MS. Douce 118

Summary Catalogue no.: 21692

Psalter ('The Aspremont Psalter'), Companion Volume to a Book of Hours; France, Lorraine (?), late 13th or early 14th century

Psalter ('The Aspremont Psalter')

Fols. i–ii are parchment fly-leaves, blank apart from early modern and modern notes (see ‘Provenance’). A modern paper leaf is pasted to fol. i recto, containing notes by Eric Millar, 1926, on the provenance of the manuscript.

[item 1 occupies quire I]

1. (fols. 1r–6v)

Calendar, laid out one month per page, with feasts in black and rubrics in pink and red, approximately one-third full, not graded, vigils included for June– December. The calendar contains saints venerated in north-eastern France, particularly in the dioceses of Metz, Toul and Verdun, including Serena, relics at Metz (29 January), Arnold, bishop of Metz (17 April), Gangulf, relics at Langres (11 May), Arnulf, bishop of Metz (16 August), Aper, bishop of Toul (15 September) and Agericus, bishop of Verdun (1 December). The presence of Lambert (17 September) and Hubert (3 November) suggests a link with Liège (cf. Manion and Vines, 1984, p. 174). Months are headed with notes on the length of the solar and lunar month.

[items 2–5 occupy quires II–XXIV]

2. (fols. 7r–163r)

Psalms 1–150, written with each verse starting on a new line, without numbers, with titles ‘psalmus dauid’. Punctuated throughout with punctus used to mark the ends of verses, punctus or punctus elevatus used to mark metrum and minor pauses. The psalms are in the biblical order, subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. There are liturgical divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (see ‘Decoration’). Psalm 109 starts on a new quire; a bifolium is inserted immediately before, to finish psalm 108. The text contains many corrections in contemporary hands, probably executed in the original scriptorium, such as the readings entered over erasures in a light brown ink, or a verse omitted by the original scribe, and inserted in the margins on fols. 50r, 55r, 60v, 170r, etc.

3. (fols. 163r–172r)

Weekly canticles, the first three with the title ‘canticum’:

(1) Confitebor tibi domine (Isaiah 12);
(2) Ego dixi (Isaiah 38: 10–21);
(3) Exultauit cor meum (1 Samuel 2: 1–11);
(4) Cantemus domino (Exodus 15: 1–20);
(5) Domine audiui (Habakkuk 3) (‘Canticum abacuc prophete’);
(6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44) (‘Canticum deuteronomij’).

4. (fols. 172r–178r)

Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, with titles:

(1) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 172r) (‘Canticum puerorum’);
(2) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 173r) (‘canticum’);
(3) Magnificat (fol. 174r) (‘Canticum’);
(4) Nunc dimittis (fol. 174r) (‘Canticum symeonis’);
(5) Te deum laudamus (fol. 174v) (‘Laus angelorum’);
(6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult... .) (fol. 176r) (‘Fides catholica’).

5. (fols. 178v–180r)

Litany, containing saints venerated in France, including Martin (first), Germanus of Auxerre, Medard, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, Amand, bishop of Maastricht, and Remigius, bishop of Reims among the confessors, and Gertrude (of Nivelles (?)) among the virgins. Two leaves missing after fol. 179. Followed by collects with a rubric ‘collecta’ (fol. 180r):

(1) Omnipotens sempiterne deus dirige actus nostros in beneplacito tuo... .
(2) Fidelium deus omnium conditor et redemptor animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum remissionem... .

Fols. 180v–181r are blank.

[item 6 occupies quire XXV]

6. (fols. 181v–182r)

Three added prayers in honour of Giles in a 15th- or 16th-century hand, with a long title in French, beginning ‘Saint gile commanda Charles le Roy de fraunce ... ’. Invocation (?) in the same hand in the lower margin on fol. 182r: ‘h. h. Ga. te. de. p’ (?). Fol. 182v is blank.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: Tunc loquetur (psalter, fol. 8r)

Form: codex

Support: parchment; added paper leaves at the front and back

Extent: 276 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): c. 227 × 152 mm.

Leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of text and decoration.

Foliation: Modern, in pencil; i–ii + 1–184.

