Psalter, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy, Padua?, c.1400]

Anonymous Paduan workshop
Psalter, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy, Padua?, c.1400]
A charming, complete, Psalter illuminated by a Paduan workshop at the turn of the 15th century.

201 x 143mm. ii + 98 leaves, complete, collation: 1-6¹⁰, 7-8⁸, 9-10¹⁰, modern foliation, 27 lines of text, ruled space: 130 x 81mm, catchwords sometimes survive, contemporary marginal additions, Psalms numbered in an early hand, initials alternately in red or blue throughout, larger initials in red or blue with red penwork flourishes opening the Psalms, one large, 12-line illuminated initial opening Psalm 1 on f.1 and 6 further decorated initials at the major divisions of the Psalms on ff.27, 35, 43, 53v, 62v, 71v (some browning, staining and cockling, light creases to the opening initial ‘B’ with smudges to red pigment, occasional marginal dampstaining, natural flaws in vellum). 15th-century Italian binding of tooled leather over wooden boards, traces of clasps (rebacked, scuffed and worn, a few wormholes, lacking catches).

Provenance:
(1) Early, perhaps 16th-century annotations in Italian on ff.40, 40v, and 81.
(2) ?19th-century paper booklabel ‘N.1286 / da.tax’ on inside upper board.
(3) Colker MS 4, with his ownership inscription ‘Sum ex libris Marci Leonardi / 19x44’, f.1; acquired in 1944 from Dawson’s Book Shop, Los Angeles.

Content:
Psalms, ff.3-96v; Creeds ff.96v-98.

Illumination:
The style of the illuminated and decorated initials is strongly reminiscent of the work of the illuminators responsible for an Antiphonal in Padua (Biblioteca Capitolare, ms E 22), attributable to the workshop of the ‘Bibbia Istoriata padovana’ (Rovigo, Biblioteca dell’Accademia dei Concordi, ms 212 [fondo Silvestri]), especially in the figure-of-eight foliate knotting of the initial stave (seen in the ‘Beatus vir’ initial on f.1 in the present manuscript, and on f.185v in the Antiphonal in Padua). The palette of soft pinks, greens and reds, the softly undulating foliate extensions and the delicate white filigree decoration against a blue background also finds parallels in the work of an anonymous Paduan illuminator responsible for Albertino Mussato’s De traditione Padue ad Canem Grandem anno 1328 mense septembri et causis precedentibus (Padova, Biblioteca Civica, B.P. 408/I, see for example f.1).

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