, the Last Judgment. In small medallions, beginning bottom 1. : - (i) The Betrayal. (ii) The Scourging. (iii) Christ bearing the Cross. (iv) The Crucifixion. (v) The Entombment. (vi) The Resurrection. (vii) The Maries at the Sepulchre. (viii) The Ascension. (ix) Pentecost. f. 120.

The 15th cent. illumination (ff. 1-6 b, 24-24 b, 29-29 b, 41-41 b, 44-44 b, 57, 60-60 b, 63-63 b, 70-end, except ff. 70 b, 120, 127) consists of initials, partial borders and line-endings, and four fully illuminated pages. The first two of these latter (ff. 29 b, 44) appear to be of later date only as regards the colouring, the outlines of small miniatures in several of the medallions now filled with conventional 15th cent. foliage being visible if the pages are held up to a strong light, while the design as a whole conforms to that of the earlier pages. The other two pages (ff. 87, 103) are entirely of the 15th cent. The subjects are :-

(1) Ps. XXVI. Coronation of David. f. 29 b ;-

(2) Ps. XXXVIII. David pointing to mouth. f. 44 ;-

(3) Ps. LXXX. David playing on bells. f. 87;-

(4) Ps. XCVII. Clerks singing at a lectern. f. 103. The rest of the decoration is by several hands; compare, e.g., ff. 97 b, 103 b, 123 b, 130 b, 133 b, 154 b, ff. 154-167 showing some French influence. Binding of French crimson morocco, with tooled back ,and edges (the back repaired), by Derome le jeune, c. 1780. The

arms of the St. Omer family occur also on ff. 54 b (erased) and 78 b (the field untinctured) ; the knight represented on f. 7, and the original owner of the MS., may be Sir William de St. Omer (d. after 1347), or less probably his son Sir Thomas. Belonged, 15th cent., to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of Henry IV : see erased inscription, f. 173 : ' " Cest liure est a moy Homfrey fiz frere et vncle de roys due de gloucestre comte de penbroc grant chambellan dangleterre etc." Afterwards in France, probably before 16 Nov. 1538, as St. Thomas of Canterbury is not erased in the Calendar, and until circ. 1780 ; on f. v b is an index of initial words of the Psalms in a French hand, 17th cent., preceded, f. v, by six lines of Latin verse headed " Egidio Daucel, subprefecto Maiori apud Constantinates Carmen in illius Annagramma quod est Diu galliae decus ius " [Ægidius Dancel, professor of Eloquence in the College d'Harcourt (?); the presentation copy on vellum of his " Gratulatio " to Guillaume de Lamoignon, 1659, is in the Dept. of Printed Books, C. 29. m. 9]. Lot 2902 in cat. of Thomas Thorpe, bookseller, 1828 ; afterwards belonged to John Wilks,the elder (d. 1854; sale-cat., 12 March 1847, lot 442), the Earl of Ashburnham (Appendix no. xxxii), and H. Yates Thompson (bookplate, f. ii ;- Catalogue, ii, no. 58;- Illustrations from 100 MSS., iv, Pl. I ;- A Lecture on some Eng. Illum. MSS., Pls. xxxi-xxxvi ;- Facsimiles in Photogravure of Six Pages from a Psalter ... 1900). See also S. C. Cockerell, The Gorleston Psalter, Pl. xv ; Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhib. of Illum. MSS., 1908, no. 68, Pl. 60 ;- British Museum, Schools of Illumination, iii, Pls. 6-8, iv, Pl. 13 ;- Reprod. from Illum. MSS., iv, Pls. xxvi, xxvii. Presented by Henry Yates Thompson, Esq., on his 80th birthday (inscription inside upper cover).