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Loan MS 131
- Record Id:
- 032-004397134
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-004397134
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100173123619.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100178220011.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Loan MS 131
- Title:
- Psalter-Hours (The 'Burdett Psalter-Hours')
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. [1r-6v]: Calendar, including English saints Edward the Confessor (13 October), Edmund the Martyr (20 November) and Thomas Becket (29 December), and with the early addition of Edmund Rich (16 November); added obits (see Provenance).
ff. [7r-12r]: Prefatory cycle of miniatures.
ff. [12v-13v]: Prayers for use before the Psalter, beginning 'Deus ineffabilis misericordie', 'Suscipre dignare domine deus' and 'Aufer ame domine illusiones'.
ff. [14r-70v]: Psalter.
ff. [71r-76r]: Canticles.
ff. [77r-89v]: Hours of the Virgin, with revisions added in the 15th century, including suffrages after Lauds for Sts Michael, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, Stephen, John the Evangelist, Lawrence, Thomas Becket; with George, Christopher, Denis, Blaise, Eustace, Katherine, Margaret, Barbara, Martha and Ursula in a single petition; then Nicholas, Katherine, Margaret, Anne, Relics and Peace (ff. 81v-83v).
ff. [90r-92v]: Penitential Psalms.
ff. [92v-95v]: Litany, including English saints Edward the Confessor, Edmund the Martyr and Thomas Becket, with revisions added in the 15th century.
ff. [96r-106r]: Office of the Dead, with revisions added in the 15th century.
ff. [106r-106v]: Added Office of the Passion, 15th century.
Decoration:
Illustrated by the Parisian artist known as the Méliacin Master (named after the manuscript of Roman de Méliacin, Paris, BnF, fr. 1633).
5 full-page miniatures, in colours and gold: John the Baptist with portrait of a kneeling Hospitaller (f. [7v]); four compartments containing the Annunciation, Visitation, Annunciation to the Shepherds, and Nativity (f. [8v]); four compartments containing the Adoration of the Magi, Presentation in the Temple, Flight into Egypt, and Massacre of the Innocents (f. [9r]); four compartments containing the Betrayal, Christ before Pilate, Flagellation, and Carrying the Cross (f. [10v]); two compartments containing the Ascension and Pentecost (f. [11r]).
A further miniature is probably missing between ff. [10] and [11] where a leaf has been excised with the stub still visible.
1 full-page pen-drawing: four compartments containing Sts Lawrence, Stephen, Margaret and Catherine (f. [12r]).
11 historiated initials, in colours and gold: Psalm 1, King David harping, with a kneeling Hospitaller and a hound chasing a hare in the margin (f. [14r]); Psalm 26, David pointing to his eye before God (f. [22v]); Psalm 38, David pointing to his mouth before God (f. [28v]); Psalm 52, fool with a club and bread (f. [34r]); Psalm 68, David in the water calling upon God (f. [39v]); Psalm 80, David playing the bells (f. [46r]); Psalm 97, three clerics singing (f. [52r]); Psalm 109, the Trinity (f. [58r]); Matins in the Hours of the Virgin, the Virgin and Child enthroned, with the Virgin offering Christ her breast, and a kneeling Hospitaller in the margin (f. [77r]); The Seven Penitential Psalms, Christ enthroned, holding a globe and blessing, with a kneeling Hospitaller in the margin (f. [90r]); Office of the Dead, a funeral service, with a kneeling Hospitaller in the margin (f. [96r]).
Decorated initials in colours and gold, with interlace and ivy leaf designs and sometimes dragons: ff. [79r], [81v], [84v], [85v], [86r], [87r], [88v], [97r].
Added initial in gold on a blue and pink ground, with foliage sprays: f. [83v].
Numerous initials in red or blue with penwork.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Loans of Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-004397134", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Loan MS 131: Psalter-Hours (The 'Burdett Psalter-Hours')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-004397134
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-004397134
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100178220011.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1279
- End Date:
- 1291
- Date Range:
- c. 1280-c. 1290
- 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: 232 x 155 mm (written space: 165 x 115 mm).
Foliation: The manuscript is not foliated, therefore notional foliation is given in squared brackets, ff. [1* + 106] (+ 2 unfoliated paper and 1 parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. [1*] is a parchment leaf; f. [i] recto is affixed with a modern paper leaf.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600, red leather with a gold-tooled 'wheel' design; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Paris, France.
