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Add MS 40731
- Record Id:
- 032-002254877
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002254877
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000063.0x0001fc
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 40731
- Title:
-
The Bristol Psalter
- Scope & Content:
-
Psalter with 14 odes and the apocryphal Psalm 151. The manuscript was classified among the 'monastic Psalters', but combines features of the 'aristocratic' recension with those of the 'monastic' type (see Byzantine Art, 1964).
Decoration:
This manuscript is one of the few so-called marginal Psalters to survive, with numerous small images painted in the text of the Psalms, some of which foreshadow events of the New Testament. The miniatures are concentrated in the first half of the manuscript. Two full-page miniatures in colours and gold, of David and his musicians and Christ preaching (ff. 7v, 125v). 3 headpieces in colours and gold (ff. 8r, 126r, 241r). 95 marginal images in colours. Initials in colours and gold at the beginning of Psalms. Initials in gold at the beginning of verses.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 7v: King David with his musicians.
f. 8r: The blessed man flanked by the personifications of Day and Night.
f. 8v: Flowering tree; a personification of a river pouring a stream of blue water from an urn; the 'wicked man'.
f. 9r: Pilate and Herod plotting against Christ.
f. 9v: The Nativity; the Annunciation to the Shepherds.
f. 10r: David's flight from Absalom.
f. 11r: Sheaves of corn, a grape of vine, and an olive tree.
f. 11v: A church symbolizing 'Thy Holy Temple'.
f. 12r: An open sarcophagus.
f. 15r: The 'wicked man' falling into his own ditch.
f. 15v: Christ's entry into Jerusalem.
f. 16r: Adam naming the animals.
f. 18r: The personification of Hell and a group of 'wicked men'.
f. 21v: David's prophecy of Christ's resurrection.
f. 24r: Four martyrs holding crosses.
f. 26v: David in prayer.
f. 27v: Christ carried by angels; rivers of water flowing down four hills.
f. 31r: The Apostles Peter and Paul teaching.
f. 33r: David being crowned king of Israel.
f. 35v: The Crucifixion, and casting of lots for Christ's garments.
f. 36r: A lion’s head with a gaping mouth.
f. 37r: Verdant trees with flower and shrubs representing 'green pastures'.
f. 37v: A bird approaching a blue river surrounded by verdant plants; a 'table' represented by a paten and a chalice placed on an altar with a cross-decorated frontal; a rod; a bishop’s crozier; a jug.
f. 38v: A closed portal representing 'everlasting doors'.
f. 41r: A church representing the 'habitation of God's house'.
f. 44v: The Baptism of Christ.
f. 52v: King David and Abimelech.
f. 53r: Christ blessing the Communion bread.
f. 57v: Judas.
f. 65v: Peter weeping after denying Christ three times, and the cock crowing; a deep pit represented by large jar with a mir of clay.
f. 68r: Judas receiving silver from Caiaphas.
f. 68v: The Last Supper.
f. 69r: A stag drinking at a fountain.
f. 74v: David's prophecy of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary.
f. 77r: The Ascension of Christ with the Virgin and the Apostles.
f. 80v: A personification of the rising sun in a chariot; orbs of day and night; a personification of the setting sun.
f. 82v: Nathan's message and David's penance; Bathsheba looking through a window; a personification of Métanoïa (Repentance).
f. 84r: Saul and Doeg.
f. 86r: Two Ziphites before Saul.
f. 89r: The capture of David by Philistines in Gath.
f. 90v: David in the cave of Adullam.
f. 92r: A crocodile.
f. 93r: David's wife, Michal, letting David down from a window.
f. 95r: David setting fire to a city in Mesopotamia.
f. 98r: David in the desert of Idumea.
f. 100v: A domed church representing Sion in Jerusalem.
f. 104r: The Harrowing of Hell.
f. 105v: The rock cut out of a mountain; Daniel and David (a reference to Daniel's vision of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream).
f. 106v: A medallion of St Paul.
f. 110r: The Crucifixion.
