Four leaves from a Ferial Psalter, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Florence, c.1470-90]

Four leaves from a deluxe Florentine Ferial Psalter.

c.260 x 170mm., 4 single leaves, 3 of which framed together, 18 lines, written space: 151 x 90mm., the text of the single framed leaf containing Psalm 91:1-16; the three leaves framed together with (i) Psalms 85:8-86:6; (ii) 112:9-113:19; and (iii) 48:12-49:5; all with full-height panel borders of Renaissance foliage against gold, pink red and green grounds (two leaves trimmed close to the left edge, some pigment and ink loss). Mounted and framed.

Provenance:
(1) From an extremely handsome manuscript that was broken up at least as early as 1960, when a leaf was acquired by Otterbein University, Ohio; one is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; two are at UC Santa Barbara; one is at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; one at the Allen Memorial Museum, Oberlin; and three at St Louis University (MSS 55a, b, and c). Scott Gwara has identified a number of leaves in his issues of Manuscripts on My Mind (see issues 8, 10 and 11), and Peter Kidd collated a list of known leaves from this manuscript in his Medieval Manuscripts Provenance blog (see entry for 21 June 2014, 'A Dismembered Italian Ferial Psalter').

(2) The single leaf was sold at Sotheby's, 7 July 2015, lot 24.

Illumination:
The panel borders are reminiscent of those by Attavante and his circle, suggesting an origin in Florence. The reverse of one of the leaves offered here includes the underdrawing of a Bishop Saint holding a crozier and a lily.