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Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement
Psalter-Hours of Syon Abbey
The Firle Place Psalter-Hours, in Latin and some Middle English, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, Syon Abbey, c.1450]
Details
Psalter-Hours of Syon Abbey
The Firle Place Psalter-Hours, in Latin and some Middle English, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, Syon Abbey, c.1450]
A Bridgettine Psalter-Hours made for the nuns of Syon Abbey, illuminated in England in the mid-15th century.
202 x 137mm, iii (paper) + i + 238 + ii (paper) leaves, complete, collation: 16, 2-308 horizontal catchwords in cartouches survive, 19 lines, ruled space: 144 x 88mm, rubrics in red, illuminated line-fillers throughout, one-line initials alternately in burnished gold or blue with, respectively, blue or red penwork flourishing extending into the margins on almost every page, larger illuminated initials with foliate sprays, one historiated initial within a full foliate border, 8 large foliate initials extending into the margins with elaborate foliate borders (some marginal soiling and creasing, upper margin lightly cropped, else in excellent condition). Bound in 18th-century straight-grained red morocco gilt (a little scuffed and scratched).
Provenance:
(1) Syon Abbey, Isleworth, the sole Bridgettine foundation in England, founded by King Henry V in 1415 as a twin house for segregated communities of men and women: the Translation (28 May), Deposition (23 July) and Canonisation (7 October) of St Bridget appear in red in the Calendar; St Bridget is second only to St Anne among the Virgins in the Litany; a collect at the end of the Litany (f.200v) contains a prayer for the soul of Henry V: 'Anima regis henrici fundatoris nostri'. The manuscript is listed as no 73 in C. de Hamel, Syon Abbey: the library of the Bridgettine nuns and their peregrinations after the Reformation, 1991. In the course of the 15th century, the order spread throughout northern Europe and to Italy and Spain. Its two most famous foundations were the motherhouse of Vadstena in Sweden and Syon Abbey in England.
Under strong and steadfast royal patronage, the house came to be one of the largest religious communities in England, and at the time of its dissolution in 1539 it was the eighth wealthiest monastery in England. The Firle volume likely belonged to a nun: the prayer on f.236 has feminine forms, with variations required for a monk noted in red above the line.
As with the Firle Book of Hours (see previous lot), there is evidence of Reformation-era censorship: 'pape' is repeatedly blotted out in the Calendar, and Thomas of Canterbury is struck through.
(2) Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement: armorial bookplate of Viscount Gage inside upper cover.
Contents:
Calendar, with the Sarum feast of the relics and three feasts of St Bridget in red, ff.1-6v, Psalter ff.7-175v; Canticles ff.175v-192v: Confitebor f.175v, Ego dixi f.176, Exultavit f.177, Cantemus f.178, Domine audivi f.180, Audite celum f.181v, Te deum f.185v, Benedicite f.187, Benedictus f.188, Magnificat f.189, Nunc dimittis f.189v, Quicumque vult f.189v; Litany, with collects, a prayer for the defunct and for the soul of Henry V, ff.192v-200v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.200v-214; Office of the Dead, use of Sarum, ff.214-234v; prayers, including one for the commendation of the soul of the founder and one, with a rubric in Middle English, 'A preyowr to be seid aftir the evelynge of a sustir or a brother' (f.236), ff.234v-237; blank f.238.
Illumination:
The illumination has been attributed by Kathleen Scott to 'Illustrator B' of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 733, a Middle English manuscript of Johannes de Bado Auro's De arte heraldica (ff.1-17v) and a Brut Chronicle (ff.18-168v), datable to c.1440-50. The artist is responsible for all the standing figures with arms between ff.29-66v and three half-page miniatures (ff.18, 22v and 70v) in that manuscript: we see here the same quintessentially English style; the same figures with oval faces, beards and drooping mouths, the greenish skin tones and the features rendered in brown. Unusually, the artist has chosen to illustrate the Beatus Vir initial opening Psalm 1 with the Trinity, rather than the more iconographically conventional David in prayer or playing the harp.
The historiated initial with the Trinity is on f.7.
The large illuminated initials with foliate borders are on ff.32, 48, 62v, 63v, 79, 99, 117v, and 137v.
