Leaf and a cutting from the ‘Rheims Psalter’, the first with a historiated

Leaf and a cutting from the ‘Rheims Psalter’, the first with a historiated initial, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum, [northern France (Paris or Rheims), mid-thirteenth century], the single leaf with single column of 16 lines of a high grade early gothic bookhand (the cutting from the top of a leaf and with 13 lines of same), written below topline and with some lateral compression, line fillers in red and blue penwork (one on verso in shape of a fish, and another on recto in shape of a bird’s head with its tongue out), one-line initials in alternate red or blue, one large historiated initial ‘D’ (opening “Dixi custodiam vias meas …”) in blue, enclosing David seated pointing to his eyes, all on dark pink and burnished gold grounds, medieval folio numbers “xlii”(leaf) and “xx/iiii xvii” (cutting), some medieval marginalia, some scuffing to initials, slight darkening in places, small loss to lower edge of leaf, some small spots and stains, else good condition, 190 x 145 and 115 x 145mm. *** The parent manuscript was at Rheims Cathedral by c. 1300, when an ex libris was added to its fol. 133r. Then in the later Middle Ages it passed to the Cistercian Abbey of Signy, in the diocese of Rheims, and another ex libris mark was added to its fol. 132v. The book is recorded in A. Bondéelle-Souchier, Bibliothèques Cisterciennes dans la France médiévale, 1991, p. 289. The whole volume was sold in Sotheby’s, 24 June 1980, lot 53, and was broken in 1984 by Peter Goodall, with caches of leaves passing for resale to Sotheran’s and Maggs. The near-complete Calendar appeared for sale in Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages VII, cat. 1315 (2004), no. 36, and C. de Hamel describes two leaves from the same parent book in Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, nos. 111 and 167.

Stima:€1,193.9

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