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Add MS 54179
- Record Id:
- 040-001959647
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001959646
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000771.0x0001b9
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 54179
- Title:
- Psalter with elements of York and Augustinian use ('The York Psalter')
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
1. Calendar. Contains a number of highly graded feasts of the York diocese, see Surtees Society, Breviarum Ad Usum Insignis Ecclesie Eboracensis (1880): John of Beverley (7 May), William (8 June), Wilfrid (12 October) and other northern elements: Gilbert of Sempringham (4 February) and Hugh (17 November). There are also several others not from the York calendar: Sexburga (6 July), Mildred (13 July), Frideswide (19 Oct.) and a number of martyrological saints, perhaps suggesting derivation from a martyrological calendar. The inclusion of the Translation of St Augustine (11 Oct.), although not highly graded, supports the Augustinian affiliations of item 5. The feast of Edmund of Abingdon (16 November) gives the manuscript a terminus post quem of 1246, when he was canonized (ff. 1r-6v);
2. Psalter. Begins imperfectly ('et munera') at the end of Psalm 14, beginning of Psalm 15 (ff. 7r-143v);
3. Canticles (ff. 143r-159r);
4. Litany, unspecific, not of York (ff. 159v-167v);
5. Office of the Dead and Commendation of the Soul. Not of York or Sarum use, but resembling that found in certain manuscripts with Augustinian affiliations (ff. 167v-193r);
Decoration:
The Calendar has 24 small miniatures on square gold grounds, one series depicting a single male figure performing the Labours of the Months and the other the Zodiac, as follows:
f. 1r, January man by a fire.
f. 1v, February, pruning.
f. 2r, March, hoeing.
f. 2v, April, man holding two sprigs of foliage.
f. 3r, May, falconry.
f. 3v, June, weeding.
f. 4r, July, scything.
f. 4v, August, cutting corn.
f. 5r, September, threshing.
f. 5v, October, sowing.
f. 6r, November, pig pannage.
f. 6v, December, feasting.
The decoration of the Psalter consists of nine major, almost half page, historiated initials on gold grounds against blue and pink diapered backgrounds, followed by display panels. The choice of subjects is unusual, combining iconography from an existing English tradition with scenes from the Life of David which were being introduced under French influence (see Morgan 1988). Two or more scenes are juxtaposed, either in a typological fashion or literally illustrating the text, viz:-
f. 18v, Psalm 26: D - Samuel anoints David; the Presentation of Christ; the Coronation of David; the Baptism of Christ.
f. 32v, Psalm 38: D - the Devil before David, who points to his mouth; a rich man, in bed, is robbed of his wealth.
f. 45r, Psalm 51: Q - the Temptation of Christ; David and Goliath.
f. 46r, Psalm 52: D - Jews stoning Christ; David and the Fool.
f. 59v, Psalm 68: S - the Resurrection from the Tomb (with Christ between two angels); Jonah and the Whale.
f. 76v, Psalm 80: E - David harping with a musician playing the bells; Jacob's dream and his wrestling with the Angel.
f. 92v, Psalm 97: C - the Annunciation to the Shepherds.
f. 95r, Psalm 101: D - Judith praying; Judith handing the head of Holofernes to a maid.
f. 110r Psalm 109: D - the Coronation of the Virgin; the Trinity, with the resurrected Christ coming to join God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The remaining Psalms and other major textual divisions are marked by decorated initials in gold, against blue and pink grounds with rinceaux. Those of ff. 17v-26v are more elaborate, with coloured bodies with foliate and occasionally zoomorphic extensions on gold grounds. The first Canticle (f. 144r) has a larger decorated initial in colours, with elaborate foliage and on a gold ground. Pen-flourished minor initials of blue and red alternating with gold and blue. Decorated penwork bar line-fillers in blue and red, some with beast or bird heads.
