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Add MS 42131
- Record Id:
- 032-002085987
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002085987
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000052.0x000126
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 42131
- Title:
-
Psalter and Hours (the 'Bedford Psalter and Hours')
- Scope & Content:
-
Psalter and Hours of Sarum use, known as the Bedford Psalter and Hours, written and illuminated for John Plantagenet (b. 1389; d. 1435), third son of Henry IV, after he (John) became Duke of Bedford in 1414 (includes a motto reading: 'I comminde me unto ȝow. I pray god saue pe duke of bedford', f. 21r) and probably before his appointment (1422) as Regent of France (the manuscript does not include the badge of the tree-root found in all of the surviving manuscripts made for him in France, presumably after his appointment as Regent in 1422, nor any heraldic reference to either of his wives, Anne of Burgundy (m. 1423, d. 1432) or Jacquette of Luxemburg (m. 1433).
The collation and the arrangement of the decoration with f. 73 as the most lavishly decorated page in the manuscript suggest that item 3 (Psalter) may originally have followed, or have been intended to follow, item 1 (Calendar).
The manuscript was rebound after its purchase by the British Museum/British Library. Its original binding including medieval and modern unfoliated pastedowns and silk curtains is now kept separately as Add MS 42131/1.
Contents:
ff. 1r-6v: Calendar, written in gold, blue, red and black, with a few gradings; contains the normal Sarum feasts, with some omissions which include those of St David, Chad, Winifred, Francis, Erkenwald (Nativity and Translation), John of Beverley, Etheldreda (Translation), Frideswide, and the Visitation.
ff. 7r-36v: Hours of the Virgin with the hymn for Prime, Tierce, Sext and Nones: 'Memento salutis auctor'.
ff. 37r-45r: The Seven Penitential Psalms followed (f. 43v) by the Fifteen Gradual Psalms (cues are given only for the first twelve Psalms).
ff. 46r-71v: Office of the Dead.
ff. 73r-230v: Psalter with Canticles, the 'Quicunque vult' (f. 216r) and the
f. 230v-236v: Litany, in which the invocations of Saints agree with those printed by F. Procter, C. Wordsworth, Breviarium ad Usum Insignis Ecclesiae Sarum, 3 vols (Cambridge, 1879-1886), II, cols. 250-255, except that the name of St Afra is repeated between those of St Scholastica and St Petronilla, and there are a few minor differences in order.
Decoration:
11 large historiated initials in colours and gold with full borders, at the beginning of major Psalm divisions (ff. 7r, 37r, 46r, 73r, 95r, 109r, 122r, 135r, 151v, 166v, 183r) and 7 smaller historiated initials in colours and gold with full borders, at the beginning of each hour (ff. 12v, 21v, 24v, 26v, 28r, 30r, 33r). The borders include roundels at the corners containing flowers, which sometimes enclose human heads (ff. 7r, 33r, 46r, 122r) or half-length figures in medalions (f. 73r) painted in camaieu.
298 initials in colours with human heads, occasionally, a pair or small group of heads, at the beginning of each Psalm, prayer, hymn, etc. including God, Christ, the Virgin, saints, patriarchs, prophets, kings, other aged and bearded men, contemporary ecclesiastics and laymen, the dead or dying, skulls, etc. Other subjects include: the Dove (ff. 18r, 235r); the Cross (f. 18v); a reliquary (f. 20v); earth, sea and sky, in illustration of the 'Benedicite' (f. 226r). Some figures in the initials are accompanied by inscriptions: e.g. a head disfigured by plague (?) spots with an inscription 'iob' (f. 57v), and a man described as ‘effigies Gower un esqui[e]r’ (f. 209v), or inscriptions on their garments: 'david proph.' (f. 141v), 'iob' (f. 189r), 'moy[ses].' (f. 189v). Other inscriptions on garments, consisting of mottoes, tags, etc., include 'sans depar[tir]', a motto of Richard II (f. 181r), and 'qui bien a[yme?]' (f. 220r; see further below). Sometimes the garments or background are powdered, decoratively, with single letters, e.g. 'a' (ff. 17r, 119r); 'y' (ff. 57v, 58v); 'd' (f. 92r); 'h' (f. 216r).
