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Walters Ms. W.34, Carrow PsalterBrowse images (Browse images in a new window) | TEI in XML format
Manuscript
Carrow Psalter
Abstract
This English manuscript was made in East Anglia in the mid-thirteenth century for a patron with special veneration for St. Olaf, whose life and martyrdom are prominently portrayed in the Beatus initial of Psalm 1. Known as the "Carrow Psalter" due to its later use by the nunnery of Carrow near Norwich, it is more accurately described as a psalter-hours, as it contains, among other texts, the Office of the Dead and the Hours of the Virgin. The manuscript is striking for its rich variety of illuminations, including full-page cycles of saints, martyrs, and biblical scenes, as well as historiated initials within the Psalter, and heraldry added in the fifteenth century to undecorated initials in the Hours of the Virgin. Especially notable is the miniature portraying the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, for after Henry VIII found him guilty of treason in 1538, his image was concealed by gluing a page over it rather than destroying it, and it has since been rediscovered.
Origin
East Anglia, England
Language:
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Support material
Parchment
Medium-weight cream-colored parchment; slightly heavier-weight parchment used for full-page miniatures
Extent
Foliation: iii+321+iii
Three sets of numbers: pencil foliation in bottom- and occasionally top-right corners rectos that begin numbering on the folio containing Psalm 1 (a few of the upper ones are in pen); pencil foliation in upper right corners rectos through the complete manuscript, not including flyleaves (used here)
Collation
Formula: iii, 1(8), 2(8,-8), 3(4,-4), 4(2), 5(4,-4), 6(8,-1), 7(6-6), 8(6), 9-16(12), 17(12,-5), 18(6), 19(12), 20(12,-1), 21(12), 22(6), 23(4), 25-29(12), 30(6), 31(4,-4), 32(6), 33(12), 34(6), 35(6-1), 36(12), 37(12), iii
Catchwords: Lower right corners, versos (occasionally omitted)
Signatures: Some visible in center of rectos
Comments: Quires begin on fols 1(1), 9(2), 16(3), 19(4), 21(5), 24(6), 31(7), 36(8), 42(9), 54(10), 66(11), 78(12), 90(13), 102(14), 114(15), 126(16), 138(17), 149(18), 155(19), 167(20), 178(21), 190(22), 196(24), 200(25), 212(26), 224(27), 236(28), 248(29), 260(30), 266(31), 269(32), 275(33), 287(34), 293(35), 298(36), 310(37)
Dimensions
17.6 cm wide by 24.7 cm high
Written surface
12.0 cm wide by 17.4 cm high
Layout
Contents:
fols. 1r - 321v:Decoration:
fol. 1v:
fol. 3v:
fol. 5v:
James the Apostle is dressed as a pilgrim to Compostela.
fol. 7v:
fol. 9v:
fol. 11v:
Although the suffrage is for John the Baptist, the John who is pictured holds a book, an attribute more appropriate for John the Evangelist.
fol. 13v:
fol. 15v:
fol. 17v:
fol. 19v:
The image is labeled "Cecilia," and the suffrage is to her, but the image represents the martyrdom of St. Agatha.
fol. 21v:
fol. 22r:
fol. 22v:
fol. 23r:
fol. 24v:
fol. 25r:
fol. 26v:
fol. 27r:
fol. 28v:
fol. 29r:
The dove has not been included in the Throne of Grace.
fol. 30v:
fol. 31v:
fol. 32r:
fol. 33v:
fol. 34r:
fol. 35r:
fol. 42r:
fol. 74v:
fol. 95v:
fol. 113r:
fol. 114r:
fol. 131r:
fol. 155r:
fol. 178r:
fol. 180v:
fol. 200r:
fol. 222v:
fol. 285r:
fol. 286v:
fol. 288v:
fol. 292v:
fol. 294r:
fol. 294v:
fol. 295r:
fol. 295v:
fol. 296v:
fol. 297v:
fol. 298r:
Binding
The binding is not original.
Henry Yates Thompson had the manuscript rebound in the early twentieth century; limp vellum binding, hair side out with stiff square yapp and green ribbons at fore edge; spine inscribed in gold tooled letters "Psalter of the Monastery of Carehow near Norwich circa A.D. 1245."
Provenance
Made in East Anglia, England, mid-thirteenth century, for patron with special devotion for St. Olaf (whose miracles and martyrdom are depicted in Beatus initial); saints in calendar help localize to East Anglia
Carrow Priory, Norwich, fifteenth century, recorded in a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century inscription on fol. 1r: "Istud psalterium pertinet domui de Carehowe." Added heraldry may have been the arms of the abbey's benefactors.
John Baptist, 3rd Lord Caryll (1716-1780) (his bookplate recorded in 1902, but is no longer extant); had it rebound in eighteenth-century French binding
George Galway Mills, England, before 1800; collection sold in Mills Sale, London, February 24, 1800
Reverend David T. Powell (1772-1848), England, first half of nineteenth century (penciled ownership note fol. 1r: "nunc ad D.T. Powell); sold in Powell Sale, London, July 31, 1848
4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), England, third quarter nineteenth century (Appendix no. XXXIII, his bookplate)
Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), purchased May 1897 (his bookplate), no. 52; Thompson had book rebound in Paris
Bernard Quaritch, from Yates Thompson sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, March 23, 1920, no. 34, for 4,100 pounds stirling.
Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase from Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 1920
Acquisition
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
Bibliography
Yates Thompson, H. A Lecture on Some Illuminated Manuscripts, London: Chiswick Press, 1902, pp. 13-15.
Yates, Thompson, H. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Second Series of Fifty Manuscripts in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902, pp. 2-11, no. 52.
Herbert, J.A. Illuminated Manuscripts, London: British Museum, 1911, p. 181.
Yates Thompson, H. Illustrations from 100 Manuscripts in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson. London: Chiswick Press, 1914, vol. 4, pp. 11-13.
Fett, H. "Gamel norsk malerkunst." Kunst og Kultur 5 (1914/1915): pp. 136, 139.
Lindblom, A. La peinture gothique en Suède et Norvège: Ãtude sur les relations entre l'Europe occidentale et les pays scandinaves. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1916.
Fett, H. "Norges Malerkunst i Middelalderen." Kristiana 5 (1917): pp. 149-150.
De Ricci, S. "Les manuscrits de la Collection Yates Thompson." Bulletin de la Société française de reproductions de manuscrits à peintures 10 (1926), p. 56.
Fawtier, R. La Bible historiée toute figurée de la John Rylands Library. Paris, 1924, p.36.
Borenius, T. "The Iconography of St. Thomas of Canterbury." Archaeologia 79 (1929): pp. 50-51.
Millar, E.G. English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth century, Paris: G. van Oest, 1926.
Borenius, T. St. Thomas Becket in Art. London: Methuen & Co., 1932, pp. 92-93.
Dickens, B. "The Cult of St. Olave in the British Isles." Saga Book of the Viking Society 12 (1937-1945): pp. 62-63.
De Ricci, S. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, vol. 1, p. 771, no. 90.
Haseloff, G. Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhundert. Studien zur Buchmalerei in England, Frankreich und den Niederländen. Kiel, 1938, pp. 61 ff
Boase, T.S.R. English Art, 1100-1216. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953, p. 204.
Van Gelder, J.G. "Een 13de eeuws Psalterium met een Utrechtse Kalender." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 6 (1955): p. 66.
Ker, N.R. Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964, p. 48.
Jónsdóttir, S. "Enskt saltarabrot á Ãslandi." Andvara, 1967: p. 167.
Jónsdóttir, S. "Heilagur Nikulás à Arnasfni." In Afmelisrita Jóns Helgasonar. ReykjavÃk: Almenna bókafélagið, 1969, pp. 262-265, 268-269.
Jónsdóttir, S. Illumination in a Manuscript of Stjorn. ReykjavÃk: Almenna bókafélagið, 1971, p. 31.
Meoli Toulmin. Ãrigini e data di un codice inglese della Marciana." Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Ãrte 8 (1972): pp. 52, 63.
Randall, L.M.C. "Flemish Psalters in the Apostolic Tradition." In Gatherings in Honor of Dorothy Miner. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1974, p. 180 n. 21.
Jónsdóttir, S. "History of the English Psalter at Skálholt." Gripla 4 (1980): pp. 325-326.
Büttner, F.O., Imitatio Pietatis: Motive der christlichen Ikonographie als Modelle zur Verähnlichung. Berlin: G. Mann, 1983, pp. 191, 205.
Randall, L.M.C. Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature: Highlights from the Collection of the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1984, pl. 13.
Roberts, M.E. "The Relic of the Holy Blood in the Iconography of the Thirteenth Century North Transept Portal of Westminster Abbey." In W.M. Ormrod, ed., England in the Thirteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium. Harlaxton: Boydell Press, 1985, p. 135.
Morgan, N. J. Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2: 1250-1285. A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 4. London: Harvey Miller, 1988, no. 118.
Noel, William, and Daniel Weiss. The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible. London: Third Millennium Publishing; Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2002, p. 157, no. 6 (fols. 24v-25r).
Linenthal, R.A. "'The Collectors Are Far More Particular than You Think': Selling Manuscripts in America." Manuscripta 51, no. 1 (2007): pp. 131-142, p. 137
Sandler, L.F. "A Scientific Textbook for a Noble Student: Sacrobosco's Treatises in the New York Public Library." In J. H. Marrow, R. Linenthal, and W. Noel, eds., The Medieval Book: Glosses from Friends and Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel, 't Goy-Houten: Hes & DeGraaf, 2010, p. 55, n.2.
Bagnoli, M. The Medieval World, Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2011, pp. 96 (fol. 15v), 104 (fol. 15v), 191-192.
Contributors
Principal catalogers: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Smith, Kathryn
Editors: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail
Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Dutschke, Consuelo; Emery, Doug; Grollemond, Larisa; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.
Publisher
The Walters Art Museum
License
Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-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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