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Walters Ms. W.117, Psalter and Office of the DeadBrowse images (Browse images in a new window) | TEI in XML format
Manuscript
Psalter and Office of the Dead
Abstract
Dating from ca. 1265-80, this manuscript includes twelve calendar illustrations, four extant full-page miniatures, and eight historiated initials. Originally composed of the Psalter and Office of the Dead (for Premonstratensian use), it was appended to at a later time to include Hours of the Virgin of an unidentified use but which is related to Thérouanne and Saint Omer. The illumination is a composite of Ghent, Hainaut, and Liège styles. There is a strong presence of heraldry throughout; armorial shields and arms, birth notices, and other family entries cited on back flyleaves connect this Psalter to the Crohin family of Hainaut. Two births are specifically mentioned: Antonet, daughter of Jun de Crohin and Marguerite de Leugney on October 25, 1577, and Jan de Crohin, brother of Antonet, born January 24, 1579.
Language:
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary language of this manuscript is French, Old (842-ca.1400).
Support material
Parchment
Well-selected and prepared medium- to heavy-weight parchment; many original stitch holes; flyleaves are a different parchment, added at rebinding in the fifteenth or early sixteenth century
Extent
Foliation: i+199
First three leaves are from later rebinding and are not part of quire structure of book; however, the first has been given an "A" and counted as a flyleaf, while the next two have been counted as folios 1 and 2, but should technically be flyleaves; modern pencil foliation, upper right corners, rectos
Collation
Formula: Quire 1: 4, with first folio of ruled parchment leaf used as front pastedown and covered with red silk, second folio as front flyleaf i, third and fourth folios with modern penciled foliation of fols. 1-2 (front pastedown-fol. 2); Quire 2: 4 (fols. 3-6); Quire 3: 2, with third and fourth folios added, third and fourth folios later removed(?) (fols. 7-8); Quire 4: 2, with third folio added (fols. 9-11); Quires 5-14: 8 (fols. 12-91); Quire 15: 6, with first and eighth folios hooked after fols. 92 and 99 (fols. 92-99); Quire 16: 8 (fols. 100-107); Quire 17: 10 (fols. 108-117); Quires 18-19: 8 (fols. 118-133); Quire 20: 10 (fols. 134-143); Quire 21: 8 (fols. 144-151); Quire 22: 8, with sixth folio removed and seventh folio added after fol. 156, probably contemporary with quire 1 (fols. 152-158); Quires 23-26: 8 (fols. 159-190); Quire 27: 6 (fols. 191-196); Quire 28: 4, with fourth folio as back pastedown under red silk (fols. 197-199)
Signatures: Quire marks occasionally visible on last verso of quire, centered in lower margins, beginning on fol. 27v; some in brown ink and others in blue (likely later); some signatures extant but mostly cropped, eg. fols. 126r-129r
Comments:
Dimensions
13.1 cm wide by 19.2 cm high
Written surface
9.1 cm wide by 13.1 cm high
Layout
Contents:
fols. 1r - 199v:Decoration:
fol. 1v:
Heraldry added in fifteenth or sixteenth century. Armorials of Crohin family composed of blue grounds with a gold chevron and three golden ears of corn (?).
fol. 2v:
Heraldry added in fifteenth or sixteenth century. Armorials of Crohin family composed of blue grounds with a gold chevron and three golden ears of corn (?).
fol. 3r:
fol. 3v:
fol. 4r:
fol. 4v:
fol. 5r:
fol. 5v:
fol. 6r:
fol. 6v:
fol. 7r:
fol. 7v:
fol. 8r:
fol. 8v:
fol. 9v:
fol. 10v:
fol. 11v:
fol. 12r:
fol. 31r:
fol. 43v:
fol. 55r:
fol. 67r:
fol. 81v:
fol. 92v:
The scroll they hold is inscribed "Bonne conpangie quant."
This image should be with Ps. 97, not Ps. 95.
fol. 108r:
Arms of Crohin family in lower margin added in fifteenth or sixteenth century.
fol. 158v:
This image is original to the manuscript but was likely moved from the rest of the prefatory cycle to this location when the Hours of the Virgin was added in the fifteenth century.
Binding
The binding is not original.
Rebound in Belgium, late fifteenth or early sixteenth century; deep red velvet over leather-covered wood boards; piping composed of gilded silver, gold, and red silk thread lines edges of boards; red, white, and green silk endbands sewn to velvet cover; page edges gilded, gauffered with a diamond and rosette pattern; matching velvet straps with piping attached to inside of upper board and clasp to lower board; fasteners in gilded silver, with golden "P" for Peissant family against a ground of deep blue enamel; clasps likely nineteenth-century: close comparison exists on manuscript at Getty, also connected to Crohin family, which was bound in Belgium in the first half of the nineteenth century (see the Crohin-La Fontaine Hours, Getty Ms. 23)
Provenance
Created ca. 1265-80, likely in the Hainaut region of Flanders (illumination style reveals Hainaut influence and also that of Ghent and Liège); Randall suggests original owner may have been connected with the Abbey of Grammont (Geraardsbergen) in Hainaut, a foundation dedicated to St. Adrian, who is prominent in the calendar
Crohin family of Hainut, owned possibly from fifteenth or sixteenth century, their armorial shields added twice on fol. 2v and in lower margins of fols. 12r, 108r, 159r, and 184r; birth and death notices for Crohin family members beginning in 1577, including those of brother and sister Jan and Antonet de Crohin, recorded on fols. 195v-197r; aunt listed, "Madamoyselle de Peissant," may represent branch of family from which "P" on clasps was derived
Léon Gruel and Edmond Engelmann, Paris, late nineteenth or early twentieth century; their bookplate inscribed "No. 467" on inside of upper board, and same number on matching dealer description (removed, but imaged here); Gruel catalog number, "No. 3," penciled in on top left corner of dealer note refers to its number in Gruel's undated catalog
Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase from Gruel between 1895 and 1931
Acquisition
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Bibliography
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 772, cat. no. 98.
Miner, Dorothy. The History of Bookbinding, 525-1950 A.D. Exhibition Catalogue: Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1957; cat. no. 113, Pl. xxix.
Carlvant, Kerstin B. E. "Ghent: Blijlokemuseum 60-61." In Gent Duizend jaar kunst en cultuur. Organized by A. van den Kerhove. Exhibition Catalogue: Ghent, Blijlokemuseum. Ghent: Dienst voor Culturele Zaken-Stad Gent, 1975; p. 346, ref. under cat. no. 572.
Carlvant, Kerstin B. E. "Thirteenth-Century Illumination in Bruges and Ghent." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1978; pp. 367-368, Table 5A and passim, fig. 9.
Oliver, Judith. Gothic Manuscript Illumination in the Diocese of Liege (c. 1250-c. 1330). Brepols: Peeters Publishing, 1988; p. 309.
Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 10-16, cat. no. 216.
Sandler, Lucy Freeman. "Psalter: In Latin, Metz." In The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at the New York Public Library. Edited by Jonathan J. G. Alexander, James H. Marrow, and Lucy Freeman Sandler, 213-216. New York: New York Public Library, 2005; p. 216, ref. under cat. no. 43.
Christie's. Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books, Sale 7399. King Street, London, 2007; ref. under lot 33 (Psalter with Calendar and Litany, in Latin, Illuminated Manuscript on Vellum).
Contributors
Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Wallace, Susan
Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail
Contributors: Emery, Doug; Herbold, Rebekah; Noel, William; Schuele, Allyson; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara; Wiegand, Kimber
Publisher
The Walters Art Museum
License
Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.
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