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Lansdowne MS 381/1
- Record Id:
- 041-002074902
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002074901
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001358.0x0003cf
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165171003.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Lansdowne MS 381/1
- Title:
- Psalter fragment ('Psalter of Henry the Lion')
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript comprises eleven leaves from a Psalter created for Henry the Lion (b. 1129, d. 1195) and his wife Matilda (married to Henry 1168, d. 1189), who are illustrated on f. 10v, along with a calendar containing northern French and Flemish saints. Lansdowne 381/2 is a separate volume consisting of a 15th-century breviary.
Contents:
ff. 1v-7r: Calendar.
ff. 8v-9v: Psalms 1 and 2 (imperfect; ends at 'in timore et').
f. 10r: Psalm 100.
f. 11v: Prayer ('Domine, exaudi orationem meam').
Decoration:
12 calendar pages in colours and gold, with the text in gold on purple parchment and scenes of the months and Zodiac signs (ff. 1v-7r). 4 full-page miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 7v, 8r, 10v, 11r). 2 large initials in colours on gold grounds (ff. 8v, 11v). Text in gold on purple parchment (ff. 8v, 9r, 11v). 2 large initials in gold and silver on green grounds (ff. 9v, 10r). Small initials in red on gold grounds within green frames and in gold within blue frames (ff. 9v-10r).
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 7v: The Annunciation above; Moses and Gideon, in armour with a shield, below.
f. 8r: The Presentation in the Temple above; Moses and Malachi holding scrolls below.
f. 10v: The Crucifixion, with portraits of Henry (left) and Matilda (right) below, labelled Henricus dux and Matilti ducissa respectively. Both hold scrolls with chants from the Feast of the Inventio Crucis (Finding of the Cross); Henry's reads 'Adoram[us] te xre et benedicim[us] tibi' ('We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you') and Matilda's reads 'Salva nos xre salvator p[er] virtute[m] crucis' (Save us, O Saviour Christ, by the virtue of the Cross').
f. 11r: The Resurrection.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Lansdowne Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002060013
040-002074901
041-002074902 - Is part of:
- Lansdowne MS 1-1245 : Lansdowne Manuscripts
Lansdowne MS 381 : Psalter fragment ('Psalter of Henry the Lion') and Breviary fragment
Lansdowne MS 381/1 : Psalter fragment ('Psalter of Henry the Lion') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002060013[0246]/040-002074901[0001]/041-002074902
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Lansdowne MS 1-1245
- Record Type (Level):
- Item
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165171003.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-

- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1168
- End Date:
- 1189
- Date Range:
- between 1168-1189
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 210 x 130mm (text space: 150 x 90mm).
Foliation: ff. 11 (+ 5 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Red leather with the arms of Lansdowne; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Helmarshausen, Germany.
Provenance:
Henry the Lion (b. 1129, d. 1195), Duke of Saxony and his wife Matilda (married to Henry 1168, d. 1189): pictured (f. 10v); attributed to the monk Heriman of Helmarshausen (see Turner, Grenville Library (1967)).
16th century: glosses made to the calendar.
William Petty (formerly Fitzmaurice) (b. 1737, d. 1805), 2nd earl of Shelburne and 1st marquess of Lansdowne, prime minister: inscribed 'L[ord] L[an]sd [owne] No. 62' in an English hand (f. 10r), with a note in the same hand in English (f. 1r).
Purchased by the British Museum together with 1244 other Lansdowne manuscripts in 1807.
- Former Internal References:
- Lansdowne MS 381
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts: 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. 381.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 5.
Arthur Haseloff, Eine Thüringisch-Sächsische Malerschule des 13. Jahrhunderts, Studien zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, 9 (Strasbourg: Heitz, 1897), pp. 336-37.
[George Warner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series I (London: British Museum, 1907), pl. 40.
Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingischen Miniaturen', in Zweiten Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), 51-77 (p. 62).
[J. A. Herbert], British Museum: Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 1, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1923), pl. 40.
Franz Jansen, Die Helmarshausener Buchmalerei zur Zeit Heinrichs des Löwen (Hildesheim: August Lax, 1933, repr. Karlshafen: Antiquariats Bernhard Schäfer, 1985), pp. 9, 38, 61, 79 f., 88, 95 f., 101, 104, 106 f., 124, 127, 136, 146, 149, pl. 23.
Hugo Buchthal and Francis Wormald, Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 35 n. 2.
André Grabar and Carl Nordenfalk, Romanesque Painting from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Century, trans. by Stuart Gilbert (Lausanne: SKIRA, 1958), p. 172.
