Psalter and Hours: MS McClean 43

Titles

Psalter and Hours

Entities

• Psalter
• Book of hours
• Use of Liège

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, ii parchment flyleaves (foliated i – ii) + 190 fols. + i parchment flyleaf, 165 x 115 (95 x 65) mm, 21 long lines, ruled in plummet, leaves lost before fol. 1 and after fols. 119, 155, 188.

BINDING: seventeenth century, parchment over pasteoard, sewn on five supports, traces of two fastening devices on foredge; repaired and rebound by Robert Proctor, Fitzwilliam Museum, 1989

CONTENTS: fols. 1r – 113r Psalter, Gallican (begins imperfectly at Psalm 13)
fols. 113v – 119v Canticles (end imperfectly in the second Canticle of Moses, Audite celi); fols. 120r – 124r Litany with collects; fols. 124r – 160v Hours of the Virgin; fols. 161r – 182r Office of the Dead; fols. 182v – 188v Ave porta paradysi (ends imperfectly); fols. 189r – 190v Prayers to the Trinity and the Cross, with fragment from Commendation of the Soul in French (additions).

DECORATION: 18 historiated initials in white-patterned blue and pink on gold grounds: fol. 12r Psalm 26, [D, 10X ll.] Christ touching man’s eyes; fol. 24r Psalm 38, [D, 11 ll.] David pointing at mouth; fol. 34v Psalm 51, [Q, 11 ll.] Saul’s suicide; fol. 35r Psalm 52, [D, 11 ll.] Fool holding club and eating cake; fol. 46v Psalm 68, [S, 11 ll.] David in water praying to Christ above; fol. 60v Psalm 80, [E, 11 ll.] David playing bells; fol. 73r Psalm 97, [C, 11 ll.] Three clerics singing at lectern; fol. 85v Psalm 109, [D, 11 ll.] Trinity with Father and Son seated on separate thrones, dove descending between them; fol. 113v Canticle of Isaiah, [C, 11 ll.] Priest at altar; fol. 124r Hours of the Virgin, Matins, [D, 11 ll.] Virgin and Child enthroned; fol. 135v Lauds, [D, 11 ll.] Betrayal; fol. 142r Prime, [D, 10 ll.] Christ before Pilate; fol. 148r Terce, [D, 11 ll.] Flagellation; fol. 150v Sext, [D, 11 ll.] Crucifixion, with thieves, Sun and Moon; fol. 153v None, [D, 11 ll.] Crucifixion, with man holding bucket of vinegar and Longinus piercing Christ’s side and pointing to eye; fol. 158v Compline, [D, 11 ll.] Entombment; fol. 161r Office of the Dead, [P, 11 ll.] Souls in Abraham’s bosom; fol. 182v Ave porta paradysi, [A, 12 ll.] Angel with palm branch announcing Death of the Virgin.

ORNAMENTATION: Gold initials [4 ll.] on blue and pink white-patterned grounds for ordinary Psalms, Canticles, and minor text divisions; alternate red and blue penwork one-line initials with occasional pen-flourished infill and extensions.

Notes

History note: Marie Dupont, Lyon, late sixteenth or early seventeenth century (ownership inscription, fol. i recto at front); Thomas Bateman (1821 – 1861), Middleton Hall, by Youlgrave, Derbyshire (armorial bookplate inside upper cover); to his son, William Bateman; his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 25 – 31 May 1893, lot 1311; Frank McClean (1837 – 1904); his bequest, 1904.