[ENLUMINURE] - Lot 5

[ENLUMINURE] Leaf from a Psalter (Hours-Psalter). Initial C historiated "Celi enarrant...". David psalmist. England (?) or rather Flanders or Rhineland (?), circa 1260. Dimensions: 178x132mm Folio from the "Rosenbaum Psalter-Hours". Tempera, gouache and gold leaf on parchment; ornate or figurative line-ends (hybrid creatures) in red and blue ink (a griffin on verso; a serpent-dragon!); historiated initial C introducing Psalm 18 "Celi enarrant gloriam dei..." featuring a bent-over man with open hands. Text: end of Psalm 17; Psalm 18 [incomplete from end]. Folio from the famous "Rosenbaum Psalter-Hours", known to have been copied most certainly for a nun, with a reference to an "abbess" in a collection of a folio preserved in a private collection with the mention: "[...]familiam [recte famulam] tuam abbatissimam [recte abbatissam] nostram". See: P.Kidd, https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-lavishly-illuminated-13th-century.html. The convent to which the nun who refers to an abbess (Benedictine? Franciscan?) belonged is not identified. A special feature of this manuscript is that almost all the psalms are illustrated with a historiated initial. This manuscript was dismembered in the 1960s. These Heures-Psautier (combining a book of hours and a psalter) were named after a former owner of several leaves, Chicago collector Esther Rosenbaum. On this manuscript, P.Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, vol. II, 2019, no. 20. The Sotheby's catalog, July 7, 2015, lot 13 also gives a relatively complete list of known leaves (note, however, that our two leaves are not included). For more information on this manuscript and known leaves, see Peter Kidd's blog and summary: "Medieval Manuscripts" Provenance: A Lavishly Illuminated 13th-Century Psalter-Hours Made for a Nun. Manuscript probably illuminated and copied in England (without certainty), offering stylistic comparisons with manuscripts such as the "Grandisson Psalter" and the "Salvin Hours" (London, British Library, Add. MSS. 21926 and 48985; see Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts II: 1250-1285, London, 1988, nos. 165, 158) and the "Windmill Psalter" (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 102). It has also been suggested that this manuscript was painted in Flanders, Eastern France or the Rhineland, the English origin not being retained, for example, in the dedicated notice by Sotheby's, July 7, 2015, lot 13. Peter Kidd expresses doubts about the English origin: "There is much uncertainty about where the manuscript was made: England, northern France, the Rhineland, or Flanders being common suggestions. An attribution to England is often backed-up by a discussion of the line-fillers. The fact that Psalm 51 is decorated with a major initial certainly suggests English influence, because England, Germany, and Ireland were the main countries in which Psalms 51 and 101 were elaborately illuminated in addition to the more common eight divisions at Pss.1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97, and 109. Neither the script nor major decoration, however, look English to me" (Blog, Peter Kidd, Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, March 5, 2015).