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Detailed record for Yates Thompson 18
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| Part 1 |
ff. 2-201 |
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| Title |
Psalter, including a calendar, canticles |
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| Origin |
France, Central (Paris?) |
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| Date |
last quarter of the 13th century |
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| Language |
Latin and French (in the calendar) |
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| Script |
Gothic |
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| Artists |
The Ste.-Chapelle group; and the Guines atelier (for the line-fillers and marginalia), according to Branner |
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| Decoration |
8 large historiated initials with partial borders, in colours and gold at the major divisions of the Psalms (ff. 9, 35v, 52, 68v, 84, 104, 121v, 140). 1 smaller historiated initial in colours and gold at the beginning of Psalm 51 (f. 67v). 24 calendar roundels, in colours and gold (ff. 1-7v). Decorated initials with zoomorphic figures, in colours and gold. Small initials in gold on red and blue grounds. Line-fillers with zoomorphic figures, in colours and gold. Every page with hybrids or animals in the lower margin. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
215 x 145 (130 x 75) |
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| Part 2 |
ff. 202-244 |
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| Title |
Prayers |
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| Origin |
Netherlands, S. |
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| Date |
c. 1480-1500 |
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| Language |
Latin, with a calendar in French |
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| Script |
Gothic |
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| Artists |
Miniatures in the style of the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500. |
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| Decoration |
1 large miniature, accompanied by a full foliate border, in colours and gold (f. 213). 12 large historiated initials or small miniatures, in colours and gold (ff. 220v, 221, 221v (x2), 222, 222v, 223 (x2), 224, 225, 231, 233v, 234, 234v, 238v, 241v). Smaller and small initials and line-fillers in gold on red and blue grounds. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
213 x 147 (135 x 82) |
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| Official foliation |
ff. 244 (+ 1 unfoliated medieval flyleaf at the beginning, and 2 at the end) |
| Collation |
Part I: i-xxiii8 (ff. 1-184), xxiv-xxv6 (ff. 185-196), xxvi8-2 (7th and 8th leaves excised after f. 202, probably blank; ff. 197-202), xxvii10 (ff. 203-212);
Part II: xxviii-xxix8 (ff. 213-228), xxx8-1 (7th leaf excised after f. 234, probably blank; ff. 229-235), xxxi8+1 (9th leaf inserted, f. 244; ff. 236-244). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Pre-1600. Tooled and stamped calf over boards, with the motto and name of Henry VIII (between 1509 and 1547); gilt and gauffered edges. |
| Provenance |
The calendar is Parisian, but the manuscript was probably made for use in Brittany: the litany includes the Breton saints Melanius II, Corentinus and Maclovius (f. 198).
Inscription in English, late 15th or early 16th century, beside the prayer to Bridget (f. 234), and Bridget's name in litany (f. 205v).
? Henry VII (b. 1457, d. 1509): he resided in Brittany between 1471 and 1484, and might have acquired the manuscript then.
Henry VIII (b. 1491, d.1547): the binding by King Henry's Bindery, c. 1530-1535, with his motto: see Nixon 1964..
Thomas Thomas: his sale, 29 November 1843, lot 374, bought by Pickering for £31.10: note (inside upper cover).
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham; his Appendix Ms. 30; bought from Joseph Lilly, 18 March 1844, for £40, according to the handwritten annotations in the BL Manuscript Department's copy of Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Ashburnham Place: Appendix (London: Hodgson, 1853).
Bertram Ashburnham, 5th earl of Ashburnham: his sale, May 1897, bought by Yates Thompson together with the entire Ashburnham Appendix: book-plate with an inscribed number 'From the Library of the Earl of Ashburnham Appendix no. XXX May 1897' (inside upper cover).
Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed '[MS] 73 / £rbe.e.e [i.e. £210.0.0] / [bought from the] Earl of / Ashburnham / May 1897' (inside upper cover).
Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson. |
| Notes |
Branner includes the Psalter (Part 1) in a group of Psalters that he calls the 'Henry VIII group'. These include: Montpellier, Faculté de Médecine, H. 196; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 8892; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 9; and Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Bibl. fol. 14. |
| Select bibliography |
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Second Series of Fifty Manuscripts (Nos. 51 to 100) in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1902), no. 73 pp. 141-45.
Illustrations from One Hundred Manuscripts in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson, 7 vols (London: Chiswick Press, 1907-18), VII: The Seventh and last Volume with Plates from the Remaining Twenty-Two MSS., p. 5, pls. XIII-XV.
Nixon, Howard M., ‘Early English Gold-Tooled Bookbindings’, in Studi di Bibliografia e di Storia in Onore de Tammaro de Marinis, 4 vols (Verona: Biblioteca Apostolica Stamperia Valdonega, 1964), III, pp. 283-308 (p. 289, pl. 1).
[Derek Howard Turner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series V: Fifty Plates (London: British Museum, 1965), no. XV p. 12, pl. XV.
Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), pp. 11, 70, 129, 130, 132, 211, 237, fig. 381.
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, 168 [rejected].
John Higgitt, The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and the Gaelic West (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 61-62.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 123, fig. 110.
Sacred: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their Sacred Texts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 148. [exhibition catalogue]. |
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Part 1
ff. 2-201 |
| Psalter, including a calendar, canticles |
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f. 4
Hawker and Gemini |
f. 4
Hawker |
f. 4
Gemini |
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f. 9
David |
f. 9
David |
f. 9
Dragon |
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f. 9
David |
f. 52
Christ and David |
f. 52
Christ and David |
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f. 52
Hybrid |
f. 68v
Fool |
f. 104
David |
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f. 104
David |
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Part 2
ff. 202-244 |
| Prayers |
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f. 213
Christ blessing |
f. 213
Christ blessing |
f. 234
Bridget of Sweden |
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f. 234
Bridget of Sweden |
f. 234
Rubric |
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