Small initials for each verse, with decorative backgrounds in red, blue, mauve and gold. Line-fillers in green, blue, mauve, red and gold, occasionally incorporating the heraldic motifs of a leopard (for England) and fleur-de-lys (for France) (e.g. f. 132r), and sometimes containing inscriptions in English, French or Latin. The latter consist for the most part of scriptural or liturgical tags (e.g. 'ave maria', f. 46v; 'david rex', f. 134v) but include a reference to the owner (f. 21r) and two to the artist (ff. 124r, 232v, see Custodial History), and the following adages and mottos, sometimes with variations in spelling where repeated:-'In god is all' (ff. 28v, 29r, 231r); 'de plus en plus' (f. 28v); 'dela plus bela a foy tenez (?) bona vous' (f. 28v); 'In gode time I wol' (f. 29r); 'soverayne' (a motto of Henry IV) (e.g. ff. 31v, 232r); 'a paine endure' (e.g. ff. 39v, 232v); 'un sauns plus' (e.g. ff. 67r, 232r); 'pour souffrir' (ff. 125v, 130r, cf. f. 73r below); 'Si paciens fueris omnium victor eris. disce pati' (f. 129v); 'patientia vincit maliciam' (f. 141v); 'Wan god wole beter may be' (f. 231r); 'bliscid be god abowe all pynke' (f. 232).
Bar-borders in colours framing the text, filling the left-hand margin of each page and attached to initials where these are present, with sprays of foliage branching out into the top and bottom margins.
The miniatures are probably by the same hand, with the possible exception of the larger initials at ff 12v, 21v, f. 24v, 26v, 28r, 30r, 33r, 37r. Two inscriptions in line-fillings, 'herman your make servant' (f. 124r) and 'I am herman youre owne servant' (f. 232v), were identified as signatures of the artist who signs himself with the words 'Hermannus Scheerre me fecit' in Add. MS 16998, f. 37r, or 'Herman' in the Chichele Breviary, Lambeth Palace MS 69, f. 1r. There is, however, no trace in the present manuscript of the motto 'omnia levia sunt amanti: si quis amat non laborat', associated with Scheere in Add. MS 16998 (f. 67r), Royal MS 1 E. ix (f. 229r), and other manuscripts containing miniatures attributed to him (but cf. Royal MS. 2 A. xviii, f. 23v, where the same motto is incorporated in a miniature presumably by another hand). With the motto 'qui bien a[yme?]' (f. 220r) may be compared that found in Add. MS 16998, f. 67, 'tout dus en une qui bien ayme tart oblie'. For the manuscripts attributed to Hermann Scheerre see Rickert, 'Herman the Illuminator' (1940).
The subject of the initials are as follows:
f. 7r. The Annunciation with the Angel holding a scroll inscribed 'ave gracia plena dominus tecum', and an inscription on the Virgin's cushion, ' ave maria gracia'. In the border, a roundel in camaieu, with God the Father surrounded by angels (Matins).
f. 12v, The Agony in the Garden (Lauds).
f. 21v, The Betrayal of Christ (Prime).
f. 24v, Christ before Caiaphas (Tierce).
f. 26v, Christ bearing the Cross (Sext).
f. 28r, The Crucifixion with Pilate holding a scroll inscribed 'Vere filius d[ei] erat iste' (Nones).
f. 30r, The Deposition (Vespers).
f. 33r, The Entombment (Compline).
f. 37r, Christ in Majesty, at the Resurrection of the Dead (Penitential Psalms).
f. 46r, Vigils of the Dead (Office of the Dead).
f. 73r, Samuel anointing David with Jesse nearby; the tree of Jesse in the border with the branches forming compartments enclosing the Virgin holding a lily, at the top, and three kings holding sprays of foliage, encircling the crest, shield of arms, and badges or supporters of John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford; God the Father and angels in the four corners of the border. At the foot of the right border, a scroll with the motto 'pur suffrir' repeated three times (Psalm 1).
f. 95r, David slaying the lion, with the bear and a unicorn already dead nearby (Psalm 26).
f. 199r, David fighting with Goliath (Psalm 38).
