ff. ii-iv verso (front flyleaves), added in the seventeenth century: “oraison qui fau [sic] dire au com [mencement] de la messe / o mon dieu et mon createur ...”
Southern Netherlands or Bruges (Belgium)
Mid-15th century Psalter in Latin with illuminated initials within full borders. The text includes the 150 psalms, copied in biblical order, followed by the Canticles: ff. 1-6, Calendar, sparse, and with many feasts assigned to an alternative or wrong date; ff. 7-200v, Psalter, complete with 150 psalms; ff. 200v-219v, Liturgical canticles for Lauds on each weekday; ff. 220-224v, Litanies followed by prayers.
Written and illuminated in Bruges in the middle of the fifteenth century, c. 1450-1460, as indicated by the evidence of the calendar, litany and style of decoration. The inclusion of St. Donatian, the patron saint of Bruges in red on 14 October confirms the localization of the manuscript in Bruges. The litanies include St. Basil of Bruges, as well as other saints venerated in the Low Countries including St. Amand of Maastricht, St Amalberga, probably of Temse, especially venerated in Ghent (although other possibilities include St. Amalberga of Maubeuge or St. Amalberga of Susteren), and St. Juliana of Nicomedia (venerated especially in the Netherlands). From flyleaves, prayers in French written by a seventeenth-century hand. Front paste down, armorial bookplate of the Gaudemaris family from Hautes-Alpes and Provence, likely indicating this is from the library of the noted early photographer, Count Victor de Gaudemaris (1835-1918).
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)
iv (paper) + 224 + iv (paper) folios on paper, modern foliation in pencil
Bound in brown morocco, gold-tooled with geometric panels, catch-pins in metal on the back board, catches lacking, gilt edges, minor bumps and wear.
17 lines, 1-line verse initials alternating in red and blue, 2-line gold initials infilled in blue and red with white highlights on contrasting grounds, Eight illuminated initials with full borders including seven 5-line and one 6-line (the opening Beatus vir”) initials in blue or pink highlighted in white, in-filled with vine scrolls on burnished gold grounds from which spring three-quarter-bar borders in gold and pink/blue, and surrounded by full acanthus borders with flowers and birds, dotted with leaves in gold, some minor stains and a few 1-line initials have been erased. Flower stems with multicolored acanthus leaves dominate the margins, inhabited with a bird or two, often a peacock. Liquid gold is generously used among red, blue, pink, and green for acanthus, the stylized carrot flowers and the occasional rosehip-shaped flower. The enclosed areas between the interlacing stems are filled with burnished gold. Burnished gold is also used for small leaves that decorate the short hairline stems drawn in black. The black hairline stems are also decorated with small flowers with petals tipped in red or blue and each of them terminates in a small blue dot.
Written in black in gothic textualis bookhand
Wide margins, eight of which are decorated with bright acanthus borders embellished with liquid and burnished gold.
Manuscript 192, Western Michigan University Special Collection
As-Vijvers, A and A Korteweg. Splendor of the Burgundian Netherlands, Utrecht, 2018.
Bousmanne, B. ‘Item à Guillaume Wyeland aussi enlumineur,’ Willem Vrelant, Un aspect de l’enlumineur dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous le mécénat de ducs de Bourgogne Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire, Turnhout, 1997.
Bousmanne, B. and T. Delcourt, eds. Miniature flamandes 1404-1482, Paris, Brussels, 2012, pp. 238-255.
Farquhar, J. Creation and Imitation: The Work of Fifteenth-Century Manuscript Illuminator, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 1976.
Kren, T. and S. McKendrick. Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, Los Angeles, 2003.
Solopova, Elizabeth. “The Liturgical Psalter in Medieval Europe,” in Jewish and Christian Approaches to the Psalms: Conflict and Convergence, ed. Susan Gillingham, Oxford, 2013, pp. 89-104.
Solopova, Elizabeth. Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue, Oxford, 2013.
Van Deusen, Nancy, ed. The Place of the Psalms in the Intellectual Culture of the Middle Ages, Albany, 1999.
Digital reproduction published by Western Michigan University and made available for private study, scholarship or research use under applicable U.S. Law. Access to digital reproductions provided by Special Collections at Zhang Legacy Collections Center, Western Michigan University.