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Detailed record for Harley 603
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| Part 1 |
ff. 1-73v |
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| Title |
Psalter, in the Roman version, imperfect, ending in Psalm 143 (the 'Harley Psalter') |
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| Origin |
England, S. E. (Canterbury), Christ Church Cathedral Priory |
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| Date |
1st half of the 11th century |
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| Language |
Latin |
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| Script |
Caroline minuscule |
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| Scribe |
3 scribes, including Eadui Basan |
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| Decoration |
2 full-page drawings in colours (f. 1r-1v). Numerous drawings in brown ink or with colours, on most pages, illustrating the Psalms. Large historiated initial in colours at the beginning of Psalm 1 (f. 2). Initials in red, green, or blue with penwork decoration, some with decoration in another colour or with animal heads. Small initials and rubrics in red. Spaces left for drawings and initials (ff. 36-49v). |
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| Dimensions in mm |
380 x 310 (in three columns) |
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| Part 2 |
ff. 29-35 |
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| Title |
Added drawings |
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| Origin |
England, S. (Canterbury) |
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| Date |
2nd quarter of the 12th century |
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| Decoration |
Added drawings in brown or in colours illustrating Psalms 52-62. Historiated initial in red (f. 29). Unfinished drawings (ff. 34v-35). |
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| Official foliation |
ff. 73 ( + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Previous modern binding of brown leather with paper guards kept separately. |
| Provenance |
Christ Church Canterbury: evidence of an initial with an archbishop wearing a pallium (f. 2); and by the script of one of the scribes (ff. 28-49v), identified by T. A. M. Bishop as being that of Eadui Basan, a Christ Church Canterbury scribe (see discussion Temple 1976); see also Noel 1995 pp. 2-3, who states that three of the artists or scribes can be identified as working on other manuscripts made at Christ Church; or the Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine, Canterbury (see Ker 1964).
Perhaps commissioned by Aelfric, archbishop of Canterbury: he bequeathed it to Wulfstan, archbishop of York in 1003 or 1004 (see discussion Le Grand Atelier 2007).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
The Psalms are numbered according to the Latin Vulgate version of the Old Testament, which differs from the Hebrew and King James versions (for example, Psalm 23 in King James is Psalm 22 in the Vulgate).
Although the illustration is copied from the Utrecht Psalter, the text is the Roman version except Psalms 100-105 which are Gallican (see Abbot Gasquet and Edmund Bishop, The Bosworth Psalter (London: Bell and Sons, 1908)).
The decoration was left unfinished; space was left for drawings (ff. 36r-49v); and a sequence of coloured drawings was added in the 2nd quarter of the 12th century (ff. 29r-35r): see discussion Noel, 'Harley Psalter' (2009). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, no. 603.
M. Digby Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating (London: Dan and Son Lithographers, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), pp. 20-21.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 4.
M. R. James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge, 1903), pp. lxix, 532.
Abbot Gasquet and Edmund Bishop, The Bosworth Psalter (London: Bell and Sons, 1908), p. 8.
Christopher Wordsworth and Henry Littlehales, The Old Service-Books of the English Church, 2nd edn (London: Methuen & Co., 1910), p. 114, pl. X.
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 115.
Schools of Illumination: Reproductions from Manuscripts in the British Museum, 6 vols (London: British Museum, 1914-1930), I: Hiberno-Saxon and Early English Schools A. D. 700-1100, pl. 11.
Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1926), pl. 22.
[Eric G. Millar], British Museum Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 4 (London: British Museum, 1928), pl. 5.
Guide to an Exhibition of English Art gathered from Various Departments and held in the Prints and Drawings Gallery (London: British Museum, 1934.), no. 82.
Ernst Kitzinger, Early Medieval Art with Illustrations from the British Museum Collection (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1940), pl. 29(A).
D. Talbot Rice, English Art 871-1100, Oxford History of English Art, 2 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1952), pp. 182, 191, 201-2, pls. 65a, 66.
Francis Wormald, English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (London, 1952), pp. 30 ff., no. 34, pls 10b-12b, 25b, 35a.
C. R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination 1066-1200 (Cambridge: University Press, 1954), pp. 1-3, 27, 42, 47, 92, 122-23, pls. 1a-1c.
T. S. R. Boase, English Art 1100-1216, Oxford History of English Art, 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), pp. 83, 158.
Otto Pächt, C. R. Dodwell, and Francis Wormald, The St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter) (London: Warburg Institute, 1960), pp. 158 n. 1, 198.
