MS. Douce 23
Summary Catalogue no.: 21597
Portable Psalter; France, Diocese of Amiens, 13th century, third quarter
Contents
Fols. i–iii are paper fly-leaves, blank apart from modern notes.
[item 1 occupies quire I]
Calendar for the use of Amiens, laid out one month per leaf, written in red and black, approximately half full, not graded. The calendar includes Wulfram (20 March), Valeric of Leuconay (1 April), Firminus, first bishop of Amiens (25 September), Martin (18 November) and his translation (4 July), and Eligius (1 December), all in red. The calendar also contains Richarius (26 April), Firminus, third bishop of Amiens (1 September), Clarus (4 November), Fuscianus (11 December) and the translation of Valeric (12 December). Added 16th-century note, partly cropped off: ‘[c]ombustio || [n]or’ (?) 1507’ (25 April, see ‘Provenance’). Thomas Becket is erased, and the titles ‘pape’ are crossed out. Line numbers are added in an early modern hand on fols. 5r–6r.
[items 2–10 occupy quires II–XXX]
Full-page pen drawings (see ‘Decoration’).
Psalms 1–150, written with each verse starting on a new line, without titles, with numbers added in the margins in a post-medieval hand. Punctuated throughout with punctus elevatus used to mark minor pauses, punctus or punctus elevatus used to mark metrum, and punctus used to mark the ends of verses. The psalms are in the biblical order; the subdivisions within psalms are not indicated, apart from psalm 118, subdivided into twenty-two 8-verse units. There are textual divisions at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109. Psalm 38 is preceded by the canticle Confitebor (fol. 85r–v). Fol. 27 is a singleton and is in a different hand with initials and line-endings executed by a different rubricator. It contains psalm 9: B5–11, omitted by the original scribe.
Weekly canticles, without titles:
- (1) Confitebor tibi domine (‘Canticum’) (Isaiah 12), the opening lines only, with a rubric in red in French, pointing out that the text appears elsewhere (‘Queres ceste psaume u psauter ele est deuant dominus illuminatio mea’);
- (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);
- (6) Audite celi (Deuteronomy 32: 1–44).
Daily canticles, prayers and creeds, without titles:
- (1) Te deum laudamus (fol. 305r);
- (2) Benedicite omnia opera (fol. 307r);
- (2) Benedictus dominus deus (fol. 309r);
- (3) Magnificat (fol. 310r);
- (4) Nunc dimittis (fol. 311r);
- (6) Athanasian Creed (Quicumque uult ...) (fol. 311v).
Litany, containing Demetrius among the martyrs, Martin (first), Germanus, Remigius, Eligius and Egidius among the confessors, and Genofeva among the virgins. The text is crossed out in ink on fols. 315v–316r. The litany is followed by collects (fols. 323v–327r), some (fols. 325r–326r) with rubrics ‘alia oratio’:
- (1) Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere suscipe ...
- (2) Ecclesie tue domine preces placatus admitte ut destructis aduersitatibus et erroribus uniuersis ...
- (3) Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui facis mirabilia magna solus ... famulo tuo ...
- (4) Pretende domine famulis et famulabus tuis dexteram celestis auxilii ut de toto corde ...
- (5) Deus a quo sancta desideria reconsilia et iusta sunt ... [sic]
- (6) Ure igne sancti spiritus renes nostros ...
- (7) Actiones nostras quesumus domine aspirando preueni ...
- (8) Adesto domine supplicationibus nostris et uiam famulorum tuorum in salutis tue ...
- (9) Omnipotens sempiterne deus salus eterna credentium exaudi nos pro famulo ...
- (10) Animabus quesumus domine famulorum famularumque tuarum oratio proficiat supplicancium ut eas ...
- (11) Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor mirabilis atque lapsorum subleuator ...
- (12) Fidelium deus omnium conditor et redemptor animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum remissionem ...
Office of the Dead, with rubrics. The responsories at lessons correspond to nos. 72, 14, 56, 24, 32, 57, 68, 40, 38 in Ottosen (1993), found only in sources attributed to Amiens, including the present MS. The office is followed by two collects: ‘Inclina domine aurem tuam ad preces nostras ...’ and ‘Miserere quesumus domine animabus omnium benefactorum nostrorum ...’.
[items 8–10 are 14th-century additions, in three different hands]
Gospel pericope, John (1: 1–14).
Hymn ‘Salue sancta caro dei per quam salui sunt ...’ (Chevalier, no. 18175).
Short litany of the angels, followed by versicles, responses and a collect ‘Perpetuum nobis domine tue miseracionis presta subsidium ...’.
