DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44947#0010
8
PSALTER AND HOURS OF
actually written for the King, has been referred to above.
It is now MS. Latin 10525 at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
It is an exquisite manuscript, smaller than the other two,
and has already been studied in conjunction with Mr. Yates
Thompson’s volume that I am about to describe by Dr.
Arthur HaselofF1 and M. Leopold Delisle.2 To these dis-
tinguished masters of all that concerns my subject I am there-
fore more than usually indebted.
Two MSS. from It is, indeed, impossible to treat of either of these in-
the same atelier, estimable manuscripts without reference to the other, so
closely are they related. That they were written at the same
place, and decorated in the same atelier, at approximately
the same time, is obvious. The place was doubtless Paris,
the time between 1253 and 1270. The first date is settled
by the presence in the Kalendars of the Feast of St. Peter
Martyr, who was canonized in 1253. The second is that of
the death of St. Louis, to whom the Paris book belonged,
as well as of his sister Isabelle, for whom, as I hope to show,
Mr. Thompson’s volume was almost certainly executed.
The Paris volume, as already stated, is a Psalter. Mr.
Thompson’s is also a Psalter, but with the addition of the
H ours of the Virgin, the Penitential Psalms, the Office of
the Dead, and some minor liturgical features that will be
dealt with in the proper place. Each volume opens with a
series of full-page pictures before the Kalendar. Though vary-
ing in merit they are eminently characteristic of the free in-
vention of the thirteenth century. Byzantine models have
been almost wholly set aside, and a body of imaginative artists
have treated familiar Bible-subjeCts in their own way. The
figures recall the singularly beautiful sculptures on the west
front of Auxerre Cathedral. The number of these full-page
pictures is in the Paris volume seventy-eight, in Mr. Thomp-
son’s volume six only. Both volumes also contain large his-
toriated initials in the text.
1 Memoir ei de la Societe nationale des dlntiquaires de France, t. Iviii. Paris,
1899. See also the valuable album of reproductions edited by M. Henri
Omont. Paris, Berthaud, n.d.
2 Dowze livres royaux, pp. 37-51. Paris, 1902.
These twin manuscripts were originally of the same size.
The Psalter of St. Louis has never been cut down, and has
the original edges patterned with cross lines. It measures
8| x 5I inches. Mr. Thompson’s volume has been slightly
reduced by the binder, and measures 7H x 5i inches. But
the area occupied by the text is the same, the number of
lines is the same, and the nature of the writing, of the
decoration and of the miniatures, as well as the contents of
the Kalendars, point conclusively to a common origin. As
to the atelier at which they were illuminated not even a
surmise is possible. The researches of French scholars, which
have lately thrown so much light on the craftsmen of sub-
sequent periods, have not yet led to any discoveries respect-
ing the Parisian illuminators of the time of St. Louis. In Parisian illumin-
the earliest existing list of them, that of the Role de la faille of ators of the end
1292, the names of five illuminators, Raoul, Thomas, Jehan
l’Englois, Gregoire, and Courrat, are given with various
addresses, while eleven others, Bernar, Baudouin, Nicholas,
Guiot his assistant, another Guiot, Honore, Richart de
Verdun his son-in-law, Thomassin his assistant, Jehan,
Heude, and Climent, lived close together in the Rue Erem-
bourc-de-Brie (now Rue Boutebrie), which ran at right
angles from the Rue aus Escrivains (now Rue de la Parche-
minerie), where most of the scribes and booksellers had
their quarters. Of these illuminators Honore, who worked
for Philippe le Bel in 1296, was the most important, and
M. Henry Martin, from whose valuable article in the Bulle-
tin du Bibliophile for August, 1904, I have taken these par-
ticulars, points out that, as he had a married daughter in
1292, he may have been already established as an illuminator
in the reign of St. Louis. But at present this can only be
a matter of conjeCture. A portrait of a Parisian illuminator,
c. 1250, is given on the title-page, from MS. 1179 at Vienna.
Turning now more specially to Mr. Thompson’s volume,
I propose first to discuss its provenance, and then to describe
its liturgical contents. I shall afterwards indicate, as best I
can, the nature of its artistic embellishment, and the number
of hands employed on the initials, line-endings, and minia-
PSALTER AND HOURS OF
actually written for the King, has been referred to above.