f. 115r: David and the scene of the Holy Spirit descending on the Virgin Mary (as an interpretation of the miracle of Gideon's fleece).
f. 115v: The Adoration of the Magi.
f. 120r: A serpent from the waters being chewed up by the beasts of the desert.
f. 124v: Christ-Logos before two personifications of rivers.
f. 125v: Christ teaching.
f. 127r: Moses crossing the Red Sea.
f. 128r: The miracle of the manna; the miracle of quails.
f. 129v: The plagues of Egypt: the plague of the water changed into blood; the plagues of flies and frogs.
f. 130r: The plagues of Egypt: the plague of locusts; the plague of hail.
f. 130v: The plagues of Egypt: the plague of the firstborn.
f. 132v: The martyrdom of the Maccabees.
f. 137v: Moses drawing water from the rock.
f. 139r: The crucifixion of the kings of Midyan, Zeebah and Zalmunah.
f. 145r: The Entombment of Christ.
f. 147r: Christ calming the storm.
f. 147v: The Transfiguration.
f. 154r: The Third Temptation of Christ.
f. 165v: A beggar in misery.
f. 174v: Joseph being sold to Ishmaelites.
f. 175r: Joseph being released from prison; Jacob arriving in Egypt.
f. 175v: The plagues of Egypt: the plague of water changed into blood; the plagues of frogs, flies and hail.
f. 176r: The plagues of Egypt: the plague of locusts; the death of the firstborn of all animals; the plague of the firstborn of Egyptians.
f. 176v: Moses and his people in the desert: the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Cloud.
f. 178r: Moses crossing the Red Sea: Pharaoh's army drowning in the sea.
f. 178v: The Golden Calf.
f. 179v: Israelites worshipping Baal-Peor.
f. 180r: Israelites sacrificing their children to Baal- Peor.
f. 180v: Israelites taken captive.
f. 223r: Three Chaldeans with Israelite captives.
f. 231v: David and Goliath, each accompanied by a personification: David by Might and Goliath by Pride.
f. 240r: David beheading Goliath.
f. 248v: Hannah in prayer.
f. 250r: The Prophet Habakkuk.
f. 252r: Isaiah in prayer accompanied by the personifications of Night and Dawn.
f. 253v: Jonah being cast up by the sea monster.
f. 256v: The three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace and the angel.
f. 258r: The Virgin Orans.
f. 259r: Zechariah incensing the altar.
f. 260r: Ezekias in prayer.
f. 261v: Manasseh in prayer.
f. 263v: The Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Greek Manuscripts - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002254877", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 40731: The Bristol Psalter" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002254877
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002254877
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_40731 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Greek, Ancient
- Scripts:
- Greek
- Start Date:
- 1000
- End Date:
- 1099
- Date Range:
- 11th century
- 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:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 105 x 85 mm (text space: 70 x 60 mm).
Foliation: ff. 265 + ii (+ 5 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves: 4 at the beginning and 1 at the end; ff. i-ii are modern paper flyleaves at the end; f. 265 is an original blank parchment leaf); watermark of a bull's head (front pastedown) with a serpent (f. i).
Script: Greek minuscule.
Layout: Written in 1 column of 17 lines; ruling pattern no. 44C1 (Julien Leroy, Le Types de réglure des manuscrits grecs, Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1976).
Binding: Pre-1600. 16th-century binding of dark red stamped leather on wooden boards with two thongs, and a Greek style spine.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey).
Provenance:
Inscriptions in Greek, 16th-17th century (?) (ff. i verso and ii verso).
Western College, Cotham, Bristol (opened in 1906): discovered in the College's possession in 1921 (see Perry, Unnoticed Byzantine Psalter, 1921).
Purchased by the British Museum from the Western College on 13 January 1923: inscription on the front flyleaf (f. [i] recto).
- Publications:
-
Mary P. Perry 'An Unnoticed Byzantine Psalter', Burlington Magazine, 38 (1921), 119-28, 282-89.
