A French illuminator in the Southern Netherlands

8 Psalter for the use of Brussels

Illuminated Manuscript on vellum. Northern France (Paris?), c. 1260.

128 x 90 mm. 229 leaves (of originally 234, yet all the missing leaves, except for the last leaf of the calendar,were blanks): I10-4, II-XXV8, XXVI-XXVII10, XXVIII4- 1. Original numbering of quires in the lower margin, modern pencil foliation in the top margin leaving out the calendar.Text in Latin with some rubrics in Flemish towards the end of the codex. – Written space 77 x 55 mm, 17 lines of text.Textualis Formata in black ink, ruled in dark brown plummet, fol. 222-223v unruled, written in smaller script.Versals alternately in blue and gold, pen-flourishing in red and blue on almost every page. Mainly two-line initials for the beginning of psalm on blue and red ground. One full-page and 9 six- to eight-line historiated initials with rich use of burnished gold. – Excellent condition throughout, only very minor staining of some leaves and three small tears. – Modern brown morocco binding with gold filets, gilt title on spine, gilt edges, single modern flyleaves at beginning and end. A cutting comprising a printed description of the manuscript pasted onto inside front cover.

PROVENANCE: Private collection, Europe.

TEXT:fol. IV-VIII: Calendar (lacking November/December) – fol. 1-182v: Psalms – fol. 182v-200v: Canticles – fol. 201-208: Litany and prayers – fol. 208v-211v: blank – fol. 212-219: Office of the Dead – fol. 219-221: Recommendation of the souls – fol. 221v-223v: Psalterium Virginis (with rubrics in Dutch). This small codex was designed as a devotional book for a wealthy layperson.With canticles, a litany, various prayers and the Office of the Dead complementing the 150 psalms, it constitutes the antecedent of the book of hours whose popularity increased from the 14th century onwards, until it became the standard book for private devotion in the 15th century. The saints invoked in the calendar point to the southern Netherlands as the region in which the book was intended to be used. Numerous canonized bishops of Maastricht-Tongeren appear, without the calendar being specific to this diocese: Servatius (13 May); Gundulf et Monulf (16 July); Remacle (3 September); Theodar (10 September); Severinus (3 October). Some saints can be associated with the region of Hainault: Aldegund (30 January);Waudru (9 April); Amalberga (9 July), and others with Brabant: Gudule (8 January); Gertrude (16 March); Foillan (31 October). The litany shows some characteristics of the region of Liège, as evidenced by saints Lambert, Gereon, Amand, Gertrude and Oda, while the Office of the Dead clearly follows the use of Brussels.

ILLUMINATION:fol. 1v: Full-page initial ‘B’ showing the battle between the youthful David and Goliath and king David playing the psaltery – fol. 29v: David kneeling before God, pointing to his eyes – fol. 47v: David enthroned looking up to God and pointing to his mouth – fol. 63v: Doeg decapitating Abimelech who handed Goliath’s sword on to David – fol. 64v: The fool speaking to God – fol. 81: David emerging from the seas looking up to God – fol. 102: David sounding the bells – fol. 121: Two priests chanting before a lectern – fol. 123: David kneeling before God – fol. 141:The Trinity. With their highly burnished gold grounds the historiated initials add to the precious character of this small manuscript. The illumination is restricted to the core of the volume, i.e. the 150 psalms, and emphasizes the 10-fold division that becomes the most wide-spread scheme for the psalter from the 12th century onwards. A cycle from the life of King David decorates the initials.This choice of scenes was established in French psalter illumination in the middle of the 13th century (see: Haseloff 1938 and Plotzek 1987). Unlike other illumination patterns that favour Christological or Old Testament scenes, the David cycle shows a closer correlation between the images and the content of the psalms. According to Adelaide Bennett: “The achievement of 13th century French manuscripts is marked by the creation and popularization of the psalm-word imagery within initials of the liturgical division” (2002, p. 216). A marked French influence can be seen not only in the programme of the illumination but also in its stylistic properties. The Beatus-initial of psalm 1, extending over one entire page, is composed of tendrils and ends in two monster’s heads, while its chequered blue and pink background calls to mind the medium of stained glass. The figures are of extreme finesse, their bodies outlined with black contours and their smiling faces with red cheeks conforming to the ideal of the French Gothic at the time of St Louis, during whose long reign from 1226 to 1270 manuscript illumination in Paris and the region of the Île-de France reached an unprecedented peak. For close stylistic parallels one may cite a psalter of similarly small dimensions in Brussels (Bibliothèque Royale, II. 7841), which moreover shows an almost identical layout for the illumination (cf. Massai/Wittek 1968, cat. 30, pl. 92- 93). On the grounds of a scribe’s note this manuscript has been erroneously dated 1304, but according to Judith Oliver it must be considered as approximately contemporary with the codex at hand, dating from the 1260s. A precise stylistic attribution of our manuscript to one or other of the numerous Parisian workshops classified by Branner in his ground-breaking study and by later generations of specialists in French illumination of the 13th century is difficult. Considering the mobility of the artists attracted by the French capital and responsible for the dissemination of the French court style, one might just as well imagine the illumination of the volume at hand to be the work of an itinerant artist of French origin who settled for some time in the southern Netherlands.

LITERATURE:The manuscript is hitherto unpublished. Haseloff 1938; Massai/Wittek 1968, cat. 30, pl. 92-93; Branner 1977; Plotzek 1987, pp. 9-64; Bennett 2002.