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Detailed record for Egerton 2652
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| Title |
Psalter (the 'Suneson Psalter'), for Danish use, with calendar, prayers and litany |
| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
2nd or 3rd quarter of the 13th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
| Artists |
Attributed to the Atelier of the Vienna Moralized Bibles |
| Decoration |
8 composite miniatures of the life of Christ preceding the text in pointed quadrilobes centered on squares (ff. 7v-8, 9v-10, 11v-12, 13v-14). Each month of the calendar with roundels in colours on gold grounds depicting the Labour of the month and zodiac symbol, and 'KL' monogram (ff. 1-4v); September to December are later unillustrated leaves). Large historiated initial 'B' in a full-page panel before Psalm 1 in colours and gold (f. 15). 9 other historiated initials in colours and gold at the other major Psalm divisions, including Psalms 51 and 101 (ff. 44v, 63v, 81v, 82v, 101v, 124v, 146, 149, 169). Numerous initials in colours on gold grounds, some with animal heads or bodies. Line-fillers in colours and gold, often in the shape of fish. Some text in gold. |
| Dimensions in mm |
165 x 105 (110 x 70) |
| Official foliation |
ff. i + 238 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 6 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Green leather, signed by W. Townsend & Son, Sheffield; with large silver clasp, perhaps 17th century; marbled end-papers. |
| Provenance |
? Jacobus, son of Suno, the brother and father of two bishops of Roieskilde, monk of Hamburg (d. 1246.): added obits in the calendar of royal and other personages of Scandinavian origin, including Philip, duke of Norway, Birger II 'Dux Sueorum', Ingerdis, Queen of Sweden, and Queen Rikiza of Sweden: see Franks 1881 p. 247.
The calendar and litany have many English saints, e.g., Oswald, Cuthbert, Dunstan, Botulf, Wilfrid, Ethedreda, Sexburga, and Withburga, as well as Cnut and Olav.
Inscription 'An 1613 nata fuit filia mea Ursula' in the calendar at 5 June (f. 3v).
William Bragge (b. 1823, d. 1884), civil engineer, steel manufacturer and collector: his sale, 7 June 1876, sold to Walker.
Thomas Shadford Walker (b. 1834, d. 1885) of Liverpool: inscription 'T. Shadford-Walker' (inside lower cover); his sale, 23 June 1886, puchased by the British Museum using the Farnborough Fund (£3,000 bequeathed in 1838 by Charles Long, Baron Farnborough (b. 1761, d. 1838), a cousin of Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829), founder of the collection. |
| Notes |
Numerous annotations of prayers and empty staves on previously blank folios. |
| Select bibliography |
Augustus W. Franks 'On Two Manuscript Psalters in the Collection of William Bragge, Esq.', Archaeologia, 46 (1881), 241-48 (pp. 241, 244-48).
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1882-1887 (London: British Museum, 1889), no. Eg. 2652.
A Guide to the Exhibition of Some Part of the Egerton Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1929), no. 6.
Günther Haseloff, Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Geschichte der Buchmalerei in England, Frankreich und den Niederlanden (Kiel: [n.pub.], 1938), pp. 48, 110-11, pl. 12.
Walter Cahn, 'St. Albans and the Channel Style in England', in The Year 1200: A Symposium (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975), 187-230 (p. 207 n. 57).
Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint Louis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 42 n. 33, 206.
Judith H. Oliver, Gothic Manuscript Illumination in the Diocese of Liège (c. 1250 - c. 1330), Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts from the Low Countries, 2-3, 2 vols (Leuven: Uitgverij Peeters, 1988), I, 69 n. 42.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 107, fig. 94. |
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f. 14
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f. 15
David |
f. 82v
David and fool |
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f. 169
The Trinity |
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