Collation

(fols. i–ii) parchment bifolium with a modern paper leaf pasted to the recto of fol. i | (fols. 1–6) I (6) | (fols. 7–30) II–IV (8) | (fols. 31–36) V (6) no loss of text | (fols. 37–124) VI–XVI (8) | (fols. 125–126) XVII (2) | (fols. 127–174) XVIII–XXIII (8) | (fols. 175–180) XXIV (8−2) missing 6 and 7 (two stubs after fol. 179) | (fols. 181–182) XXV (4−1) missing 3 (first leaf conjoint with the pastedown) | (fols. 183–184) laid 18th-century paper bifolium with notes by Douce. Catchwords, some decorated with penwork grotesques, many partly cropped off, survive; leaf signatures occasionally survive (e.g. fols. 15–18, 117–120)

Layout

Ruled in plummet with double vertical and single horizontal bounding lines, extending the full height of page; a second set of double vertical and horizontal bounding lines in the margins; 18 lines per page; written below the top line; written space: c. 135 × 91 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal Gothic book hands, often with calligraphic descenders on the bottom line of the page, black and brown ink.

Decoration

The style of illumination is related to manuscripts produced in Lorraine in the late 13th and early 14th century, such as the book of hours (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum MS. W. 93); the two-volume breviary of Renaud de Bar, provost of St Madeleine in Verdun in 1301 (London, British Library, Yates-Thompson MS. 8 and Verdun, Bibliothèque municipale MS. 107), and his pontifical, dating to the time when he was bishop of Metz (1301–1316) (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS. 298) (see Oliver, 1988, vol. 1, p. 181; Randall et al., 1989). Signed by an illuminator on fol. 142r: a bird holding in its beak a small bearded figure, a cripple (?), holding a scroll with lettering ‘nicolaus me fecit qui illuminat librum’.

Calendar: Blue and pink KL monograms on gold backgrounds with white tracery, and borders of gold, blue and pink bars, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage and gold discs.

Labours of the Months and the Signs of the Zodiac, set in cusped medallions with gold borders or backgrounds on the right side of each page: January: Janus feasting; Aquarius February: man warming by the fire; Pisces March: man pruning trees; Aries April: man carrying flowering branches; Taurus May: man on horseback with a hawk and a flower; Gemini (naked twins behind a shield) June: man mowing hay with a scythe; Cancer July: man reaping grain; Leo August: man threshing grain; Virgo (a woman with a flower and a staff with fleur-de-lis) September: man treading and eating grapes, and another carrying grapes in a basket; Libra (a woman with scales) October: man sowing; Scorpio November: man knocking down acorns for pigs; Sagittarius December: man slaughtering a pig; Capricorn.

Historiated initials and borders at liturgical divisions, accompanied, apart from psalm 26 (fol. 31v), by decorative panels with the opening words of each psalm in gold. On all panels, apart from psalm 1, the text alternates with the arms of the patrons. Most initials are over half a page tall, decorated with foliage, on blue, pink and gold backgrounds. The pages with the initials have full borders of pink, blue and gold bars, decorated with coiled tendrils, foliage, human and animal figures and inset panels with religious and secular scenes. There are also smaller, 3-line historiated initials at the beginnings of the canticles and litany.