T. A. M. Bishop, 'Notes on Cambridge Manuscripts', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 3 (1963), pp. 413-23.
Hans Swarzenski, 'The Role of Copies in the Formation of the Styles of the Eleventh Century', in Studies in Western Art: Acts of the Twentieth International Congress of the History of Art, 4 vols (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), I: Romanesque and Gothic Art, pp. 7-18 (p. 10).
Francis Wormald, 'Late Anglo-Saxon Art: Some Questions and Suggestions', in Studies in Western Art: Acts of the Twentieth International Congress of the History of Art, 4 vols (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), I: Romanesque and Gothic Art, pp. 19-26 (p. 21).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R.
Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 44.
M. W. Evans, Medieval Drawings (London: Hamlyn, 1969), no. 19.
A. Boutemy, 'Calendrier anglais illustré', Bulletin de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France (1970), 79-98 (p. 85).
Lucy Freeman Sandler, 'Christian Hebraism and the Ramsey Abbey Psalter', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 35 (1971), 123-34 (p. 125 n. 9).
C. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 3 (London: Harvey Miller, 1975), no. 64, p. 97 [part 2].
Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), no. 64, pp. 22, 61, 75, 86, 90, 92, 94, 100-2, 114, 116.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), fig. 6.
Dorothy Mahoney, The Craft of Calligraphy (London: Pelham Books, 1981), pl. on p. 71.
Anne Lawrence, ‘Manuscripts of Early Anglo-Norman Canterbury’, in Medieval Art and Architecture at Canterbury before 1220, ed. by Nicola Coldstream and Peter Draper, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, 5, 1979 (Leeds: Maney and Son, 1982), pp. 101-11 (pp. 102, 105).
Janet Backhouse, 'The Making of the Harley Psalter', British Library Journal, 10 (1984), 97-113.
The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art 966-1066, ed. by Janet Backhouse, D. H. Turner, and Leslie Webster (London: British Museum, 1984), no. 59, pl. XIX [exhibition catalogue].
Otto Pächt, Buchmalerei des Mittelalters (Munich: Prestel, 1984), pl. 18.
François Avril and Patricia Danz Stirnemann, Manuscrits enluminés d’origine insulaire VIIe-XXe siècle (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1987), p. 47.
Michelle Brown, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1991), p. 75, pl. 73.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 73, 76, 101, 144, fig. 121.
William Gerard Noel, 'The Making of B. L. Harley Mss. 2506 and 603' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cambridge University, 1992) [with additional bibliography].
Thomas H. Ohlgren, Anglo-Saxon Textual Illustration (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1992), no. 2, pp. 1-2, 18-41, pls 2.1-2.102 [black and white images of all of the illustrations].
C. R. Dodwell, The Pictorial Arts of theWest 800-1200 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 100-1, 103, 117-18, 338, 415, pls 83, 87.
Richard Gameson, 'The Romanesque Artist of the Harley 603 Psalter', English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 4 (1993), pp. 24-61.
Michelle P. Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms (London: British Library, 1994), pl. on p. 92.
William Noel, ‘The Division of Work in the Harley Psalter’, Making the Medieval Book: Techniques of Production, ed. by Linda L. Brownrigg, Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1992 (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderston-Lovelace, 1995), pp. 1-15.
Carl Nordenfalk, Book Illumination: Early Middle Ages (Geneva: Editions d'art Albert Skira, 1995; originally printed as Early Medieval Painting, New York: Skira, 1957), p. 104.
Richard Gameson, ‘Book Production and Decoration at Worcester in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries’, in St Oswald of Worcester: Life and Influence, ed. by Nicholas Brooks and Catherine Cubitt, Studies in the Early History of Britain, The Makers of England, 2 (London: Leicester University Press, 1996), pp. 194-243 (p. 201).
William Noel, The Harley Psalter, Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art: Picturing the Psalms of David, ed. by Koert van der Horst, William Noel, and Wilhelmina C M. Wüstefeld (Utrecht: HES Publishers, 1996), no. 28, and esp. pp. 151-53.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 12.
Michelle P. Brown, 'Sir Robert Cotton, Collector and Connoisseur?', in Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters, ed. by Michelle P. Brown and Scot McKendrick (London: British Library, 1998), pp. 281-98 (p. 286).
Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 241 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), no. 422.
Diane Reilly, ‘French Romanesque Giant Bibles’, Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits, 56 (2002), 294-311 (p. 294 n. 1).