Provenance:
Made for a knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitaller): a bearded man depicted wearing the robes of the Order in 5 owner portraits (ff. [7v], [14r], [77r], [90r], [96r]), in one case kneeling before the patron of the Order, St John the Baptist (f. [7v]). François Avril has suggested that he may be Jean de Villiers (d. 1293), the French Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitaller (1282-1285), and Grand Master of the Order (1285-1293) (see Avril, L’Art au temps des rois maudits (1998), p. 267). Based on the evidence for early ownership in England, Janet Backhouse has suggested that he may be an English member of the Order, such as Joseph de Chauncy, Grand Prior of the Hospitallers (1273-80), and Treasurer of Edward I, or one of his successors, William de Henley (1281-90), Peter de Hakeham (1290-97) or William de Tothale (1297-1315) (see Backhouse, 'A Very Old Book' (2000), p. 64).
A female owner, end of the 13th century: the prayers on f. [13v] changed to female use.
Possibly Hugh de Vere (d. c. 1319) and his wife Denise de Munchensey (d. 1313), of East Anglia: the calendar contains added obits of members of their families: Denise's grandmother, Denise de Munchensey the elder (22 May; d. 1304); Hugh’s father, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford (25 August; d. 1296); their brother-in-law, William de Warenne, husband of Joan de Vere (15 December; d. 1286). Additionally there are added obits of: 'Matilde de Crek' (3 October), maybe an error for Margery Crek (d. c. 1283); Walter de Redesham (25 September; d. 1291) and John Redeswell (23 November), both associates of Margery Crek; and Master William Cock, presibiter (15 December) (for identifications, see Backhouse, 'A Very Old Book' (2000), pp. 61-62).
Anthony Hutton (d. 1637), counsellor at law, a master of the High Court of Chancery, who married Elizabeth Burdett (d. 1673): Given by him to his sister-in-law Jane Burdett in 1634 (see inscription below).
Jane Burdett, wife of Sir Thomas Burdett, first baronet (d. 1647): Given to her by her brother-in-law Andrew Hutton; bequeathed by her to her son, Francis Burdett; inscribed, ‘Sonne Fraunceys. This Booke geven mee by my Noble Brother in Law Anthony Hutton Esquire att his House Gaile in Cumberland the 28 of June 1634, take notice that I bequeath unto you when Death Shall not Suffer mee to possess it longer. On this Condition that you leave it to your Successor, with a Charge that it Still So goe on, whilst God Continues your name or Blood in posteritie, to the memory of his Friendly kindness in this High prised Gift to which Act I Subscribe by Name Jane Burdette. In presence to witnes Christofer Dalston. Antho: Hutton. Elizabeth Hutton. Anne Bowes. I Joyn Bowes. John Dalston. Bar: Hutton. Sam: Hutton. George Hudsson. Tho: Calert’ (f. [ii] recto).
Sir Francis Burdett (b. 1608, d. 1696), 2nd baronet: bequeathed to him by his mother Jane Burdett (see inscription above).
Sir Robert Burnett (b. 1716, d. 1797), 4th baronet: by descent; added red and gold ‘wheel’ binding, probably made in Edinburgh c. 1720.
Sir Francis Burdett (b. 1770, d. 1844), 5th baronet: his armorial bookplate (inside upper cover).
Sir Francis Burdett (b. 1813, d. 1892), 7th baronet: added note (f. [i] recto), by descent in the family; sold to private owner in 1990.
Private owner: sold at Sotheby’s, London, 23 June 1998, lot 50, to an overseas purchaser.
Private owner: placed on long term loan at the British Library in 2022.
- Publications:
-
Francois Avril, L’Art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel e ses fils, 1285-1328 (Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1998), p. 267.
Jonathan Riley Smith, Hospitallers:The History of the Order of St John (London and Rio Grande, OH, 1999), p. 79.
Janet Backhouse, ‘“A Very Old Book”: The Burdett Psalter-Hours, Made for a Thirteenth-Century Hospitaller’, in Studies in the Illustration of the Psalter, ed. by Brendan Cassidy and Rosemary Muir Wright (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 2000), pp. 55-66.
John Higgitt, The Murthly Hours (London, 2000), pp. 25, 114, 285.
Cristina Dondi, ‘Hospitaller Liturgical Manuscripts and Printed Books’, Revue Mabillon, 75 (n.s. 14) (2003), pp. 225-26, 246-47, no. A.79.
Lucy Freeman Sandler, ‘Illuminated in the British Isles: French Influence and/or the Englishness of English Art, 1285-1345’, Gesta, 45/2, 50th Anniversary of the International Center of Medieval Art (2006), 177-88.
Alison Stones, Gothic Manuscripts 1260-1320, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in France, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 2013), I, pp. 71-72, no. I-34.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)