Collection ID: 0012 | Metadata type: TEI

Title

Gallican Psalter with Canticles

Other related names

• Bertschi, Nikolaus -1542, artist (http://viaf.org/viaf/10764030)
• Wilhelm IV, Duke of Bavaria, 1493-1550, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/263631460)
• Stiftskirche Polling (Polling, Weilheim-Schongau, Germany), former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/123619951)
• Mackenzie, William, 1758-1828, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/44186515)
• Loganian Library, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/141632509)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

4
(Philadelphia, United States, Library Company)

Alternate identifiers

• deRicci: 4
• Call_Accession_number: Ms.4 926.Q
• Leaves_of_Gold: 15

Publisher

Library Company

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Augsburg, Germany

Summary

This luxury Psalter appears to have been created for Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria (1493-1550), as suggested by the depiction of the arms of Bavaria on folio 32r. It contains the major Psalm groupings at Psalms 1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97, and 109, but also contains additional subdivisions for Sunday Vespers, and for Ferial Vespers. The Psalter is accompanied by the Canticles, Litany, and Collect (fols. 130r-146r). Appended in a slightly later hand are Musical notation for the Kyrie and other prayers, dated 1540 (fols. 146v-152v). Illuminated roundels depicting episodes from the life of King David mark the beginning of each Psalm division. These scenes and the associated illuminated borders, which contain numerous depictions of animals, have been attributed to the Swiss illuminator Nikolaus Bertschi.

Notes

• Paper flyleaves
   
• Musical notation for Kyrie eleison and Verbum caro factum; musical notation for Kyrie eleison for the Vigil of Pentecost, 1540; prayers to the Lord, all in a different hand
   

Extent

I+152+1; 250 x 190 mm bound to 251 x 206 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto, every ten folios

Collation

1 (15, +1), 2-7 (16), 8 (18), 9 (16), 10 (7, +1)

Support

Parchment

Binding

Blind-tooled brown calf, gilt-lettered spine, original gilt edges, American, Philadelphia, probably Pawson and Nicholson, circa 1880

Layout

One column of twenty-one lines, ruled in drypoint; written area: 158 x 115 mm

Decoration

Three historiated borders in marginal panels, twenty-one narrative scenes in roundels in lower borders, border decoration with Italianate rinceaux or Flemish-style panels, one historiated initial; four-line illuminated initials at the beginning of each Psalm

Script

Humanistic

Provenance

• Made for Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria (coats of arms of Bavaria on folio 32); Augustinian Monastery of Polling, Bavaria (eighteenth-century bookplate inside front cover); probably estate of William MacKenzie, Philadelphia, 1828; Loganian Library, Philadelphia (later The Library Company of Philadelphia), 1828
   

Related resources

• De Ricci, Seymour, with the assistance of W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. 2 (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), p. 2104, no. 4.
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Leaves of Gold: Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections, edited by James R. Tanis (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001), pp. 65-67, no. 15.

Keywords

• Psalter
• 16th century
• German
• Humanistic
• Illumination
• Historiated initial
• Germany
• Devotion
• Liturgy

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Library Company, 4: Gallican Psalter with Canticles are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, The Library Company of Philadelphia has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Library Company 4: Gallican Psalter with Canticles. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Psalm 1, Sunday Matins
• fol. 16r — Psalm 21, Sunday Prime
• fol. 20r — Psalm 26, Monday Matins
• fol. 32r — Psalm 38, Tuesday Matins
• fol. 44r — Psalm 52, Wednesday Matins
• fol. 56v — Psalm 68, Thursday Matins
• fol. 71r — Psalm 80, Friday Matins
• fol. 85r — Psalm 97, Saturday Matins
• fol. 100r — Psalm 109, Sunday Vespers
• fol. 103r — Psalm 114, Monday Vespers
• fol. 113r — Psalm 119, Tuesday Vespers
• fol. 115v — Psalm 126, Wednesday Vespers
• fol. 117r — Psalm 131, Thursday Vespers
• fol. 120v — Psalm 137, Friday Vespers
• fol. 125r — Psalm 143, Saturday Vespers
• fol. 130r — Canticles, Litany, and Collect
• fol. 146v — Musical notation for the Kyrie and other prayers

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Augustinian Monastery of Polling
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Loganian Library
• fol. 1r — Historiated initial B, King David with his Psaltery
• fol. 1r — Border vignette, upper margin, David before Goliath
• fol. 1r — Border vignette, lower margin, Death of Absalom
• fol. 16r — Border medallion, lower margin, King David Penitent
• fol. 16r — Border medallion, left margin, Crucifixion
• fol. 16r — Foliate border, lower left corner
• fol. 20r — Border medallion, lower margin, King David crowned
• fol. 20r — Foliate panel border
• fol. 32r — Inhabited initial D
• fol. 32r — Border medallion, lower margin, Absalom with his troops
• fol. 32r — Panel border with lions holding escutcheons with arms of Bavaria, lower margin
• fol. 44r — Border medallion, lower margin, David and Bathsheba
• fol. 44r — Panel border with stag, lower margin
• fol. 56v — Border medallion supported by two putti, lower margin, Kind David attacked by Saul
• fol. 56v — Panel border with fox, rabbit, and insect, upper margin
• fol. 71r — Border medallion flanked by musical centaurs, lower margin, Kind David penitent
• fol. 71r — Panel border with fox, leopard, birds, and insect, upper margin
• fol. 85r — Border medallion with four seraphs, lower margin, Kind David with the head of Goliath
• fol. 85r — Panel border with fox and monkey, upper margin
• fol. 100r — Border medallion, lower margin, Kind David Penitent
• fol. 100r — Panel border with candelabrum and putti, lower left corner
• fol. 103r — Border medallion, lower margin, Kind David and Saul
• fol. 103r — Panel border, lower margin
• fol. 103r — Panel border with squirrels and acorns, upper margin
• fol. 113r — Border medallion, lower margin, King David in Prayer before a Sacrifice
• fol. 113r — Panel border, lower left corner
• fol. 115v — Border medallion, lower margin, King David brought before Saul
• fol. 115v — Panel border with fence and stags, bear, lion, ram, goat, mice and snail, lower left corner
• fol. 117r — Border medallion, lower margin, King David in Prayer before the Holy Innocents
• fol. 117r — Panel border with storks and herons, lower left corner
• fol. 120v — Border medallion, lower margin, King David receiving Soldiers
• fol. 120v — Foliate border, lower left corner
• fol. 125r — Border medallion, lower margin, King David visited by Solomon and Bathsheba
• fol. 125r — Panel border, lower left corner
• fol. 130r — Border medallion with two bears, lower margin, Kind David and Bathsheba
• fol. 130r — Panel border with falcons and hedgehog, upper margin
• fol. 130v — Border medallion, lower margin, Kind David with a crossbow
• fol. 130v — Panel border with rabbit, bird, and insect, lower left corner
• fol. 131r — Border scene, lower margin, Kind David with Bathsheba
• fol. 131r — Panel border with stags and peacocks, lower margin
• fol. 132r — Border medallion with putti and garlands, lower margin, Kind David scaling a wall
• fol. 132r — Panel border with acanthus leaves, upper left corner
• fol. 133v — Border medallion, lower margin, King David leading the procession before the Ark
• fol. 133v — Panel border with putti and illusionistic garlands, left and upper margins
• fol. 134v — Border scenes, lower margin, Hunting boar, King David penitent, Wrestling a bear