Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Choir psalter; Hymnal

Other related names

• Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Lisbon, Portugal), former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/168781211)
• Karl W. Hiersemann (Firm), former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/147835641)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Lewis E 231
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1597600
• deRicci: 35

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Belém, Portugal

Summary

This large manuscript contains a Ferial (or Choir) Psalter, which comprises the text of the Psalms themselves as well as the unchanging daily items of the Divine Office (fols. 1r-172v). Following this is a short hymnal, without musical notation (fols. 172v-189v). Psalms 4 and 22 have been appended as paper end leaves, written in what is possibly an eighteenth-century hand. The text is adorned with numerous colored and decorated initials in black, red, green, and blue with pen-work decoration. Seven of these–marking important divisions with the Psalms–are further embellished with partial geometric and foliate borders (fols. 3r, 38v, 61v, 80v, 99r, 126r, and 146r). A handful of the smaller initials appear unfinished, and others to have been completed by a later and lesser hand. Throughout, the parchment shows evidence of historic damage and repairs (especially along the lower margin). Folio 26 is completely torn in half horizontally. The binding is eighteenth century, and is very similar to that of Free Library MSS Lewis E 221-234. This, along with the shared elements of their provenance, had led to these manuscripts all being associated with the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, Portugal. According to the colophons in Lewis E 221 and 222, they were the gift of King John III in June 1548. The present manuscript, however, is stylistically quite distinct from the others and it is unclear whether it too formed an original part of this royal bequest.

Notes

• Front cover and top flyleaves detached
   
• Some damage from flaking
   
• Marginal and interlineal annotations in near-contemporary and later hands
   

Extent

Ii+189+vii; 590 x 400 mm bound to 613 x 420 mm

Foliation

Early foliation in ink, upper right recto; modern foliation in ink, upper right recto; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto and lower right recto

Collation

1-13 (8), 14 (6), 15-23 (8), 24 (8, -8)

Signatures

Occasional early ink quire signatures, lower right recto

Support

Parchment

Binding

Eighteenth-century stamped dark brown calfskin; metal corner and bosses; remains of clasps; edges stained red

Layout

One column of fifteen lines; lead point ruling; written area: 460 x 280 mm

Decoration

Seven large decorated initials with partial foliate and geometric borders; numerous colored initials in red, blue, green, and black with pen-work decoration

Script

Gothic--rotunda

Provenance

• May have been made for the Jerónimos Monastery near Lisbon; Hiersemann of Leipzig (bookseller); bought by the Free Library in 1900; catalog entry and typed description pasted onto the inside front cover; bookplate of the Free Library of Philadelphia pasted on to inside front cover; Stamped "Geo. S. Pepper Fund" and "3079," bottom of fol. 2r
   

Related resources

• J. Thomson, Hither and Thither (Philadelphia, 1905), pp. 135-144.
• Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, originated by C.U. Faye, continued and edited by W.H. Bond (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1962), p. 452-53, no. 35.

Keywords

• 16th century
• Notable binding
• Liturgy
• Hymnal
• Psalter

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 231: Choir psalter; Hymnal 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, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E 231: Choir psalter; Hymnal. 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 — Choir (Ferial) Psalter
• fol. 172v — Hymnal
• Inside back cover — Index of Psalms

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Hand-written description in pencil
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Free Library of Philadelphia
• Insert recto — Type-written description
• fol. 3r — Decorated initial B
• fol. 3r — Partial bar border with foliate decoration
• fol. 38v — Decorated initial D
• fol. 38v — Partial panel border with geometric decoration
• fol. 61v — Decorated initial D
• fol. 61v — Partial panel border with geometric decoration, coat of arms
• fol. 80v — Decorated initial D
• fol. 80v — Partial panel border with geometric decoration
• fol. 99r — Decorated initial S
• fol. 99r — Partial panel border with geometric decoration
• fol. 126r — Decorated initial E
• fol. 126r — Partial panel border with geometric and foliate decoration
• fol. 146r — Decorated initial C
• fol. 146r — Partial panel border with geometric decoration
• fol. 173r — Partial panel border with geometric decoration