Fol. 342v is ruled but blank. Fol. 343r–v is ruled and contains 16th-century inscriptions on the recto (see ‘Provenance’). Fols. 344r–346v are paper fly-leaves, blank apart from modern notes.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in ink, with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines, extending the full height and width of page; 13 lines per page; written below the top line; written space: c. 70 × 50 mm.
Hand(s)
Formal Gothic book hand, black ink.
Decoration
Gold KL monograms on pink and blue backgrounds in the calendar.
Full-page prefatory miniatures in brown ink, with touches of red:
- (fol. 13r) The Virgin and Child enthroned set within a niche (the Virgin is crowned and offering her breast to the Child, who makes a gesture of benediction).
- (fol. 13v) Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary and St John, the sun and moon. The titulus above Christ’s head is written in full, in red.
Historiated initials and borders at liturgical divisions. The initials are 6 to 7 lines high, on gold backgrounds, and are accompanied at psalms 1 and 26 by decorative panels with the opening words of each psalm written in gold. King David is shown crowned and nimbed, sometimes holding a sceptre (?).
- fol. 14r Psalm 1 (initial B(eatus)) King David playing harp in the upper part, David and Goliath in the lower part; medallions with heraldic eagles.
- fol. 56v Psalm 26 (initial D(ominus)) King David pointing to his eyes, standing next to Christ, who is holding a book and blessing.
- fol. 86r Psalm 38 (initial D(ixi)) King David kneeling before an altar with an image of the Virgin and Child.
- fol. 111v Psalm 52 (initial D(ixit)) King David speaking to the Fool in a short tunic, who is holding a club and bread.
- fol. 137r Psalm 68 (initial S(aluum)) King David praying in waters in the lower part; half-figure of Christ with cruciform halo, holding an orb and blessing, in the upper part.
- fol. 169r Psalm 80 (initial E(xultate)) King David playing five bells.
- fol. 197v Psalm 97 (initial C(antate)) Clerics singing from a book open on a lectern.
- fol. 229v Psalm 109 (initial D(ixit)) Trinity (two seated figures with cruciform halos, one holding a book and blessing, the other raising hands; nimbed white dove descending from clouds above).
The borders are made of coiled tendrils on pink, blue and gold backgrounds, decorated with foliage, animal figures and grotesques.
4-line initial to psalm 119 (fol. 257r).
2-line gold initials on blue and pink backgrounds, decorated with geometric and floral designs at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany, collects and sections of the Office of the Dead.
1-line gold initials on blue and pink backgrounds at the beginnings of verses and periods.
Gold, pink and blue line-endings with simple geometric designs.
Rubrics in red.
Binding
Red straight-grained morocco over pasteboard, late 18th or early 19th century. Gilt roll floral border round the outer edge of both covers. Decorative panels on spine with gilt scallop borders and floral centre-pieces. Fragment of a (Bodleian (?)) paper label on spine. Gilt decorations on the edges of covers and turn-ins. Gilt edges of textblock. Endbands of burgundy and gold thread. Green silk bookmark, loose. Pastedowns and fly-leaves made of laid paper. Marks at the centre of the fore-edge on fols. 1–8, probably left by a clasp of an earlier binding.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Made for the use of Amiens (calendar and Office of the Dead), probably for a lay patron: the calendar is not graded, there is little correspondence between the calendar and the litany, and the textual contents are simple.
Added note at 25 April in the calendar, dated 1507, may refer to the fire which started on this date in Norwich (Blomefield, 1745, p. 131). This would suggest that the manuscript was in England by this date.
In England during the Reformation when the name of Thomas Becket and the titles ‘pape’ were erased in the calendar, and the beginning of the litany was crossed out.
‘William Blomefilde owe this book’ (fol. 343r), 16th century (on whom see Schuler, 1973), followed by hexameter verses: ‘quisquis in hunc librum vultvm conspexerit vnquam tum domini notum subligat elle quidem Blomefildus certe dictum cognomine tali prenomen fertur tum guilielmus eius’.
Inscribed with initials (?) and a shelfmark (?), ‘J. E.’ and ‘.91.’, on fol. 14r (Pächt and Alexander, 1966–73, pl. XLIII) by the hand that added psalm numbers in the psalter and line numbers in the calendar.
Francis Douce, 1757–1834, see ODNB: bookplate on the upper pastedown. His (?) shelfmark (?) ‘B. 5’, written in black ink on the upper pastedown (compare MS. Douce 24, MS. Douce 38, MS. Douce 49).
Bodleian Library: received in 1834 with bequest of Douce.
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (11 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Select bibliography to 2009:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2024-04-17: Adapt full description from Solopova catalogue.