Michelle P. Brown, Painted Labyrinth: The world of the Lindisfarne Gospels (London: British Library, 2003), p. 46.
Celia Chazelle, ‘Violence and the Virtuous Ruler in the Utrecht Psalter’, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. Büttner, (Belgium: Brepols, 2004), pp. 337-48 (p. 344 n. 32).
The Cambridge Illuminations. Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 63.
Jane Geddes, The St Albans Psalter: A Book for Christina of Markyate (London: British Library, 2005), pp. 75, 81, fig. 64b.
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 53.
Asa Simon Mittman, Maps and Monsters in Medieval England (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 150, pl. 8.2.
Michelle P. Brown, Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age (London: British Library, 2007), pls 124-25.
The Grand Atelier: Patheways of Art in Europe (5th-18th Centureis), ed. by Roland Recht (Brussels: Europalia, 2007), no. II.8 [exhibition catalogue].
George Henderson, 'On Making Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts Accessible', in The Cambridge Illuminations: The Conference Papers, ed. by Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2007), pp. 13-19 (p. 15).
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pp. 58-59, figs. 45-46.
Sacred: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their Sacred Texts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 122 [exhibition catalogue].
T. A. Heslop, ‘The Implication of the Utrecht Psalter in English Romanesque Art’, in Romanesque: Art and Thought in the Twelfth Century: Essays in Honor of Walter Cahn, ed. by Colum Hourihane, Index of Christian Art Occasional Papers, 10 (Princeton: Index of Christian Art, 2008), pp. 267-90 (pp. 270-72, 279-81, figs 7, 8).
Michelle P. Brown, 'An Early Outbreak of "Influenza"? Aspects of Influence, Medieval and Modern", in Under the Influence: The Concept of Influence and the Study of Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. by John Lowden and Alixe Bovey (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), pp. 1-10 (pp. 4-5).
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 36.
William Noel, 'The Harley Psalter', in Melanie Holcomb, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009), fig. 9, pp. 13-14, no. 12 [exhibition catalogue].
Richard Gameson, 'An Itinerant English master around the Millenium' in England and the Continent in the Tenth Century: Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947) ed. by D. Rollason, C. Leyser and H. Williams (Turnhout: Brepols, '2010', recte 2011), pp. 87-134 (pp. 121, n. 74, 122).
Lawrence Nees, 'The European context of manuscript illumination in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, 600-900', in Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021), pp. 45-65 (p. 46). |
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Part 1
ff. 1-73v |
| Psalter, in the Roman version, imperfect, ending in Psalm 143 (the 'Harley Psalter') |
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f. 1v
Psalm 1: the blessed man and the ungodly man |
f. 2
Psalm 2 |
f. 2
Christ in a mandorla |
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f. 2
Christ in a mandorla |
ff. 2v-3
Psalms 3, 4 and 5 |
f. 2v
Psalm 3 |
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f. 2v
Psalm 4 |
f. 3
Psalm 5 |
f. 4
Psalm 7 |
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f. 4v
Psalm 8 |
f. 4v
Psalm 8 |
f. 5
Psalm 9 |
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ff. 5v-6
Psalms 9 and 10 |
f. 6
Psalm 10 |
f. 7
Psalm 12 |
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f. 7
Psalm 12 |
f. 7
Psalm 12 |
f. 7v-8
Psalms 13, 14 and 15 |
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f. 7v
Psalm 13 |
f. 7v
Psalm 13 |
f. 7v
Psalm 13 |
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f. 8
Psalms 14 and 15 |
ff. 8v-9
Psalms 16 and 17 |
f. 8v
Psalm 16 |
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f. 9
Psalm 17 |
ff. 9v-10
Decorated initial |
ff. 10v-11
Psalms 18 and 19 |
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f. 10v
Psalm 18 |
f. 11
Psalm 19 |
f. 11v
Psalm 20 |
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f. 12
Pen drawing |
f. 12v
Decorated initial |
f. 13v
Psalm 23 |
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f. 14
Psalm 24 |
f. 14
Psalm 24 |
f. 14v
Psalm 25 |
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f. 15
Psalm 26 |
ff. 15v-16
Psalms 27 and 28 |
f. 15v
Psalm 27 |
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f. 16
