Manuscript leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin, produced in France (Picardy, possibly...

MS 5650/94

Manuscript leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin, produced in France (Picardy, possibly Amiens)

c.1300

Text: From a Book of Hours, in Latin

Script: Textualis Formata (Textus Quadratus)

The text is partly from Psalms 42, 128 and 130. There is brown line ruling but no line pricking.

One two-line inhabited initial ‘D’ with a bearded peasant wearing a red hood and having the ascender in the border as a bird with a long beak and body, the latter terminating in a bold ivy leaf spray. One two-line versal initial ‘S’ in gold and four colours, with marginal bar extenders, terminating in long, bold ivy leaf sprays. Nine one-line versal initials in burnished gold on a blue or mauve background, with white filigree. Seven line fillers of various shapes, one of which contains a fish and two a flower.

This leaf comes from a very early French Book of Hours, produced within the first generation of the use of this form of devotional book as a separate volume, apart from the Psalter. The manuscript was lot No.76 in a Sotheby's sale on 17 December 1991, described as ‘a remarkably rich and sophisticated manuscript with high quality illumination on every page.’ The codex belonged ‘in a small group of Picardy manuscripts clustered around the Hours of Yolande of Soissons in the Morgan Library, M. 729, ascribed to Amiens in the last decades of the thirteenth century (cf. K. Gould, ‘The Psalter and Hours of Yolande of Soissons’, 1978).’

See also MS 5650/67, MS 5650/89, MS 5650/95 and MS 5650/103.

Recto side:

1 qui letificat iuventutem meam [line filler with flower] [Psalm 42:4

2 C onfitebor tibi in cythara deus

3 deus meus [42:5] quare tristis es anima

4 mea : et quare conturbas me . [line filler with fish]

5 S pera in deo q(uonia)m adhuc confitebor

6 illi : salutare vult(us) mei (et) deus meus .

7 [128:1] S epe expugnaverunt me a iu- [Psalm 128

8 ventute mea : dicat n(un)c isr(ahe)l

9 [128:2] S epe expugnaverunt me iuven-

10 tute mea : et eni(m) n(on) potuerunt m(ichi) .

11 [128:3] S upra dorsum meum fabrica-

12 verunt peccatores : prolongave-

13 runt iniquitatem suam . [line filler]

14 [128:4] D (omi)n(u)s iustus concidet cervices

Verso side:

1 peccatorum : [128:5] (con)fundant(ur) (et) (con)vertant(ur) [Psalm 128

2 retrorsum om(n)es qui oderunt syon .

3 [128:6] F iant sicut fenu(m) tectorum : q(uo)d

4 priusquam evellatur exaruit [line filler with flower]

5 [128:7] D e quo non implevit manu(m)

6 suam : qui metet : (et) sinum suum

7 qui manipulos colliget . [line filler]

8 [128:8] E t non dixerunt qui preteribant

9 benedictio d(omi)ni super vos : benedixim(us)

10 vobis in nomine domini . [line filler]

11 [130:1] D (omi)ne non est exaltatum cor [Psalm 130

12 meu(m) : neq(ue) elati s(un)t oculi mei .

13 N eq(ue) ambulavi in magnis : ne-

14 q(ue) in mirabilibus super me . [line filler]

Notes:-

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

Versals: C,D,E,F,N,S.

B Alternative forms of the letters ‘r’(2) and ‘s’(3).

C Fusion between letters ‘ba’, ‘be’, ‘bo’, ‘da’, ‘de’, ‘do’, ‘oc’, ‘od’, ‘pe’,

‘po’, ‘yo’.

D Elision between letters ‘fi’, ‘fu’, ‘ti’, ‘tu’.

E Ligature between letters ‘st’.

F Bifurcation of ascenders of letters ‘b’, ‘h’ and ‘l’.

G Hairline on letters ‘g’, ‘h’, round ‘r’, final ‘t’, ‘x’, ‘y’ and the abbreviations

for ‘con’ and ‘que’.

H Abbreviation for ‘quoniam’ (recto, line 5).

I Abbreviation for ‘michi’ (recto, line 10).

J Abbreviation for ‘con’, e.g. in ‘confundantur’ (verso, line 1).

K Abbreviation for ‘ur’, e.g. in ‘confundantur’ (verso, line 1).

L Use of crossed Tironian ‘et’ symbol (e.g. verso, line 6).

M Line filler on recto side, line 1, has a flower.

N Line filler on recto side, line 4, has a blue fish.

O Line filler on verso side, line 4, has a flower.

MS 5650/67

MS 94

Latin

1 leaf

Material: Vellum leaf