Eric G. Millar, British Museum Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 4 (London: British Museum, 1928), pl. 8.
Ernst Kitzinger, Early Medieval Art with Illustrations from the British Museum Collection (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1940), pl. 35.
Francis Wormald, 'The Bristol Psalter', in Resumes des rapport et communications, 6e Congres International d'Etudes byzantines (Paris, 1940), p. 220.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1921-1925 (London: British Museum, 1950), pp. 150-54.
Marcel Richard, Inventaire des manuscrits grecs du British Museum, I: Fonds Sloane, Additional, Egerton, Cottonian et Stowe (Paris 1952), p. 82.
Byzantine Art: A European Art Catalogue of the Ninth Exhibition of the Council of Europe, April 1-June 15, 1964, Zappeion Exhibition Hall (Athens: Institut Français d’Athènes, 1964), no. 279.
Suzy Dufrenne, 'Le Psautier de Bristol et les autres psautiers byzantins', Cahiers Archeologiques, 14 (1965), 159-82.
L'illustration des psautiers grecs du moyen âge, 2 vols (Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1966- 1970), I (1966): Suzy Dufrenne, Pantocrator 61, Paris grec 20, British Museum 40731, Bibliothèque des Cahiers archéologiques 1, pp. 8, 9, 47-66, pls 3-6, 47-60 [with additional bibliography].
Charles R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe: 800 to 1200 (London: Penguin Books, 1971), p. 136.
William C. Loerke, ‘The Monumental Miniature’, in The Place of Book Illumination in Byzantine Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 61-98 (p. 87).
Suzy Dufrenne, Tableaux synoptiques de 15 Psaltiers medievaux a illustrations integrales issues du texte (Paris, 1978).
Anthony Cutler, 'A Psalter from Mar Saba and the Evolution of the Byzantine David Cycle', Journal of Jewish Art, 6 (1979), 39-63 (p. 50).
Thomas S. Pattie, Manuscripts of the Bible (London: British Library, 1979), p. 36, pl. 9.
Kurt Weitzman, 'The Sinai Psalter Cod. 48 with Marginal Illustrations and Three Leaves in Leningrad', in Byzantine Liturgical Psalters and Gospels (London: Variorum Reprints, 1980), VII, p. 7.
Christopher Walter, ‘Christological Themes in the Byzantine Marginal Psalters from the Ninth to the Eleventh Century’, Revue des études Byzantines, 44 (1986), 269-88.
John Lowden, Illuminated Prophet Books: A Study of Byzantine Manuscripts of the Major and Minor Prophets (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988), pp. 67, 103-04, n. 15.
Kathleen Corrigan, Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Marginal Psalter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Jeffrey C. Anderson, 'The Palimpsest Psalter, Pantokrator Cod. 61: Its Content and Relationship to the Bristol Psalter', Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 48, (1994) 199-220.
Byzantium: Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture from British Collections, ed. by David Buckton (London: British Museum, 1994), no. 167 [exhibition catalogue].
Bianca Kühnel, Crusader Art of the Twelfth Century: A Geographical, an Historical, or an Art Historical Notion? (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1994), pp. 94, 101.
Thomas S. Pattie, Manuscripts of the Bible: Greek Bibles in the British Library (London: British Library, 1995), p. 47, pl. IV.
Erik Thunø, Image and Relic: Mediating the sacred in Early Medieval Rome (Roma: Erma di Bretschneider 2002), p. 81, n. 215.
Leslie Brubaker, 'The Bristol Psalter', in Through a Glass Brightly: Studies in Byzantine and Medieval Art and Archaeology Presented to David Buckton, ed. by Chris Entwistle (Oxford: Oxbow, 2003), pp. 127-41, pls 6.1-6.10.
Elizabeth A. Peterson, ‘Scholastic Hermeneutics in Historiated Initials’, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. Büttner, (Turnout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 349-59 (p. 353).
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), no. 58.
- Exhibitions:
- Greek Manuscripts, (online), 18 September 2016-
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)