f. 122r, David returning with Goliath's head on the point of his sword, welcomed at the gate of Jerusalem by three ladies (Psalm 52).
f. 135r, Saul, enthroned, seeking to smite David with a javelin (Psalm 68).
f. 151v, Marriage of David and Michal, daughter of Saul (Psalm 80).
f. 166v, David playing a portable organ before the ark (Psalm 97).
f. 183r, David enthroned, playing a harp and three scribes preparing to write (Psalm 109).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Royal Manuscripts Digitisation Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002085987", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 42131: Psalter and Hours (the 'Bedford Psalter and Hours')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002085987
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002085987
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_42131 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1414
- End Date:
- 1422
- Date Range:
- 1414-1422
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
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Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 450 x 275 mm (text space: 235 x 150 mm).
Foliation: ix+ 240 (ff. iii, vi, vii, viii and 237-240 are medieval parchment flyleaves; ff. v and ix are paper book plates pasted on ff, vi and vii; f. iv is not extant; + 2 unfoliated modern parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end; ff. 45v, 72r-v, 237-240 are blank).
Collation: i6 (ff. 1-6); ii8-1 (ff. 7-13); iii-ix8 (ff. 14-69); x3 (ff. 70-72); xi-xxxii8 (73-240), with catchwords, in one cursive hand. First four leaves of each gathering mostly numbered i-iv. Gatherings signed as follows: ii-vi, a-e (preceded by the symbol ); vii-x, [a]-d (preceded by a cross +); xi-xxxi (item 3), a-x (l repeated). Another series of 15th-century signatures, b-j, placed on the first, second, or third leaves of alternate quires, survives between ff. 73 and 178 (gatherings xi-xxiv).
Layout: Written in one column; Ruling: ff. 1r-6v, once in purple ink; ff. 7r-71v, twice, first lightly in plummet, thirty-five lines to a page, the eighteen lines of text being written between alternate pairs; secondly in purple or (ff. 8-12, 46) red ink, eighteen lines to a page.
Script: Gothic; a rather large English book hand, with hair-line serifs. A few corrections, etc., have been roughly noted with ink, plummet or stylus, mostly in the margins.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding. Originally the manuscript was sewn on nine pairs of thongs and bound in 15th-century binding of white leather on wooden boards (beech and oak) with fragments of a 14th-century Italian manuscript of St Thomas Aquinas, Secunda secundae Summae Theologiae, used as pastedowns; re-covered, with red velvet, in the late 17th century (?), with ten vellum strips, cut from 15th and 16th- 17th-century legal documents pasted across the spine between the bands; and ff. iii (end leaf) and 240 (blank) pasted to the boards and covered with marbled paper (one of which is numbered f. x); incised silver clasps (see part one for detailed description). The parts of the former binding are now stored separately as Add MS 42131/1.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England (London), probably partially illuminated by Herman Scheerre [Scheere, Skereueyn] (fl. c. 1388- c. 1422), perhaps to be identified with Herman of Cologne who worked for William, duke of Gueldres (c. 1388-1389) and Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy in Dijon (1401-1403): inscribed 'Herman your meke servant' (f. 124r), and 'I am Herman your owne servant' (f. 232v).
Provenance:
John [John of Lancaster], (b. 1389, d. 1435), duke of Bedford, regent of France from 1422 and prince, made for him: inscribed 'I commende me unto ȝow. I pray god save the Duke of Bedford' (f. 21r); his arms, crest, badges of an eagle and yale, and his motto reading 'pur souffrir' (f. 73r) .
Mary Fitzlewis (b. 1467), wife of Anthony Wydeville, (b. c.1440, d. 1483), 2nd earl Rivers, son of Jacquetta of Luxemburg (d. 1472), John of Bedford's widow: addition to the calendar 'maria fitz loys Nat. in iii Kalend. Junii. A[nn]o d[omi]ni m ccccxvii' (30 May 1467] (f. 3v).
