Manuscript leaf from a Psalter, in Latin, produced in Germany (Rhineland) or perhaps...

MS 5650/140

Manuscript leaf from a Psalter, in Latin, produced in Germany (Rhineland) or perhaps England or even France

Text: From a Psalter, in Latin

Script: Textualis Formata (Textus Quadratus)

A single leaf of 21 lines in black ink in a good Gothic hand and shows the second half of the Athanasian Creed followed by the Litany. There is a 4-line historiated initial ‘D’ in various shades of orange, enclosing a tonsured monk, pointing to a white document. The ‘D’ is on a burnished gold background. Also there are twenty-four 1-line initials in blue or burnished gold with blue or red penwork to contrast, seven highly decorative line-fillers painted in red and blue, one line filler with a drollery creature in simple blue and red penwork and is showing a two-legged creature with a long tail and apparently breathing fire. The presence of the initial ‘D’ is somewhat puzzling. It comes after the end of the Creed and before the Litany but relates to neither. It is however well painted and adds to the leaf’s attraction.

This leaf is from a well-known and richly illustrated liturgical Psalter, which apparently included the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead. It was broken up, perhaps in France, in the 1960s, and leaves first appeared in England in the Folio Fine Art Catalogue 43 (February 1967); Maggs Bulletin 5 (April 1967); in Alan Thomas Catalogues 19, Nos. 17a-e and 21, Lots 22 and 22a; further leaves have appeared in Rendells Catalogue 146, Lots 85-6; in Sotheby’s Auction, 17 December 1991, Lot 4 (four leaves appearing to show a scene in the life of St. Thomas Becket); in Sotheby’s Auction, 7 December 1992, Lot 6; and in Sotheby’s Auction, 5 December 2006, as part of Lot 52; and recently in Reiss & Sohn’s Auction (April 2015), Lot 643.

The exquisite penwork drollery-creature line-filler on line 3 of the recto has its closest parallel on Folios 58v-59 of the Salvin Hours (British Library, Add. 48,985) and are similar to those in an English Psalter in Krivoklát Castle in the Czech Republic and the Windmill Psalter in the Morgan Library (N. Morgan, Early Gothic MSS, II, 1250-1285, 1988, p. 150).

Recto side:

1 I ta ut per omnia sicut iam sup(ra) d(i)c(tu)m est [Part of Athanasian Creed

2 (et) unitas in t(ri)nitate (et) trinitas in unita-

3 te veneranda sit . [line filler]

4 Q ui vult (er)g(o) salvus e(ss)e ; ita de t(ri)nitate se(n)tiat

5 S ed necessariu(m) est ad et(er)nam salutem ut

6 inca[rna]tionem quoq(ue) d(omo)ni n(ost)ri ih(es)u (christ)i unus [inserted ‘rna’

7 quisq(ue) fideliter credat .

8 E st (er)g(o) fides recta ut credamus (et) confiteam(ur)

9 quia dominus n(ost)(e)r ih(esu)s (christus) dei filius deus

10 et homo est [line filler]

11 D eus est ex s(u)b(stanti)a p(at)ris ante secula genitus et

12 homo [est] ex substantia m(at)ris i(n) s(e)c(u)lo natus . [line filler] [inserted ‘est’

13 P erfectus deus p(er)fectus homo ex a(n)i(m)a rationa-

14 li et humana carne subsistens

15 E qualis p(at)ri s(e)c(un)d(u)m divinitatem minor p(at)re

16 s(e)c(un)d(u)m humanitem [line filler]

17 Q ui licet d(ominu)s sit (et) h(om)o non duo t(ame)n s(ed) un(us) est (christu)s

18 U nus autem n(on) (con)v(er)sione divinitatis in carne

19 sed assu(m)ptione hu(m)anitatis in deom . [should be ‘deum’

20 U nus o(mn)ino n(on) (con)fusione s(u)bs(tanti)e s(ed) unitate p(er)sone .

21 N am sicut a(n)i(m)a rationalis et caro unus est

Verso side:

1 homo ita deus et homo un(us) est (christus) [line filler]

2 Q ui passus e(st) pro salute n(ost)ra descendit ad

3 infiros tertia die resurexit a mortuis . [should be ‘inferos’ and ‘resurrexit’

4 A scendit ad celos sedet ad dext(er)am dei p(at)ris

5 omnipotentis inde ventur(us) iudicare vi-

6 vos et mortuos .

7 A d cuiu(s) adventu(m) om(ne)s homines resurgere

8 h(abe)nt cum corporib(us) suis (et) reddituri sunt

9 de f(a)c(t)is p(ro)priis r(ati)onem [line filler]

10 E t qui bona egerunt [ibunt] in mu(n)di vitam eter- [Note later correction

11 nam qui vero mala in igne(m) eternum .

12. H ec est fides catholica q(ua)m n(isi) q(ui)sq(ue) fidelit(ur) f(ir)mi-

13 terq(ue) crediterit salvus e(ss)e n(on) poterit . [line filler]

14 D K yrie eleyson . (Ch rist)e eleyso(n) . [Start of the Litany

15 (Ch rist)e audi nos .

16 P ater de celis deus mi-

17 serere nobis . [line filler]

18 F ili redemptor mundi deus mis(erere) nob(is) .

19 S alvator m(u)nd(i) adiuva nos .

20 S (an)c(t)a maria ora pro nobis . [line filler]

21 S (an)c(t)a dei genitrix . ora p(ro) nobis .

Notes:

A Letters: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u/v, and y.

B Versals: A,D,E,F,H,K,N,P,Q,S,U and X.

C Alternative forms of letters ‘r’(2) and ‘s’(3). As well as the tall ‘s’ and the

round ‘s’ there is a ‘trailing s’ which has lost its tail is written as a ‘c’ in

‘xps’ (verso, line 1) meaning ‘christus’.

D The ascenders of letters ‘b’, ‘h’ and ‘l’ have a flat top with a wedge serif.

E Some instances of fusion of letters ‘de’, ‘po’, and notably ‘pp’ in ‘p(ro)priss’

(verso, line 9).

F Ligatures between letters ‘ct’ in ‘recta’ (recto, line 8), but not in ‘p(er)fectus’ (recto, line 13).

G Ligatures between letters ‘st’ in ‘est’ (recto, line 1).

H Elision between letters ‘fi’, ‘ti’, and ‘tu’, and possibly others.

I Use of both the Tironian ‘et’ symbol, as well as the word ‘et’.

J Abbreviation of ‘supra’ (recto, line 1).

K Abbreviation of ‘ergo’ (recto, line 4).

L Abbreviation of ‘esse’ (recto, line 4).

M Abbreviation of ‘anima’ (recto, line 13).

N Abbreviation of ‘secundum’ (recto, line 15).

O Abbreviation of ‘sed’ (recto, line 17).

P Abbreviation of ‘nisi’ (verso, line 12).

Q Abbreviation of ‘Sancta’ (verso, line 20).

R Use of ‘Xp’ for the Greek letters ‘chi’ and ‘rho’ in ‘(Christ)e’, (verso, line 15).

MS 140

Latin

1 leaf

Material: Vellum leaf