The textual affiliations of the manuscript with the diocese of York has led to the assumption that the workshop was based in York. However, the closest stylistic comparisons are with manuscripts of southern provenance. The York Psalter workshop exhibits a significant measure of new French influence. Its other products include Additional MS 52778 (Bible), Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Auct. D.4.17 (Apocalypse) and London, Sion College Library, MS. Arc.L.40.2/L.2 (the Psalter of Simon of Meopham) (see The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, New Series:1966-1970).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001959646
040-001959647 - Is part of:
- Add MS 54179-54180 : MILLAR BEQUEST. Edith Mary Millar Memorial Manuscripts: manuscripts bequeathed to the British Museum by Dr Eric George…
Add MS 54179 : Psalter with elements of York and Augustinian use ('The York Psalter') - Hierarchy:
- 032-001959646[0001]/040-001959647
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 54179-54180
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_54179 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1255
- End Date:
- 1265
- Date Range:
- c 1260
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 345 x 240mm (text space: 220 x 150mm).
Foliation: ff. 193 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf pasted to a marble leaf at the beginning and 1 at the end).
Collation: i6(ff. 1-6); ii-xvi10(ff. 7-156); xvii9(ff. 157-165); xviii-xix10(ff. 166-185); xx8 (ff. 186-193).
Script: Gothic, written below the top line.
Layout: Written in a single column of 20 lines, per cola et commata.
Binding: Pre-1600. White leather (possibly of Portuguese origin) over original binding of bevelled boards. Sewn on five cords, blue and white headbands. Traces of two fore-edge clasps (lost). Blue and orange-marbled end-papers. Three silk strips (red, mauve and a blue) attached as bookmarks.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
Made for a patron in the diocese of York: evidence of feasts in the calendar: see Millar 1952, pp. 4-12. The calendar includes Edmund of Canterbury on 16 November (canonised in 1246).
13th-century addition in the calendar: 'Obitus Nicholai de dodinton' (?Doddington, either in Kent or Cambridgeshire) cuius anime propicitur deus' added at 4 February (f. 1v).
Systematic erasure of the word 'pape'.
The English college at Lisbon: bequeathed to them by José Maria de Mello, Bishop of Algarve (d.1820). Inscription 'Monteiro Mor do Reino'(Chief Huntsman of the Kingdom) in a late 18th-century hand next to 6 January in the calendar (f. 1r) (see discussion in Millar 1952).
Unidentified owner, included in Sotheby's sale of 17 November, 1943, lot 440, bought by Messrs. Robinson of Pall Mall, booksellers.
Eric George Millar (b. 1887, d. 1966), librarian, purchased by him on 15 January from Messrs. Robinson; his book plate on the inside front cover.
Bequeathed by Eric George Millar to the British Museum, 1966 (Millar Bequest Vol. I): memorial label for his mother on the inside front cover inscribed: 'Edith Mary Millar Memorial MS'.
- Source of Acquisition:
-
Bequeathed by Eric George Millar to the British Museum, 1966 (Millar Bequest Vol. I): memorial label for his mother on the inside front cover inscribed: 'Edith Mary Millar Memorial MS'.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Eric George Millar, A Thirteenth Century York Psalter: A Manuscript written and illluminated in the diocese of York about A. D. 1250 (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1952), facsimile edition.
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 (pl. 239, 240).
D. H. Turner, 'From the Library of Eric George Millar', British Museum Quarterly, 30 (1966), 80-88 (pp. 81, 85-86).
D. H. Turner, 'The Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts', British Museum Quarterly, 33 (1969) p. 17, pls. IV, V.
Janet Backhouse, 'The Eric Millar Bequest to the Department of Manuscripts: IV, British Museum Quarterly 33 (1969).
Medieval Institute of Michigan State University, Kalamazoo, York Art: A subject list of extant and lost art http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/edam/pdf/YorkArt.pdf [accessed 15.1.2013].
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), II: 1250-1285, no. 133.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 67.
The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, New Series:1966-1970, 2 vols, London: British Museum, 1998), I, pp. 55-57
Christopher de Hamel, The Book: A History of the Bible (London: Phaidon, 2001), pl. 69.
F. O. Büttner, ‘Der illuminierte Psalter im Westen’, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. Büttner (Belgium: Brepols, 2004), pp. 1-106 (pp. 11, 21).
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 108, fig. 95.
Richard Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) p. 448.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)