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Detailed record for Egerton 3277


Title		Psalter, Use of Sarum ('The Bohun Psalter and Hours'), imperfect
Origin		England (S. E., London?)
Date		2nd half of the 14th century, after 1356, and probably before 1373
Language		Latin and Anglo-Norman (one folio)
Script		Gothic
Decoration		15 very large historiated initials with three-sides bar borders in colours and gold at the beginning of Psalms 38, 68, 97, 101, 109 and other divisions and at Lauds, Prime, Terce, Vespers and Compline of the Hours of the Virgin, and other divisions, including the Penetential Psalms and the Office of the Dead (ff. 29v, 46v, 67, 68v, 78, 87, 98v, 114, 120v, 123, 126v, 129, 133, 142, 145v). 12 large 'KL' letters, historiated with the labours of the months, with marginal roundels of zodiac symbols, some damaged, each in colours and gold (ff. 1-6v). Numerous large histoirated initials in colours and gold, on nearly every folio. Numerous partial bar barder in colours and gold, most inhabited by animals, hybrids, and/or people, on every folio. Line fillers in red, blue, while and gold, some with patterns, masks, animals, or hybrids. Text in red, blue, purple, or gold in the calendar.
Dimensions in mm		340 x 235 (220 x 120)
Official foliation		ff. ii + 170 ( + 5 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end)
Form		Parchment codex
Binding		BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1966; patterned tooling on edges.
Provenance		Probably made for either the 6th or the 7th earl of Hereford, both named Humphrey Bohun (d. 1361 and d. 1373, respectively) (heraldic evidence); or for Mary de Bohun (married Henry of Bolingbroke in 1380, d. 1394): the Bohun family arms (ff. 29v, 120v, 133, 145v) (see discussion Sandler 1986; Rickert 1965 p. 149). The Lowther family, earls of Lonsdale, c.1800: its sale at Sotheby's, London, 6 December 1937; bought by Maggs for the Duke of Rutland (see Millar 1954). The Duke of Rutland; acquired from his estate with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund and the Friends of the National Librarires in 1940 (see Millar 1954).
Notes		Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts. The former 18th-century binding now kept separately as Egerton 3277/1.
Select bibliography		Joan Evans, English Art 1307-1461, Oxford History of English Art, 5 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1949), p. 96 n. 3. Eric G. Millar, 'Fresh Materials for the Study of English Illumination', in Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Greene, ed. by Dorothy Miner (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954), pp. 286-94 (p. 292, pls 246-247). [D. H. Turner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 5 (London: British Museum, 1965), pl. 28. Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (London: Penguin Books, 1965), pp. 149-50, 244 n. 10, fig. 153a. Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 28. The British Museum Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1936-1945, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1970), I, no. Eg. 3277. Lucy Freeman Sandler, 'An Early Fourteenth-Century English Breviary at Longleat', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 39 (1976), 1-20 (p. 1 n. 1). François Avril, L'enluminure à l'époque gothique 1200-1420 (Paris: Famot, 1979), p. 97. Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, 167. J. J. G. Alexander, 'Painting and Manuscript Illumination for Royal Patrons in the Later Middle Ages', in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, ed. by V. J. Scattergood and J. W. Sherborne (London: Duckworth, 1983), pp. 141-62 (p. 148). Lynda Dennison, 'The Fitzwarin Psalter and its Allies: a Reappraisal', in England in the Fourteenth Century, ed. by W. M. Ormrod (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1986), pp. 42-66. Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 5 (London: Harvey Miller, 1986), I, no. 135 [with additional bibliography]. The Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagent England 1200-1400, ed. by Jonathan Alexander and Paul Binski (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987), no. 689 [exhibition catalogue]. Lynda Dennison, 'The Stylistic Sources, Dating and Development of the Bohun Workshop' (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1988). Francis Wormald, Collected Writings, ed. by J. J. G. Alexander, T. J. Brown, and Joan Gibbs, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1984-1988), II: Studies in English and Continental Art of the Later Middle Ages, pp. 105, 150, pl. 138. Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997, no. 108. Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), p. 186, pl. 12 on p. 187. Alixe Bovey, Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), p. 50, pl. 42. Lucy Freeman Sandler, 'Political Imagery in the Bohun Manuscripts' in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 114-153 (pp. 117-18, 122-26, 135-145). Lucy Freeman Sandler, 'The Illustration of the Psalms in Fourteenth-Century English Manuscripts: Three Psalters of the Bohun Family', in Reading Texts and Images: Essays on Medieval and Renaissance Art and Patronage in Honour of Margaret M. Manion, ed. by Bernard J. Muir (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002), pp. 123-151 (p. 124 n. 5, 125, 127). Lynda Dennison, 'British Library, Egerton MS 3277: A Fourteenth- Century Psalter-Hours and the Question of Bohun Family Ownership', in Family and Dynasty in Late Medieval England, ed. by Richard Eales and Shaun Tyas (Donington: Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 2003), pp. 122-55. C. M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003), p. 224, fig. 171. Maidie Hilmo, Medieval Images, Icons, and IIlustrated English Literary Texts: From the Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), p. 196 n. 125. Lucy Freeman Sandler, The Lichtenthal Psalter and the Manuscript Patronage of the Bohun Family (London: Harvey Miller, 2004), pp. 20, 22, 35-38, 51, 54-55, 122, 126-31, pls 12, 61, 66, 69. Lucy Freeman Sandler, ‘Word Imagery in English Gothic Psalters: The Case of the Vienna Bohun manuscript (ÖNB, cod. 1826), in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. Büttner, (Belgium: Brepols, 2004), pp. 387-95 (p. 387). The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 189. Lucy Freeman Sandler, 'Bared: The Writing Bear in the British Library Bohun Psalter', Tributes to Jonathan J.G. Alexander: The Making and Meaning of Illuminated Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Art and Architecture, ed. by Gerald B. Guest and Susan L'Engle (London: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2006), pp. 269-82. Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Nigel F. Palmer, The Prayer Book of Ursula Begerin, 2 vols (Dietikon-Zurich: Urs Graf Verlag, 2015), I, p. 212.