Psalm 28 |
f. 16v
Psalm 28 |
f. 17v
Marginal drawing of an angel rescuing the psalmist |
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f. 18
Psalm 31 |
f. 18v
People playing music and singing |
f. 19
Psalm 33 |
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ff. 19v-20
Psalm 34 |
f. 19v
Psalm 34 |
f. 20
Text page |
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f. 20v
Psalm 35 |
f. 20v
Psalm 35 |
ff. 21v-22
Psalm 37 |
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f. 22
Psalm 37 |
f. 23
Psalm 39 |
ff. 23v-24
Psalm 40 |
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f. 24
Psalm 40 |
f. 24v
Psalm 41 |
f. 25
Psalm 43 |
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ff. 25v-26
Psalm 44 |
f. 26
Psalm 44 |
ff. 26v-27
Psalms 45 and 46 |
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f. 26v
Psalm 45 |
f. 27
Psalm 46 |
ff. 27v-28
Psalms 47 and 48 |
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f. 27v
Psalm 47 |
f. 28
Psalm 4 |
f. 28v
Psalm 49 |
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ff. 30v-31
Psalms 55 and 56 |
ff. 31v-32
Psalms 57 and 58 |
f. 31v
Psalm 57 |
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f. 32
Psalm 58 |
ff. 32v-33
Psalms 59, 60 and 61 |
f. 33
Psalm 60 |
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f. 33
Psalm 61 |
ff. 33v-34
Psalms 62 and 65 |
f. 33v
Psalm 62 |
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f. 34
Psalm 65 |
ff. 43v-44
Text pages |
ff. 44v-45
Text pages |
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ff. 45v-46
Text pages |
ff. 46v-47
Text pages |
ff. 47v-48
Text pages |
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ff. 48v-49
Text pages |
ff. 49v-50
Psalm 101 |
f. 50v
Text page |
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f. 51
Psalm 102 |
ff. 51v-52
Pen drawings |
ff. 52v-53
Psalm 104 |
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f. 53
Angel and elders |
ff. 53v-54
Psalm 105 |
f. 53v
Psalm 105 |
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f. 55
Text page |
f. 55v
Psalm 107 |
ff. 55v-56
Psalms 117 and 118 |
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ff. 56v-57
Psalms 109 and 110 |
f. 57
Psalm 110 |
f. 58
Psalms 112 and 113 |
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f. 58
Psalm 113 |
f. 58
Princes on a throne |
ff. 58v-59
Psalms 113, 114 and 115 |
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f. 59
Psalm 114 |
f. 59
Psalm 115 |
f. 59v
Psalm 115 |
| |
f. 59v
Psalm 116 |
f. 60
Psalms 115 and 116 |
ff. 60v-61
Psalm 118 |
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f. 60v
Psalm 118 |
f. 61
Two men kneeling before an elder |
ff. 61v-62
Penwork decoration |
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f. 61v
Penwork decoration |
ff. 62v-63
Pen drawing |
f. 62v
Zoomorphic decoration |
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ff. 63v-64
Psalm 119 |
f. 64
Psalm 119 |
f. 64v
Psalm 120 |
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f. 65
Psalm 122 |
f. 65v
Psalm 123 |
f. 65v
Psalm 124 |
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f. 66
Psalm 125 |
ff. 66v-67
Psalm 126, 127 and 128 |
f. 67
Psalm 128 |
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ff. 67v-68
Psalms 129, 130 and 131, |
f. 67v
Psalms 129 |
f. 67v
Psalm 130 |
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ff. 68v-69
Psalm 132, 133 amd 134 |
f. 68v
Psalm 132 |
f. 68v
Psalm 33 |
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f. 69
Pen drawing |
f. 69v
Psalm 135 |
f. 69v
Psalm 135 |
| |
f. 70
Psalm 136 |
f. 70
Psalm 136 |
f. 70
Psalm 136 |
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ff. 70v-71
Psalms 137 and 138 |
f. 70v
Psalm 137 |
f. 70v
Psalm 137 |
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f. 71
Psalm 138 |
ff. 71v-72
Psalms 139 and 140 |
f. 71v
Psalm 139 |
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f. 72
Psalm 140 |
ff. 72v-73
Psalms 141 and 142 |
f. 72v
Psalm 141 |
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f. 72v
Psalm 141 |
f. 72v
Psalm 141 |
f. 73
Psalm 142 |
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f. 73
Psalm 142 |
f. 73v
Psalm 143:: David and Goliath |
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Part 2
ff. 29-35 |
| Added drawings |
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f. 29
Psalm 52 |
f. 29
Psalm 52 |
f. 29v
Psalm 53 |
| |
f. 30
Psalm 54 |
f. 30
Psalm 54 |
f. 30v
Psalm 55 |
| |
f. 30v
Psalm 55 |
f. 31
Psalm 56 |
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