The St. Albans Psalter, 1: The Full-Page Miniatures, by Otto Pächt; 2: The Initials, by C. R. Dodwell; 3. Preface and Description of the Manuscript, by Francis Wormald (London: Warburg Institute, 1960), pp. 46-60.
Theophilus, The Various Arts (De Diversis Artibus), trans. with introduction by C. R. Dodwell (London: Nelson and Sons, 1961), pp. xxix.-xxx.
D. H. Turner, 'The Siegburg Lectionary', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 16 (1962), 16-27 (p. 26).
D. H. Turner, Romanesque Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Library (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 21-22.
Kunst und Kultur im Weserraum, 800-1600, 2 vols (Munster: Aschendorff, 1967), I, pls 185, 186, II, no. 191, [exhibition catalogue].
[D. H. Turner], Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 38, pl. 11.
C. R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe: 800 to 1200 (London : Penguin Books, 1971), p. 165, pl. 181.
Christopher de Hamel, The Gospels of Henry the Lion, Sotheby's, 6 December 1973 (Uxbridge: Hillingdon Press, 1973), pp. 15, 17.
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, no. 849.
Das Evangeliar Heinrichs der Löwen und das mittelalterliche Herrscherbild, ed. by Horst Fuhrmann and Florentine Mütherich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ausstellungkatalogue, 35 (Munich: Prestel, 1986), pp. 31-32, fig. 7 [exhibition catalogue].
Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235, ed. by Jochen Luckhardt and Franz Niehoff, 3 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 1995), [exhibition catalogue] I, no. D 93, II, pl. 111 [with additional bibliography].
Walter Achilles, Monatsbildzyklen in Hildesheimer Prachthandschriften des 13. Jahrhunderts, Quellen und Dokumentationem zur Stadtgeschichte Hildesheims, 14 (Hildesheim: Gebrüder Berstenberg, 2003), pp. 40-42, pls 9, 11.
Kate Norgate, ‘Matilda, duchess of Saxony (1156–1189)’, rev. Timothy Reuter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18339, accessed 15 Feb 2017].
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 (p. 8 n. 24).
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker et al. (London: British Library, 2005), p. 93.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 89, fig. 76.
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), p. 53, pl. 25.
Colum Hourihane, Time in the Medieval World: Occupations of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac in the Index of Christian Art (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University, 2007), pp. 6, 18.
Jitske Jasperse, 'Het culturele patronaat van Mathilde Plantagenet (1156-1189)', Millennium: Tijdschrift voor Middeleeuwse Studies, 21 (2007), 89-107 (pp. 92, 98-99).
Richard Löwenherz: König, Ritter, Gefangener, ed. by Alexander Schubert [exhibition catalogue, Stiftung Historisches Museum der Pfalz, Speyer, 17 Sept. 2017 - 15 April 2018) (Regensburg: Schnell und Steiner, 2017), no. 54, p. 182.
- Exhibitions:
- Richard Löwenherz: König-Ritter-Gefangener, Historisches Museum der Pfalz, 17 September 2017 - 14 January 2018
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- Helmarshausen, Germany
- Related Material:
-
Lansdowne MS 381 is comprised of two distinctive pieces, and catalogued as Lansdowne MS 381/1, the Psalter of Henry the Lion (ff. 1-11), and Lansdowne MS 381/2, a Breviary (use of Sarum) (ff. 12-76). They are consecutively foliated.
From the Catalogue of the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum (1819), no. 381:
'Eleven leaves of an ancient Latin Psalter, written in the 10th or 11th century, chiefly in letters of gold on purple vellum, and, judging from the names of some particular saints in the calendar prefixed to it, either in France or Flanders. On the first leaf is the hundredth psalm, and on the back of it a painting of the crucifixion. On the opposite page another painting of the resurrection. On fo. 2 b , the prayer "Domine, exaudi oratioiiem meam," in letters of gold. On fo. 3 b the calendar begins, which is elegantly written in letters of gold on a purple ground, between columns that support arches in which are the signs of the zodiac and the occupations or symbols of the months. On fo. 9 b and 10 are paintings of the annunciation and presentation of Christ, with figures below of Moses, Gideon, and Malachi. On fo. 10 b the Psalter begins, the first psalm being written in gold on a purple ground. On fo. 11 b is a part only of the second psalm. All the paintings are in a good style for so early a period.'
- Related Archive Descriptions:
- Lansdowne MS 381
Lansdowne MS 381/2