Images



f. 1 January	f. 1v February	f. 2 March

f. 2v April	f. 3 May	f. 3v June

f. 4 July	f. 4v August	f. 5 September

f. 5v October	f. 6 November	f. 6v December

f. 7 Samuel identifying Saul	f. 7v Samuel anointing Saul	f. 8 The Philistines being slaughtered.

f. 8v Animals being killed and eaten.	f. 9 Saul and Jonathan	f. 9v Samuel anointing Saul

f. 11 Saul told to slay Amalek	f. 11v Saul spares Agag	f. 12 Saul is rejected

f. 12v Samuel and his sacrificial calf	f. 13 Samuel arriving at Bethlehem	f. 13v David anointed by Samuel

f. 13v Bear writing	f. 14 David playing the harp for Saul	f. 16 Goliath and the Philistines

f. 16v Goliath challenging the Israelites	f. 17 David killing the lion and bear	f. 17v David telling Saul he will fight Goliath

f. 18 Illuminated initials	f. 19 Psalm 22: David and Goliath	f. 19v David taking Goliath’s head to Jerusalem

f. 20v The women of Jerusalem rejoicing at Goliath's death,	f. 21 Achimelech gives David Goliath's sword	f. 21v David, Achis and his servants

f. 22 David fleeing to the cave of Odollam	f. 22v Bar border with initials	f. 23v David’s brethren at the cave of Odollam

f. 24 Saul and his servants at Gabaa	f. 24v Doeg killing the priests of Nobe	f. 25v David slaughtering Philistines and saving Celia

f. 26 Illuminated initials	f. 27 The Philistines invading	f. 28 Illuminated initials

f. 28v David at Engeddi,	f. 29v Saul and David	f. 30v Samuel’s death

f. 31 Nabal shearing sheep in Carmel	f. 32 A man and followers before a seated lady,	f. 32 Detail

f. 32v Abigail and David	f. 32v Detail	f. 33v Abigail and Nabal

f. 34 Illuminated initials	f. 34v Abigail bowing before David’s servants	f. 35 Abigail, David and Saul