The Firle Place Psalter-Hours, in Latin and some Middle English, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, Syon Abbey, c.1450]
A Bridgettine Psalter-Hours made for the nuns of Syon Abbey, illuminated in England in the mid-15th century.
202 x 137mm, iii (paper) + i + 238 + ii (paper) leaves, complete, collation: 16, 2-308 horizontal catchwords in cartouches survive, 19 lines, ruled space: 144 x 88mm, rubrics in red, illuminated line-fillers throughout, one-line initials alternately in burnished gold or blue with, respectively, blue or red penwork flourishing extending into the margins on almost every page, larger illuminated initials with foliate sprays, one historiated initial within a full foliate border, 8 large foliate initials extending into the margins with elaborate foliate borders (some marginal soiling and creasing, upper margin lightly cropped, else in excellent condition). Bound in 18th-century straight-grained red morocco gilt (a little scuffed and scratched).
Provenance:
(1) Syon Abbey, Isleworth, the sole Bridgettine foundation in England, founded by King Henry V in 1415 as a twin house for segregated communities of men and women: the Translation (28 May), Deposition (23 July) and Canonisation (7 October) of St Bridget appear in red in the Calendar; St Bridget is second only to St Anne among the Virgins in the Litany; a collect at the end of the Litany (f.200v) contains a prayer for the soul of Henry V: 'Anima regis henrici fundatoris nostri'. The manuscript is listed as no 73 in C. de Hamel, Syon Abbey: the library of the Bridgettine nuns and their peregrinations after the Reformation, 1991. In the course of the 15th century, the order spread throughout northern Europe and to Italy and Spain. Its two most famous foundations were the motherhouse of Vadstena in Sweden and Syon Abbey in England.
Under strong and steadfast royal patronage, the house came to be one of the largest religious communities in England, and at the time of its dissolution in 1539 it was the eighth wealthiest monastery in England. The Firle volume likely belonged to a nun: the prayer on f.236 has feminine forms, with variations required for a monk noted in red above the line.
As with the Firle Book of Hours (see previous lot), there is evidence of Reformation-era censorship: 'pape' is repeatedly blotted out in the Calendar, and Thomas of Canterbury is struck through.
(2) Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement: armorial bookplate of Viscount Gage inside upper cover.
Contents:
Calendar, with the Sarum feast of the relics and three feasts of St Bridget in red, ff.1-6v, Psalter ff.7-175v; Canticles ff.175v-192v: Confitebor f.175v, Ego dixi f.176, Exultavit f.177, Cantemus f.178, Domine audivi f.180, Audite celum f.181v, Te deum f.185v, Benedicite f.187, Benedictus f.188, Magnificat f.189, Nunc dimittis f.189v, Quicumque vult f.189v; Litany, with collects, a prayer for the defunct and for the soul of Henry V, ff.192v-200v; Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.200v-214; Office of the Dead, use of Sarum, ff.214-234v; prayers, including one for the commendation of the soul of the founder and one, with a rubric in Middle English, 'A preyowr to be seid aftir the evelynge of a sustir or a brother' (f.236), ff.234v-237; blank f.238.
Illumination:
The illumination has been attributed by Kathleen Scott to 'Illustrator B' of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 733, a Middle English manuscript of Johannes de Bado Auro's De arte heraldica (ff.1-17v) and a Brut Chronicle (ff.18-168v), datable to c.1440-50. The artist is responsible for all the standing figures with arms between ff.29-66v and three half-page miniatures (ff.18, 22v and 70v) in that manuscript: we see here the same quintessentially English style; the same figures with oval faces, beards and drooping mouths, the greenish skin tones and the features rendered in brown. Unusually, the artist has chosen to illustrate the Beatus Vir initial opening Psalm 1 with the Trinity, rather than the more iconographically conventional David in prayer or playing the harp.
The historiated initial with the Trinity is on f.7.
The large illuminated initials with foliate borders are on ff.32, 48, 62v, 63v, 79, 99, 117v, and 137v.
Literature
C. de Hamel, Syon Abbey: the library of the Bridgettine nuns and their peregrinations after the Reformation, 1991, no 73.
K. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, 1996, 2 vols., II, p.272.
K. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, 1996, 2 vols., II, p.272.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts