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Detailed record for Lansdowne 381

Title Psalter, fragment ('Psalter of Henry the Lion')
Origin Germany, N. W. (Helmarshausen)
Date between c. 1168 and 1189
Language Latin
Script Protogothic
Decoration 12 calendar pages in colours and gold, with the text in gold on purple parchment and scenes of the months and Zodiac signs (ff. 1v-7). 4 full-page miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 7v, 8, 10v, 11). 2 large initials in colours on gold grounds (ff. 8v, 11v). Text in gold on purple parchment (ff. 8v, 9, 11v). 2 large initials in gold and silver on green grounds (ff. 9v, 10). Small initials in red on gold grounds within green frames and in gold within blue frames (ff. 9v-10).
Dimensions in mm 210 x 130 (150 x 90)
Official foliation ff. 11 ( + 5 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end)
Form Parchment codex
Binding Post-1600. Red leather with the arms of Lansdowne; marbled endpapers.
Provenance Commissioned by Henry the Lion (b. 1129, d. 1195) and Matilda (married to Henry 1168, d. 1189): pictured (f. 10v).
Attributed to the monk Heriman of Helmarshausen (see Turner, 1967).
Glosses made to the calendar in the 16th century.
William Petty (formerly Fitzmaurice) (b. 1737, d. 1805), 2nd earl of Shelburne and 1st marquess of Lansdowne, prime minister: inscribed 'L[ord] L[an]sd [owne] No. 62' in an English hand (f. 10), with a note in the same hand in English (f. 1); purchased by the British Museum together with 1244 other Lansdowne manuscripts in 1807.
Notes This manuscript is 381/1. Lansdowne 381/2 (kept separately) contains the Sarum Breviary, imperfect, and is foliated continuing with 12-76. It contains a table of contents for the whole volume (f. 1), and also shows evidence of a former curtain (f. 17v).
There are sewing holes for curtains above each of the miniatures.
The correct order is ff. 10, 11, 1-9.
Select bibliography [Henry Ellis and Francis Douce], A Catalogue of the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1819), no. 381.

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. 5.

Arthur Haseloff, Eine Thüringisch-Sächsische Malerschule des 13. Jahrhunderts, Studien zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, 9 (Strasbourg: Heitz, 1897), pp. 336-37.

[George Warner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series I, (London: British Museum, 1907), pl. 40.

Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingischen Miniaturen', in Zweiten Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 51-77 (p. 62).

[J. A. Herbert], British Museum: Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 1, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1923), pl. 40.

Franz Jansen, Die Helmarshausener Buchmalerei zur Zeit Heinrichs des Löwen (Hildesheim: August Lax, 1933, repr. Karlshafen: Antiquariats Bernhard Schäfer, 1985), pp. 9, 38, 61, 79 f., 88, 95 f., 101, 104, 106 f., 124, 127, 136, 146, 149, pl. 23.

Hugo Buchthal and Francis Wormald, Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 35 n. 2.

André Grabar and Carl Nordenfalk Romanesque Painting from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Century, trans. by Stuart Gilbert (Lausanne: SKIRA , 1958), p. 172.

Theophilus, The Various Arts (De Diversis Artibus), trans. with introduction by C. R. Dodwell (London: Nelson and Sons, 1961), pp. xxix.-xxx.

D. H. Turner, 'The Siegburg Lectionary' Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 16 (1962), 16-27 (p. 26).

D. H. Turner, Romanesque Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Library (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 21-22.

Kunst und Kultur im Weserraum, 800-1600 (Munster: Aschendorff, 1967), no. 191, pls 185, 186. [exhibition catalogue] [with additional bibliography]

[D. H. Turner], Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 38, pl. 11.

C. R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe: 800 to 1200 (London : Penguin Books, 1971), p. 165, pl. 181.

Christopher de Hamel, The Gospels of Henry the Lion, Sotheby's, 6 December 1973 (Uxbridge: Hillingdon Press, 1973), pp. 15, 17.

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, no. 849.

Das Evangeliar Heinrichs der Löwen und das mittelalterliche Herrscherbild, ed. by Horst Fuhrmann and Florentine Mütherich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ausstellungkatalogue, 35 (Munich: Prestel, 1986), pp. 31-32, fig. 7 [exhibition catalogue].

Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235, ed. by Jochen Luckhardt and Franz Niehoff, 3 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 1995), I, no. D 93, II, pl. 111 [exhibition catalogue] [with additional bibliography].

Walter Achilles, Monatsbildzyklen in Hildesheimer Prachthandschriften des 13. Jahrhunderts, Quellen und Dokumentationem zur Stadtgeschichte Hildesheims, 14 (Hildesheim: Gebrüder Berstenberg, 2003), pp. 40-42, pls 9, 11.

F. O. Büttner, ‘Der illuminierte Psalter im Westen’, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. By F. O. Büttner, (Belgium: Brepols, 2004), pp. 1-106 (p. 8 n. 24).

Treasures of the British Library, ed. By Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 93.

Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 89, fig. 76.

Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), p. 53, pl. 25.


Images
* * *
 
January

f. 1v
January
March

f. 2v
March
April

f. 3
April
 
May

f. 3v
May
June

f. 4
June
July

f. 4v
July
 
August

f. 5
August
August

f. 5
August
September

f. 5v
September
 
October

f. 6
October
November

f. 6v
November
December

f. 7
December
 
December

f. 7
December
Capricorn

f. 7
Capricorn
Annunciation

f. 7v
Annunciation
 
Detail

f. 7v
Detail
Detail

f. 7v
Detail
Detail

f. 7v
Detail
 
Presentation

f. 8
Presentation
Presentation

f. 8
Presentation
Decorated initial

f. 8v
Decorated initial
 
Text page

f. 9
Text page
Illuminated initial

f. 10
Illuminated initial
Crucifixion

f. 10v
Crucifixion
 
Crucifixion

f. 10v
Crucifixion
Three Holy Women

f. 11
Three Holy Women
Decorated initial

f. 11v
Decorated initial
 

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