f. 35v David and Saul	f. 36v Two soldiers and a kneeling man	f. 37 Saul and David

f. 37v Illuminated initials	f. 38 Burial of Saul,	f. 39 Battle at Gabaon

f. 39v Abner killing Asael	f. 40 David and Abner	f. 40v David and Abner

f. 41 Joab killing Abner	f. 41v David following Abner’s bier	f. 42 David at Abner’s grave

f. 42v Rechab and Baana kill Isboseth	f. 43 David, Rechab and Banaa	f. 43v Illuminated initials

f. 44 David anointed King of Israel	f. 44v David defeats the Philistines	f. 45 Bar border

f. 46v The Ark brought to Jerusalem	f. 47 Illuminated initials	f. 47v Illuminated initials

f. 48 David praying before Christ,	f. 48v David’s victories	f. 49v David and Joram

f. 50 David and Miphiboseth	f. 50v Illuminated initials	f. 51 Hanon and David’s servants

f. 52 Joab and Abisai fighting the Syrians and Ammonites,	f. 52v David killing the Syrians	f. 53 David seeing Bathsheba bathing

f. 53v Bathsheba brought to David	f. 55v Hybrid creatures drinking	f. 56 Urias sleeping by the gate

f. 56v A chicken and a fox	f. 57v David	f. 58 David and Bathsheba,

f. 58v Birth of Solomon	f. 59 Joab besieges Rabbath	f. 60 David, Rabbath and Ammon

f. 61 Tamar and Amnon	f. 62v Amnon ravishes Tamar,	f. 63 Illuminated initials

f. 63v Amnon drives Tamar away	f. 64 Absalom and Tamar	f. 64v A dinner table, a king robing

f. 65v Joab and the woman of Thecua	f. 66 David and the woman of Thecua	f. 66v Absalom kissing David

f. 67 Davd and Absalom	f. 68v Kings of France and England, Jean le Bon	f. 70v Joab stabs Amasa

f. 72 Body of Amasa	f. 73v The woman of Abela and Joab	f. 75 Seba's head thrown to Joab

f. 76v Joab and Seba's head	f. 77 Gad and David	f. 78 Solomon and David

f. 78v Sadoc anointing Solomon	f. 79 Solomon’s coronation	f. 79v David's burial

f. 80v Solomon; Adonias and Bathsheba	f. 81 Bathsheba pleads with Solomon	f. 82 Banaias slays Joab

f. 82v Historiated initial	f. 83 Joab's burial	f. 83v Solomon and the ark of the covenant;

f. 84 The Ark in the temple	f. 84v God appears to Solomon	f. 85 Solomon and the queen of Sheba

f. 85v Solomon's throne, the queen of Sheba	f. 86 Solomon and Hiram, Solomon and his wives	f. 86v God is angry with Solomon.

f. 87 Jeroboam, the prophet from Bethel	f. 87v God comes to the prophet	f. 88 The man of God attacked by a lion

f. 88v The man of God is buried	f. 89 Jeroboam's wife and Ahias	f. 89v Elias greets the widow of Sarephta

f. 91 Prophets of Baal	f. 91v Elias and the burnt offering	f. 92 The fire of God

f. 93 Elias slays the prophets of Baal	f. 93v Elias and his servant wait for rain	f. 94 Ahab and Jezebel

f. 94v Elias under the juniper tree	f. 95 Elias and the angel	f. 95v Elias at the mouth of a cave

f. 96v Elias finds Eliseus ploughing.	f. 97 Ben-hadad besieges Samaria	f. 97v Ahab and the ancients of the land

f. 98 Ahab	f. 98v Ahab and Ben-hadad	f. 99 God comes to Ahab

f. 99v Israelites slaying the Syrians	f. 100 Syrians flee to Aphec	f. 100v Bar border

f. 101 Benadad's servants before Achab	f. 102 Benadad in Achab's chariot	f. 104 A man is slain by a lion

f. 105 The prophet is wounded	f. 105v The prophet in disguise meets the king	f. 107 Naboth accused of blasphemy

f. 110v Naboth, Jezebel and Ahab	f. 111 The birth of John the Baptist.	f. 111v Circumcision of John the Baptist

f. 112 Decree of Caesar Augustus.	f. 112v The Nativity, the Annunciation to the Sheperds	f. 113 Circumision of Christ.

f. 114 The Presentation in the Temple	f. 114v John the Baptistand Herod, the Baptism of Christ.	f. 115 John the Baptist is imprisoned

f. 115v First temptation of Christ.	f. 116 Second temptation of Christ	f. 116v Third temptation of Christ

f. 117 Christ in Nazareth	f. 117v Christ expelled from Nazareth.	f. 117v Detail

f. 118 Virgin and Christ, the Trinity	f. 118v Pentecost, the Crucifixion	f. 119 Michael, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul

f. 119v John the Evangelist, Noli me tangere.	f. 120 Saints Catherine and Margaret, the Coronation of the Virgin	f. 120v Christ's miracles, the Resurrection and Ascension

f. 121 Christ on the lake	f. 121v Christ on Simon Peter's boat	f. 122v Christ and the leper

f. 123 Christ and the apotles, the Virgin	f. 123v Christ and the widow of Naim	f. 124 A sinner dries Christ's feet with her hair

f. 124v Christ stills the storm	f. 125 Christ and the disciples	f. 125v The good Samaritan

f. 126 The Samaritan and the robbed man	f. 126v Christ's parables and miracles	f. 127 The prodigal son

f. 127v Dives and Lazarus	f. 128 Dives in a hellmouth, Abraham and Lazarus	f. 128v Christ heals lepers

f. 129 Christ and Zacheus	f. 129v Christ and the donkey	f. 130v The widow's mite

f. 131 The Apocalypse and Second coming foretold	f. 131v A woman kneeling	f. 132 A man kneeling

f. 133 The Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane	f. 133v The Betrayal	f. 134 Christ led away by soldiers.

f. 135 Peter in the high priest's house	f. 135v The Mocking of Christ.	f. 136v Christ before Pilate

f. 137 Flagellation of Christ	f. 137v The bearing of the Cross.	f. 137v Detail

f. 140v Simon of Cyrene, the two thieves	f. 141 The Crucifixion	f. 141v The Entombment.

f. 142 Easter, death and burial of Richard FitzAlan	f. 142v Peter at the tomb, Emmaus	f. 143 Christ at Emmaus

f. 143v Christ displays his wounds	f. 144 Christ is offered food	f. 144v Peter, Jesus and the fishermen

f. 145 The Resurrected Christ and Peter	f. 145v Noli me tangere, doubting Thomas	f. 146 The Ascension.

f. 146v Pentecost	f. 147v Peter and John	f. 148 The Apostles imprisoned.

f. 149v Christ and the twelve Apostles	f. 150 Stephen speaks before the council	f. 151 Philip and the eunuch of Queen Candace

f. 152 Saul is given letters.	f. 152v The conversion of Paul.	f. 153v Paul is led to Damascus;

f. 154 The Baptism of Paul.	f. 154v Paul joins the apostles	f. 155v Peter is cast into prison

f. 156 Peter in prison	f. 156v Peter and the angel	f. 156v Detail

f. 157 Peter follows the angel	f. 157v Peter escapes from prison	f. 158 Peter at Mary's house

f. 158v The arrest of an Apostle.	f. 159v Historiated initials	f. 160 Christ in Majesty.

f. 160v Peter holding a key.	f. 161 Paul, John and Andrew	f. 161v James the Great, Thomas

f. 162 Philip, James the Less	f. 162v Bartholemew, Matthew. Simon	f. 163 Jude

f. 163v Luke, Mark	f. 164 Mary Magdelene, Christ	f. 164v Joachim and Anna, Jerome

f. 165 A Vision of Christ	f. 165v Saint Ursula, the Virgin Mary	f. 166 Saint Nicholas

f. 169 Mark and Matthew	f. 169v Luke the Evangelist	f. 170 John the Evangelist

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