William Catesby (b. in or before 1446, d. 1485), councillor to Richard III, and executors of Anthony Wydeville's will, probably acquired by him after Wydeville's execution in 1483: his arms (quarterly Catesby, Cranford, Lodbrooke, and Bishopston, sometimes impaling his wife Margaret, quaterly Zouche and Cantelupe) (ff. 7r, 73r, 95r, 109r, 122r, 135r, 151v, 166v, 183r); included in the inventory of Catesby's goods made in December 1484 and received by John Strete, his servant (Public Record Office E. 154/2/4): 'Item a grete primer and a sawter covered with blewe damask: ch Rewe'.
Edward Weld (b. 1741, d. 1775), landowner, of Lulworth Castle, Dorset: armorial bookplate (f. ix recto).
Thomas Weld (b. 1750, d. 1810), landowner and benefactor, of Lulworth Castle, Dorset: armorial bookplate (f. v recto).
The Weld family, sold by them at Sotheby's, London on 29 July 1929, lot. 11; purchased by the British Museum for £33,000, with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund and a loan from John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (b. 1867, d. 1943), financier.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
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Eustace F. Bosanquet, 'The Personal Prayer-book of John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford', The Library, 4th series, 13 (1932-1933), 148-54.
Eric G. Millar, 'Fresh Materials for the Study of English Illumination', in Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Greene, ed. by Dorothy Miner (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954), pp. 286-94 (pp. 293-94).
Margaret Rickert, 'Herman the Illuminator', Burlington Magazine, 46 (1935), 39-40 (p. 40).
Charles L. Kuhn, 'Herman Scheerre and English Illumination of the Early Fifteenth Century', Art Bulletin, 22 (1940), 138-56 (pp. 140, 149).
Margaret Rickert, 'The So-Called Beaufort Hours and York Psalter', The Burlington Magazine, 104 (1962), 238-46 (p. 245).
D. H. Turner, ‘Bedford Hours and Psalter’, Apollo, 76 (1962), 265-70.
Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 32.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), pl. 53.
Richard Marks and Nigel Morgan, The Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting 1200-1500 (London, 1981), pls 33, 34.
J. J. G. Alexander, 'Painting and Manuscript Illumination for Royal Patrons in the Later Middle Ages', in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, ed. by V. J. Scattergood and J. W. Sherborne (London: Duckworth, 1983), pp. 141-62 (p. 150, fig. 1).
Jenny Stradford, 'The Manuscripts of John, Duke of Bedford: Library and Chapel', in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 329-50 (p. 342).
Susie Vertongen, 'Herman Scheerre, The Beaufort Master and the Flemish Miniature Painting: A Reopened Dabate', in Flanders in a European Perspective: Manuscript Illumination around 1400, Flanders and Abroad: Proceedings of the International Colloquium, Leuven, 7-10 September 1993, ed. by Maurits Smeyers and Bert Cardon (Leuven, 1995), 251-65 (p. 257).
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles (Harvey Miller: London, 1996), no. 54.
Gothic: Art for England (London: Victoria and Alber Museum, 2003), no. 73 p. 206, pl. 97 [exhibition cataogue].
C. Paul Christianson, ‘Evidence for the Study of London’s Late Medieval Manuscript-Book Trade’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475, ed. by Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 87-108 (p. 107 n. 44).
Kathleen L. Scott, ‘Design, Decoration and Illustration’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 31-64 (p. 54 n. 7, pl. 5b).
Sylvia Wright, 'The author portraits in the Bedford Psalter-Hours: Gower, Chaucer and Hoccleve', British Library Journal, 18 (1992), 190-202 (p. 190).
Janet Backhouse, The Sherborne Missal (London: British Library, 1999), p. 41.
The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, 6 vols (Cambridge: University Press, 1999-2009), III: 1400-1557, ed. by Lotte Hellinga and J. B. Trapp (1999), p. 61.
Kathleen Scott, 'The Illustration and Decoration of the Register of the Fraternity of the Holy Trinity at Luton Church, 1475-1546', in The English Medieval Book: Studies in Memory of Jeremy Griffiths, ed. by A. S. G. Edwards, Vincent Gillespie and Ralph Hanna (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 155-83 (p. 178).
Gothic Art for England 1400-1547, ed. by Richard Marks and Paul Williamson (London: V and A Publications, 2003), no. 73, pp. 16, 180, pl. 97.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 26, pp. 53, 56, 152, 165, 398 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)