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Lansdowne MS 431
- Record Id:
- 040-002075159
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002075159
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001257.0x0001e4
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165171016.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Lansdowne MS 431
- Title:
- Psalter
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
A psalter with a calendar; ends imperfectly and is lacking Psalm 101 (there is a stub between ff. 75 and 76).
Decoration:
12 large 'KL' initials in the calendar in gold with penwork decoration in green, blue, and red, with the occupations of the months and zodiac symbols in colours on blue and pink grounds within gold medallions (ff. 4r-9v). A very large framed historiated initial in colours on a gold ground at the beginning of Psalm 1 (f. 11r). 9 large historiated or decorated initials in colours on gold grounds with foliate decoration at the liturgical divisions (Psalm 101 and its initial are lacking) and at the beginning of the Canticles (ff. 26r, 35v, 43v, 44r, 53r, 64v, 74v, 85r 105v). 2 diagrams (f. 10r-10v). Large initials in gold or in blue, with foliate decoration usually in colours at the beginning of the other Psalms or divisions. Small initials in blue with red penwork decoration, or in red with blue penwork decoration. Line fillers with red and blue penwork geometric decoration. Run-over symbols in the form of animal heads, or a man with a fish in his mouth (f. 85r). Musical notation with staves in red (ff. 2v-3v; 127-130).
The subjects of the calendar miniatures are:
f. 4r: January: a Janus figure holding cups; Aquarius;
f. 4v: February: a figure warming his hands before a fire; Pisces;
f. 5r: March: a seated figure Aries;
f. 5v: April: a figure pruning a bush; Taurus;
f. 6r: May: a figure on a horse, falconing; Gemini;
f. 6v: June: a figure scything; Cancer;
f. 7r: July: a figure cutting corn; Leo;
f. 7v: August: a figure threshing grain; Virgo
f. 8r: September: a figure with a basket picking grapes; Libra;
f. 8v: October: a figure with a staff, harvesting acorns for pigs; Scorpio;
f. 9r: November: a figure slaughtering pigs; Sagittarius;
f. 9v: December: two figures feasting and debating at a table; Capricorn.
The subjects of the historiated initials are:
f. 11r: Psalm 1: Beatus initial containing the Evangelist symbols, prophets with scrolls, David and Goliath, a juggler, a man with an ape, Ecclesia, Synagoga, David with a harp, another musician, St Paul and Moses;
f. 35v: Psalm 38: Judgement of Solomon, with a hybrid creature and rabbits in the frame and extension;
f. 43v: Psalm 51: Doeg slaughtering the priests of Nob; David and Goliath in the extension and lower margin;
f. 44r: Psalm 52: the Temptation of Christ;
f. 53r: Psalm 68: Jonah and the whale;
f. 64v: Psalm 80: four seated musicians;with animals (?dogs) dancing;
f. 74v: Psalm 97: the Annunciation to the Shepherds;
f. 85r: Psalm 109: Christ crowns a woman, representing the Church.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Lansdowne Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002075159", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Lansdowne MS 431: Psalter" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002060013
040-002075159 - Is part of:
- Lansdowne MS 1-1245 : Lansdowne Manuscripts
Lansdowne MS 431 : Psalter - Hierarchy:
- 032-002060013[0296]/040-002075159
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Lansdowne MS 1-1245
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165171016.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1200
- End Date:
- 1224
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 330 x 220mm (text space: 225 x 145mm).
Foliation: ff. 130 ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Gothic, written above thetop line.
Binding: BM/BL in-house. Marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Eastern England (possibly East Anglia).
Provenance:
? The Augustinian priory of St Giles, Barnwell, Cambridgeshire: evidence of the calendar and the litany (see Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 1982).
Precentor 'E' of the cathedral church of Holy Trinity, Chichester: added obits of Bishop Ranulf on 15 September (f. 8r); and of the precentor's father John on 24 April (f. 5v), and mother Avicia on 26 September (f. 8r).
? John Howard (? d. 1426) and his wife Alice Tendring: erased 15th-century inscription (f. 11r) has apparently been read as an invocation to pray for him and his wife Alice (see discussion in Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 1982).
ff. 2v-3v and ff. 127r-130r contain 15th-century musical notation on four-line staves with large initials in brown with penwork decoration, and large plain initials in blue; f. 130v contains prayers in 15th-century Gothic script.
Thomas Broune, a mercer of Bury St. Edmunds: inscription, ' Orate pro anima Thomae Broune de bury Sancti Edmundi Mercer . . .' dated 1543 (f. 2r).
Thomas Hird: inscription 'Tho. hird Psaltor' (f. [iii] verso).
? Shelfmarks or prices '2 K 15', 'Th. 18', 'LLf 125' (f. [iii] verso, f. 1r).
William Petty (formerly Fitzmaurice) (b. 1737, d. 1805), 2nd earl of Shelburne and 1st marquess of Lansdowne, prime minister: his arms on the book-plate (f. [iii] verso); purchased by the British Museum together with 1244 other Lansdowne manuscripts in 1807.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
[Henry Ellis and Francis Douce], A Catalogue of the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1819), no. 431.
John Bradley, Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd edn (London: Bracken Books, 1920), p. 253 no. 19.
Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1926), p. 119.
Günther Haseloff, Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Geschichte der Buchmalerei in England, Frankreich und den Niederlanden ([n.p.]:[n.pub.], 1938), p. 14.
Peter Brieger, English Art 1216-1307, Oxford History of English Art, 4 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 85.Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (London: Penguin Books, 1965), pp. 98, 101.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, 168.
François Avril and Patricia Danz Stirnemann, Manuscrits enluminés d’origine insulaire VIIe-XXe siècle (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1987), p. 52.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books ed. by N. R. Ker, Supplement to the Second Edition, ed. by Andrew G. Watson, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 15 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1987), pp. 3, 14.
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), I: 1190-1250, no. 39, pls 1334-135; II: 1250-1285, pp. 89, 116-17 [with additional bibiliography].
Nigel Morgan, ‘The Decorative Ornament of the Text and Page in Thirteenth-Century England: Initials, Border Extensions and Line Fillers’, in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 1-33 (p. 13, pl. 12).
C. M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003), fig. 115.
Time in the medieval world: occupations of the months and signs of the zodiac in the Index of Christian Art, ed. by Colum Hourihane (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), pp. 6, 19.
Peter Kidd, 'Contents and Codicology' in The St Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter), English-language edition of commentary volume ed. by Jochen Bepler, Peter Kidd and Jane Geddes (Simbach am Inn, Germany: Mueller & Schindler, 2008), pp. 1-140 (p. 151, n. 239).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)