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Ader

5 - [ENLUMINURE] Leaf from a Psalter (Hours-Psalter).
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Estimate €1,200 - €1,500
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Description
[ENLUMINURE] Leaf from a Psalter (Hours-Psalter). Initial C historiated "Celi enarrant...". David psalmist. England (?) or rather Flanders or Rhineland (?), circa 1260. Dimensions: 178 x 132 mm Leaf 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 the reverse; 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 at the end]. Folio from the famous Rosenbaum Psalter-Hours, known to have been copied almost certainly for a nun, with a reference to an "abbess" in a collection on a folio in a private collection, with the words: "[...] familiam [recte famulam] tuam abbatissimam [recte abbatissam] nostram". See also 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 has not been identified. In any case, this manuscript has the following particularity: almost all the psalms are illustrated with a historiated initial. This manuscript was dismembered in the 1960s. These Hours-Psalter (combining a book of hours and a psalter) were named after a former owner of several leaves, Esther Rosenbaum, a collector from Chicago. P. Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, vol. II, 2019, no. 20. The Sotheby's catalogue, 7 July 2015, lot 13 also gives a relatively complete list of known leaves (note, however, that our two leaves do not appear there). Also see Peter Kidd's blog and summary of this manuscript and known leaves: "Medieval Manuscripts" Provenance: A Lavishly Illuminated 13th-Century Psalter-Hours Made for a Nun. A 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 notice devoted by Sotheby's, 7 July 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, 5 March 2015).
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About the sale ENLUMINATIONS, ANCIENT and MODERN BOOKS
Auction location
Auction time 06/17/2026 at 2:00 PM
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