Collection ID: 0054 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Helmarshausen Psalter

Other related names

• Supplied name: Herimann, the same monk responsible for the Gospels of Henry the Lion, scribe
• Petrus Grillinger, former owner
• Gruel and Engelmann, former owner (https://lccn.loc.gov/no2011169807)
• Henry Walters, former owner (https://lccn.loc.gov/nr94027104)

Call number

W.10
(Baltimore, Walters Art Museum)

Publisher

Walters Art Museum

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Helmarshausen, Germany

Summary

This small volume of psalms was created for the private use of a noble lady, probably a relative of Duke Henry the Lion (1129-1195). It was made at Helmarshausen, the same monastery that produced the sumptuous Gospels of Henry the Lion, which sold at auction in 1983 for nearly 12 million dollars, making it the most expensive art object sold to that point. This psalter is much smaller and less elaborate than the Gospels, with only three miniatures, but the quality is very high. The identity of the manuscript's owner, the lady pictured on fol. 6v, has been the subject of much debate. Scholars have conjectured that she is Gertrud, Henry's daughter, Clementia, his first wife, or Matilda, his second wife. Because the portrait bears no inscription, and because the facing page, which may have shown the lady's patron saint, is missing, the question must remain open.

Notes

• Fols. 121v-122v: Litany, contents suggest use in Helmarshausen or Trier, containing eighteen martyrs; Twelve confessors including Modoaldus and Remaclus; Thirteen virgins
   
• Parchment, well-prepared, medium-weight
   

Extent

4.0 cm wide by 9.2 cm high bound to 6.5 cm wide by 11.5 cm high

Foliation

Foliation: i+125+i; First and last pages are parchment and have been foliated but are not original to the manuscript and are therefore added flyleaves; Modern pencil foliation, upper right corners, rectos

Collation

Formula: Undetermined due to the fragile nature of the manuscript

Support

Parchment

Binding

The binding is not original; Red velvet (probably added by Gruel) over sixteenth- or seventeenth-century beech boards; Upper and outer margins clipped; Edges gilt and inscribed with a pattern of stars within arches

Layout

Columns: 1; Ruled lines: 26; Layout does not apply to calendar (2 columns, 32 ruled lines)

Decoration

Three full-page miniatures at beginnings of three parts; Three half-page decorated initials set on lavender background, and enclosed in frames, with following text in gold (7-13 lines); One smaller initial on half-page background to introduce Psalm 109; Initials in gold, blue, and green begin each Psalm (2 lines); Rubrics in red; Text in brown ink

Script

Late Carolingian miniscule; For a full description of the hand, see Krüger 1972, pp. 290-301

Provenance

• Created at the monastery of Helmarshausen in Westphalia, second half of twelfth century, by Herimann for a female relative of Henry the Lion.
   
• Petrus Grillinger, Canon of Salzburg, early fifteenth century [Inscription on fol. 126v reads "Hic liber fuit domini petri Grillinger Magistri Kamere Curie Salzbur[gensis]"].
   
• Gruel and Engelmann collection, late nineteenth or early twentieth century [Bookplate on upper pastedown inscribed "136"].
   
• Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase, probably from Gruel.
   
• Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest.
   

Related resources

• Jansen, Franz. Die Helmarshausener Buchmalerei zur Zeit Heinrichs des Löwen. Hildesheim and Leipzig: August Lax, 1933, pp. 149-150.
• De Ricci, S. and W.J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 2 vols. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 768, no. 73
• Goldschmidt, Adolph. "A German Psalter of the Twelfth Century Written in Helmarshausen." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 1 (1938): pp. 18-23, figs. 1-7.
• Swarzenski, Hanns. "Recent Literature, Chiefly Periodical, in Medieval Minor Arts." Art Bulletin 24 (1942): pp. 287-304, at p. 296
• Walters Art Gallery. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949, p. 11, no. 24
• Korzus, Bernard. Kunst und Kultur im Weserraum, 800-1600; Ausstellung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. Münster in Westfalen: Aschendorff, 1966, pp. 495-496, no. 184
• Krüger, Ekkehard. Die Schreib- und Malwerkstatt der Abtei Helmarshausen bis in die Zeit Heingrichs des Löwen. Darmstadt: Hessischen Historischen Kommission und der Historischen Kommission für Hessen und Waldeck, 1972, pp. 279-280, 696-713, figs. 66-69.
• Gosebruch, Martin. "'Labor est Herimanni': zum Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen." Abhandlungen der Braunschweigischen Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft 35 (1983)
• Randall, Lilian M.C. Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature: Highlights from the Collection of the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1984.
• Klemm, Elisabeth. Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen. Frankfurt, 1989. 69-72.
• Hoffmann, Hartmut. Bücher and Urkunden aus Helmarshausen und Corvey. Hannover: Hahn, 1992, pp. 19-20
• Luckhardt, Jochen, and Franz Niehoff, eds. Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235: Katalog der Ausstellung Braunschweig 1995. 3 vols. Munich: Hirmer, 1995, pp. 165, 167, no. D12
• Bagnoli, Martina. The Medieval World. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2011, p. 165, fig. 148.
• Shirin Fozi, "Portraiture and Presence in the Helmarshausen Psalter", The Journal of the Walters Art Museum, Volume 76 (2023) https://journal.thewalters.org/volume/76/essay/portraiture-and-presence-in-the-helmarshausen-psalter/ (https://journal.thewalters.org/volume/76/essay/portraiture-and-presence-in-the-helmarshausen-psalter/)

Genres

• Book
• Devotional

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Walters Art Museum W.10: Helmarshausen Psalter 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 Walters Art Museum has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Walters Art Museum W.10: Helmarshausen Psalter. 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. 2r — Calendar, April through December (first three months lacking); incipit: [rubric: Aprilis habet dies xxx. Luna xxviiii]
• fol. 6v — Liturgical Psalter
• fol. 7r — Psalm 1; incipit: Beatus vir
• fol. 42r — Psalm 51; incipit: Quid gloriaris
• fol. 78r — Psalm 101; incipit: Domine exaudi
• fol. 88v — Psalm 109; incipit: Dixit dominus
• fol. 111v — Canticles, hymns, and creeds; incipit: [rubric: Canticum Ysaiae] Confitebor tibi
• fol. 121v — Litany (121v-122v), petitions (122v-123v), and collects (123v-124r); incipit: Kyrieleyson
• fol. 124r — Minor office of the dead; incipit: Placebo domino [fol. 124r]; explicit: Venit ad me non eiciam...; Ends imperfectly in the middle of an antiphon for lauds [fol. 126v]

Decorations

• fol. 2r — Major feasts in gold ink; Three saints (Modoaldus, Vitus, Martinus) in gold ink; Egyptian days and zodiacal notes in red ink; Other text in brown ink
• fol. 6v — Full-page miniature, noble lady at prayer
• fol. 7r — Decorated initial "B," 13 lines
• fol. 41v — Full-page miniature, Christ on the cross with Mary and Saint John
• fol. 42r — Decorated initial "Q," 7 lines
• fol. 77v — Full-page miniature, Christ in majesty
• fol. 78r — Decorated initial "D," 7 lines
• fol. 88v — Decorated initial "D," 7 lines