fol. 7r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) King David playing harp in the upper part, David and Goliath in the lower part.
(full border) Panels containing the Virgin and Child, Crucifixion, St Margaret emerging from a dragon, mounted Joffroy and kneeling Isabelle wearing their respective arms (see ‘Provenance’); dog chasing a hare; grotesque.
fol. 31v Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) King David pointing to his eyes, kneeling before an image of the Virgin on an altar.
(full border) Ape with a shield and stick confronting a stork; hare blowing a trumpet; man with a sword and shield; bird; ape; hare.
fol. 47v Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)) The Anointing of David; God above.
(full border) Hounds chasing a stag; bird; squirrel.
fol. 60v Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)) The Fool with a stick and bread, nude apart from a cloak; the head of Christ with cruciform halo in clouds above.
(full border) Jousting grotesques; apes blowing trumpets; squirrel.
fol. 74r Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) King David praying in waters in the lower part; half-figure of Christ with cruciform halo, holding a book and blessing in the upper part.
(full border) Hounds chasing a stag; hare.
fol. 92r Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)) King David playing five bells.
(full border) Two men jousting; bird; lion; hare.
fol. 108r Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)) Five clerics singing from a book open on a lectern.
(full border) Hunter blowing horn and a dog chasing a stag; owl.
fol. 127r Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) Trinity: two seated figures with cruciform halos, blessing, one holding a book, another an orb; nimbed white dove descending from clouds above.
(full border) Panels with kneeling Joffroy wearing his arms, a kneeling woman (Isabelle (?)) and St Margaret emerging from a dragon; two jousting knights bearing the arms of Kievraing and Châtillon in the bas-de-page; man blowing a trumpet; grotesque; lion.
fol. 163r Canticles (initial C(onfitebor)) 3-line initial infilled with a prophet holding a scroll with the words ‘Dauid propheta’ on gold background.
fol. 178v Litany (initial K(yrie)) Clerics singing from a book open on a lectern.
2-line historiated initials at the beginnings of psalms and canticles, decorated with heraldic insignia, figures of prophets with scrolls and books, saints, men and women in prayer, grotesques, animal figures and masks, coiled tendrils and foliage on gold background.
1-line initials at the beginnings of verses and periods, decorated with human heads, animal figures and masks, and floral designs on gold background.

Borders: see above. Every page has a full or three-quarter border of blue, pink and gold bars, decorated with coiled tendrils, leaves and gold discs, grotesques, animal and human figures.

Decorated initials.

Many pages contain scenes, usually in bas-de-page, featuring the patrons in prayer, saints, knights, hunts and theatrical performances. Several scenes illustrate subjects from the Bestiary, such as a unicorn with its head in the lap of a virgin, killed by a hunter (fol. 32v), a fox pretending to be dead to attract the birds of prey (fols. 56v, 102v, 121r), a pelican feeding its young with its blood (fols. 66r, 142v) and a beaver castrating itself to escape from hunters (fol. 107v). Other subjects include: St Margaret emerging from a dragon (fol. 23r); St Catherine (fols. 27v, 103v, 121r); the Fool with a club and bread (fol. 42v); a female saint with a book, a palm and the Lamb of God (fol. 63r); St Stephen (fol. 66v); a figure with a scroll inscribed ‘zacharias propheta’ (fol. 173r); a man beating a dog to tame a chained lion (fols. 124r, 173v–174r); St Athanasias writing (fol. 176r); nimbed prophets (?) and a king, each with a scroll inscribed ‘vere languores nostras ipse tulit’ (Isaiah 53: 4) (fols. 39r, 130v , 177v), ‘tv es devs christvs’ (fol. 90v), etc.

Line-endings, decorated with floral designs, animal figures and heads, grotesques and arms of the patrons.

Rubrics in red ink

Binding

Blind stamped brown leather over boards, French, 14th or 15th century. On the upper cover a central column of small stamps, c. 10 × 8 mm (‘a pelican in her piety’); surrounded by a border of stamps, c. 13 × 13 mm (an animal with long horns); surrounded by two further borders of stamps, the first c. 20 × 20 mm (three flowers and four leaves), the second c. 9 × 16 mm (vine). The first three stamps are also used on the lower cover together with another stamp, c. 12 × 38 mm (coiled tendrils, flowers and leaves). Sewn on six stations. Rebacked, probably in the Bodleian. Gilt lettering on spine ‘MS. || Douce. || 118’. Fragments of the fittings of two straps on the upper cover and impressions left by the fittings of two pins on the lower cover. Gilt edges of textblock. Parchment pastedowns.

