Collection ID: 0012 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Gallican Psalter with Canticles, Litany, and Prayers

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

8
(Philadelphia, United States, Library Company)

Alternate identifiers

• deRicci: 8
• Call-accession-number: Ms. 8 1006.D

Publisher

Library Company

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Northeastern France

Summary

This compact, early-fourteenth-century Psalter was produced in Northeastern France. It contains historiated initials at Psalms 1, 26, 38 (lacking, originally between folios 43 and 44), 52, 68, 80, 97, and 109, but also includes an additional historiated initial for Psalm 51. The Psalter is followed by Canticles, the Litany, and Prayers. This book is among the earliest illuminated manuscripts brought to Philadelphia, as it is recorded in the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia by 1788, when it was bound by the local binder Caleb Buglass.

Notes

• The lower margin of fol. 1r contains a forged inscription with the erroneous date 1060: "AD MLX"; this inscription was likely added by the noted naturalist and painter, Pierre Eugene du Simitiere; the date is repeated on the spine, and in a note on fol. 192v; inscription on the recto side of the second flyleaf reads "From 1370 to 1400 A.D. appears from internal evidence to be the date of this MS."
   
• Psalms numbered in Roman numerals in a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century hand, and in Arabic numerals in an early-modern hand
   

Extent

Ii+192+ii; 123 x 87 mm bound to 94 x 131 mm

Foliation

Unfoliated

Collation

1-5 (8), 6 (8, -4), 7-23 (8), 24 (9, +9)

Support

Parchment

Binding

Gilt-tooled red morocco, gilt lettering on spine: "Prayer Book 1066", American, Philadelphia, Caleb Buglass, 1788

Layout

One column of seventeen lines, ruled in lead; written area: 83 x 58 mm

Decoration

Eight historiated initials with tendril decorations extending into the margins; marginalia; two-line initials, some inhabited, at the beginning of all remaining Psalms and Canticles

Script

Gothic--textualis semi-quadrata

Provenance

• Acquired by the Library Company of Philadelphia before or during the year 1788
   

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. 8.
• Tanis, James R., "Collecting Illuminated Manuscripts in Philadelphia," in Philadelphia Museum of Art, Leaves of Gold: Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections, edited by James R. Tanis (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001), p. 5, figs. 2-3 (article pp. 5-13).

Keywords

• Prayer book
• Psalter
• 14th century
• Christian
• France
• Inhabited initial
• Historiated initial
• Notable binding
• Biblical
• Liturgy
• Theology

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Library Company, 8: Gallican Psalter with Canticles, Litany, and Prayers 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 8: Gallican Psalter with Canticles, Litany, and Prayers. 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

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Library Company of Philadelphia
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Note on date of manuscript
• Flyleaf 1 verso — Binding note
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Note on date of manuscript
• Flyleaf 1 verso — Binding note
• fol. 1r — Psalm 1
• fol. 27r — Psalm 26
• fol. 58r — Psalm 51
• fol. 59r — Psalm 52
• fol. 74v — Psalm 68
• fol. 94v — Psalm 80
• fol. 112v — Psalm 97
• fol. 132r — Psalm 109
• fol. 171r — Canticles, Litany, and Prayers
• fol. 192v — Canticle of Zecheriah with musical notation
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Note on date of manuscript
• Flyleaf 1 verso — Binding note

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Historiated initial B, David enthroned with musical instruments; David and Goliath
• fol. 1r — Marginal figure, dog
• fol. 27r — Historiated initial D, Christ and King David
• fol. 27r — Marginal figure, drollery
• fol. 58r — Historiated initial Q, David and the Devil
• fol. 58r — Marginal figure, drollery
• fol. 59r — Historiated initial D, David and the Fool
• fol. 59r — Marginal figure, rabbit and hare
• fol. 74v — Historiated initial S, King David blessed by Christ holding a terrestrial orb
• fol. 74v — Marginal figure, drollery
• fol. 94v — Historiated initial E, King David playing bells
• fol. 94v — Marginal figure, drollery
• fol. 112v — Historiated initial C, Three monks singing from a lectern
• fol. 112v — Marginal figure, drollery
• fol. 132r — Historiated initial D, Trinity
• fol. 132r — Marginal figure, drollery
• fol. 171r — Inhabited initial C, dragon