It is now MS. Latin 10525 at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
It is an exquisite manuscript, smaller than the other two,
and has already been studied in conjunction with Mr. Yates
Thompson’s volume that I am about to describe by Dr.
Arthur HaselofF1 and M. Leopold Delisle.2 To these dis-
tinguished masters of all that concerns my subject I am there-
fore more than usually indebted.
Two MSS. from It is, indeed, impossible to treat of either of these in-
the same atelier, estimable manuscripts without reference to the other, so
closely are they related. That they were written at the same
place, and decorated in the same atelier, at approximately
the same time, is obvious. The place was doubtless Paris,
the time between 1253 and 1270. The first date is settled
by the presence in the Kalendars of the Feast of St. Peter
Martyr, who was canonized in 1253. The second is that of
the death of St. Louis, to whom the Paris book belonged,
as well as of his sister Isabelle, for whom, as I hope to show,
Mr. Thompson’s volume was almost certainly executed.
The Paris volume, as already stated, is a Psalter. Mr.
Thompson’s is also a Psalter, but with the addition of the
H ours of the Virgin, the Penitential Psalms, the Office of
the Dead, and some minor liturgical features that will be
dealt with in the proper place. Each volume opens with a
series of full-page pictures before the Kalendar. Though vary-
ing in merit they are eminently characteristic of the free in-
vention of the thirteenth century. Byzantine models have
been almost wholly set aside, and a body of imaginative artists
have treated familiar Bible-subjeCts in their own way. The
figures recall the singularly beautiful sculptures on the west
front of Auxerre Cathedral. The number of these full-page
pictures is in the Paris volume seventy-eight, in Mr. Thomp-
son’s volume six only. Both volumes also contain large his-
toriated initials in the text.
1 Memoir ei de la Societe nationale des dlntiquaires de France, t. Iviii. Paris,
1899. See also the valuable album of reproductions edited by M. Henri
Omont. Paris, Berthaud, n.d.
2 Dowze livres royaux, pp. 37-51. Paris, 1902.
These twin manuscripts were originally of the same size.
The Psalter of St. Louis has never been cut down, and has
the original edges patterned with cross lines. It measures
8| x 5I inches. Mr. Thompson’s volume has been slightly
reduced by the binder, and measures 7H x 5i inches. But
the area occupied by the text is the same, the number of
lines is the same, and the nature of the writing, of the
decoration and of the miniatures, as well as the contents of
the Kalendars, point conclusively to a common origin. As
to the atelier at which they were illuminated not even a
surmise is possible. The researches of French scholars, which
have lately thrown so much light on the craftsmen of sub-
sequent periods, have not yet led to any discoveries respect-
ing the Parisian illuminators of the time of St. Louis. In Parisian illumin-
the earliest existing list of them, that of the Role de la faille of ators of the end
1292, the names of five illuminators, Raoul, Thomas, Jehan
l’Englois, Gregoire, and Courrat, are given with various
addresses, while eleven others, Bernar, Baudouin, Nicholas,
Guiot his assistant, another Guiot, Honore, Richart de
Verdun his son-in-law, Thomassin his assistant, Jehan,
Heude, and Climent, lived close together in the Rue Erem-
bourc-de-Brie (now Rue Boutebrie), which ran at right
angles from the Rue aus Escrivains (now Rue de la Parche-
minerie), where most of the scribes and booksellers had
their quarters. Of these illuminators Honore, who worked
for Philippe le Bel in 1296, was the most important, and
M. Henry Martin, from whose valuable article in the Bulle-
tin du Bibliophile for August, 1904, I have taken these par-
ticulars, points out that, as he had a married daughter in
1292, he may have been already established as an illuminator
in the reign of St. Louis. But at present this can only be
a matter of conjeCture. A portrait of a Parisian illuminator,
c. 1250, is given on the title-page, from MS. 1179 at Vienna.
Turning now more specially to Mr. Thompson’s volume,
I propose first to discuss its provenance, and then to describe
its liturgical contents. I shall afterwards indicate, as best I
can, the nature of its artistic embellishment, and the number
of hands employed on the initials, line-endings, and minia-