History

Origin: c. 1290–1310 ; French, Lorraine (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

A companion of the book of hours, Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria MS. Felton 173/1, produced by the same team of scribes and illuminators and possibly originally bound together (described in Manion, 2005). Probably made for Isabelle of Kievraing, wife of Joffroy d’Aspremont (d. 1302): their arms, correspondingly, gules a cross argent, and or a chief bendy of six argent and gules, appear throughout (Manion, 2005, pp. 114–19). The companion volume in Melbourne uses feminine grammatical forms. The arms of other noble families to which Isabelle and Joffroy were related are occasionally depicted. Thus jousting knights in bas-de-page of fol. 127r bear the arms of Kievraing and Châtillon (Châtillon-Porcien, a branch of the Châtillon-Marne family in the Champagne; see Morgan, 2003, pp. 8 and n. 29, 19, and Manion, 2005, pp. 114–15). Some arms have not been identified (see Morgan, 2003, pp. 7–8; Manion, 2005, p. 115). The borders and 2-line initials also contain images of a woman wearing Aspremont arms, and of nuns in a grey-brown, Franciscan (?), habit and in a black, Benedictine, habit. These images may represent the members of the patrons’ family.

A list in a 14th-century hand on the upper pastedown, containing the opening words of psalms and canticles followed by (incorrect) running numbers. The psalms at liturgical divisions in the psalter, but also some other psalms, are marked with paragraph marks. An ownership (?) inscription is cut from the lower pastedown.

Abbaye du Perray (Cistercian nunnery, Abbaye du Perray-aux-Nonnains, diocese of Angers (?)): erased 16th-century (?) ownership inscriptions of ‘Madame l’abesse du Perray’ (fols. 69r and 182r). An erased inscription, possibly in the same hand, on fol. i recto. 16th-century addition of prayers in honour of St Giles (fols. 181v–182r).

The companion volume of the hours belonged in the 16th century to Walter Cramer, physician of King Henry VIII (Manion and Vines, 1984, p. 176).

Thomas Payne (?) (1752–1831), London bookseller and publisher, see ODNB: ‘Payne’ (?), written by Douce in pencil on the upper pastedown. Price ‘10. 10. 0’ in pencil (fol. i recto).

Francis Douce, 1757–1834, see ODNB: bookplate on the upper pastedown; notes on fol. 183r.

Bodleian Library: received in 1834 with bequest of Douce.

Record Sources

Summary description based on Elizabeth Solopova, Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library: A Select Catalogue (Oxford, 2013), pp. 297–305. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue.

Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 527

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (225 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Select bibliography to 2009:

Frere, no. 445.

Millar, E. G., ‘Livre d’heures executé pour Joffroy d’Aspremont et pour sa femme Isabelle de Kievraing’, Bulletin de la Société française de reproductions de manuscrits à peintures 9 (1925), pp. 20–32.

S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 77

Randall, L. M. C., Images in the margins of Gothic manuscripts (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), figs. 133, 222, 401, 551, 626, 705 and refs. in ‘Index of Subjects’.

Pächt and Alexander (1966–73), vol. 1, no. 554, pl. XLII.

Heraldry: catalogue of an exhibition held in connection with the English Heraldry Society 1967 (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1967), no. 3.

Einhorn, J. W., Spiritalis unicornis: das Einhorn als Bedeutungsträger in Literatur und Kunst des Mittelalters (Munich: W. Fink, 1976), pp. 345, 434.

de Winter, P. M., ‘Une réalisation exceptionnelle d’enlumineurs français et anglais: le bréviaire de Renaud de Bar, évêque de Metz’ in La Lorraine: études archéologiques, Actes du 103e congrès national des Sociétés savantes (Nancy-Metz, 1978), Section d’archaeologie et d’histoire de l’art (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1980), pp. 27–62, at p. 33 n. 9.

Collin-Roset, S., Ecriture et enluminure en Lorraine au Moyen Age: catalogue de l’exposition ‘La plume et le parchemin’ organisé par la Société Thierry Alix du 29 mai au 29 juillet 1984 en la chapelle des Cordeliers, Musée historique lorrain, Nancy (Nancy: Société Thierry Alix, 1984), no. 79.

The Douce legacy: an exhibition to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the bequest of Francis Douce (1757– 1834) (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1984), no. 71

Manion, M. M. and Vines, V. F., Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts in Australian collections (Melbourne; New York: Thames and Hudson, 1984), pp. 173–6, figs. 163–74.

Neale, R., ‘The Fool and his loaf’, Medium Aevum 54 (1985), pp. 104–9, at pp. 106, 109.

