(190x145 mm – 7.5 x 5.75'') Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Psalter. 16 lines of Latin text, written in Gothic script with black ink on animal vellum. Single leaf, with single column of 16 lines of a high grade early gothic bookhand, written below topline, line fillers in red and blue penwork, one-line initials in alternate red or blue, larger initial in same with contrasting penwork,
One two-line illuminated initial in deep blue surrounded with delicate red penwork; thirteen one-line illuminated initials alternating in red and blue; eight illuminated line-extenders in red and blue.
France (Reims or Paris)c.1250
The one-line illuminated “Q” begins Isaiah 38:18-20: “Quia non infernus…” (For hell shall not confess to thee; neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make thy truth known to the children. O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord).
The two-line illuminated “E” begins I Kings (King James I Samuel) 2:1-8: “Exultavit…” (My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my god: my mouth is enlarged over my enemies: because I have joyed in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord is: for there is no other beside thee, and there is none strong like our god. Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting: let old matters depart from your mouth: for the Lord is a God of all knowledge, and to him are thoughts prepared. The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girt with strength…).
Known as the Reims Psalter, the parent manuscript was at Reims Cathedral by c.1300, when an ex libris was added to fol. 133r, then in the later Middle Ages it passed to the Cistercian Abbey of Signy (founded 1131, and dissolved in 1790), in the diocese of Reims, and their ex libris mark was added to fol. 132v. The volume was sold in Sotheby’s, 24 June 1980, lot 53, and was broken a few years later with caches of leaves passing for resale to Sotheran’s and Maggs Bros. Two leaves are described in C. de Hamel and M. Manion, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, nos. 111 and 167.
Shipped unmatted
