"Beatus" leaf from a Psalter in Latin, Southern Netherlands, late 13th century

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 2

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Scope and Contents

Description provided by dealer: Illuminated vellum manuscript with a fine historiated initial showing scenes from the life of King David and with a decorative border including a hunting scene. Text from Psalm 1:1 - 2:8. Southern Netherlands [possibly Saint-Omer], late 13th century, 140x102mm (5.5"x4"). Single column, 19 lines in an excellent gothic liturgical hand. Versal initials in red or blue, three line blue initial on verso with wispy red penwork elaboration in the form of delicately drawn ivy leaves extending into three margins (slightly trimmed at the top). RECTO with a wonderfully animated 12-line historiated "B" (60 x 55mm) in pink and white tracery, the initial on a ground of blue and pink knotwork, the upper compartment containing a miniature of King David harping in his palace (the towers of which poke through into the head margin), and the lower compartment showing the young David about to behead the giant Goliath, who is attired in a tunic and chainmail, both scnese in colors on a burnished gold ground, the initial with branching leafy border extending into all four margins, the border composed of blue and pink bars with twining leaves and berries in pink, blue and orange at the corners, a bas-de-page scene of a hunter with a horn and bow accompanied by two hounds pursuing a leaping stag, one blue bird flying up along the fore-edge margin and another perched atop the initial, pecking at a berry, a delightful lion dozing on the very top of the text, his improbably long tail extending down 13 lines. Gold mostly lost now (revealing white gesso), script a little difficult to read beacuse of fading or erosion, a number of very tiny holes where ink has eaten through the vellum, other minor defects, but none of these imperfections fatal, the vellum generally well preserved, and the original appeal of the dynamic leaf still largely intact.

This is the extremely charming opening leaf of a very fine early gothic Psaltrer with spirited decoration, doubtless made for lay use. The scene in the lower margin shows a stag hunt, probably very familiar from the world of a patron. The subject and composition of the Beatus initial, with two scenes from David's life, became characteristic of the Southern Netherlands, especially in Ghent and Saint-Omer (cf. G. Haselhoff, "Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhundert," pp. 112-122, and K. Carlvant, "Manuscript Painting in Thirteen-Century Flanders, Bruges, Ghent and the Circle of the COunts," p. 341.) The theme of Psalm 1 is the triumph of righteousness over evil, and the beheading of Goliath was an appropriate motif. Smililarly, the lion, crouching at the upper right here, had been a common theme for Psalm 1 in romanesque Psalters. The delicate style loosely resembles that of the manuscripts clustered around the Psalter of Guy de Dampierre (Brussels, B.R., MS 10607), ca. 1265-70, but it was imitated elsewhere, including at Saint-Omer (ibid., chapter 9, pp. 137-44). (ST12564)