Oliver (1988), vol. 1, pp. 78 n. 72, 87, 181–2; vol. 2, pl. 182.

Southworth, J., The English medieval minstrel (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1989), p. 140.

Sautmann, F., ‘Fileuse, fée, sorcière: images du sacré et de l’interdit’ in L’Image au Moyen Age: actes du colloque, Amiens, 19–23 mars 1986, WODAN Recherches en littératures médiévales 15 (Amiens: Centre d’études médiévales, Université de Picardie, 1992), pp. 281–90, at p. 281 n. 4 (fol. 7v).

Manion, M. M., Knowles, L. and Payne, J., ‘The Aspremont Psalter-Hours: the making of a manuscript’, Art Bulletin of Victoria 34 (1994), pp. 25–34.

Canadé Sautman, F., La religion du quotidien: rites et croyances populaires de la fin du Moyen Âge (Florence: Olschki, 1995), p. 203.

Gathercole, P. M., Animals in medieval French manuscript illumination (Lewiston, NY; Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995), p. 20.

Carroll, C. W., ‘Text and image: the case of Erec et Enide’ in Keith Busby (ed.), Word and image in Arthurian literature (New York; London: Garland, 1996), pp. 58–78, at p. 70 n. 17.

Randall, L. M. C. et al., Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1989– 97), vol. 1, France, 975–1420, no. 57, p. 151, cols. 1–2.

Kolve, V. A., ‘God-denying fools and the medieval “religion of love”’, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 19 (1997), pp. 3–59, fig. 12.

Oosterwijk, S., ‘Kint ende kinne, man ende wijf. De plaats van het kind in de middeleeuwse kunst’, De wereld van het middeleeuwse kind, Madoc: Tijdschrift over de Middeleeuwen 11, no. 4 (1997), pp. 214–25, at p. 223.

Salmen, W., Spielfrauen im Mittelalter (Hildesheim: G. Olms, 2000), Abb. 43 (fol. 43).

Sprunger, D. A., ‘Depicting the insane: a thirteenth-century case study’ in T. S. Jones and D. A. Sprunger (eds.), Marvels, monsters, and miracles: studies in the medieval and early modern imaginations, Studies in Medieval Culture 42 (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2002), pp. 223–41, at pp. 231–3 and fig. 4 (fol. 60v, detail).

Morgan, N., ‘Gendered devotions and social rituals: the Aspremont Psalter-“Hours” and the image of the patron in late thirteenth and early fourteenth-century France’, Melbourne Art Journal 6 (2003), pp. 5–24.

Smith, K. A., Art, identity and devotion in fourteenth-century England: three women and their books of hours (London: British Library and University of Toronto Press, 2003), p. 144 n. 70.

Wirth, J., ‘Les marges à drôleries des manuscrits gothiques: problèmes de méthode’ in A. Bolvig and P. Lindley (eds.), History and images: towards a new iconology (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), pp. 277–300, at pp. 296 fig. 8 (fol. 101v, detail), 297.

Wirth, J. (with I. Jeger), ‘La femme qui bénit’ in J.-C. Schmitt (ed.), Femmes, art et religion au Moyen Âge (Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2004), pp. 157–79, at pp. 167–8; 169 ill. 10.12; 219.

Manion, M. M., The Felton illuminated manuscripts in the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne: Macmillan Art Publishing and the National Gallery of Victoria, 2005), pp. 98–203 and passim.

Morgan, N. and Binski, P., ‘Private devotion: humility and splendor’ in P. Binski and S. Panayotova (eds.), The Cambridge illuminations: ten centuries of book production in the medieval west [exhibition catalogue] (London: H. Miller, 2005), pp. 163–233, cited at no. 52.

Nishimura, M. M. and Nishimura, D., ‘Rabbits, warrens, and Warenne: the patronage of the Gorleston Psalter’ in K. A. Smith and C. H. Krinsky (eds.), Tributes to Lucy Freeman Sandler: studies in manuscript illumination (London: H. Miller, 2007), pp. 205–18, at pp. 212 n. 60, 213 n. 64.

Morgan (2009), pp. 64, 65, 67.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05: Encode full description from Solopova catalogue.

A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges