The Metamorphoses of a
Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter
(Harl. MS. 1892)
Catherine Yvard
Illuminated Psalters were rarely produced in the fifteenth century and, after a late
flourishing in the last decade with a couple of lavish copies,1 they virtually disappeared by
the early sixteenth century. As Myra Orth once observed, interest in the text supplanted
interest in its illustration.2 Against this backdrop, Harl. MS. 1892, a Psalter made in the late
fifteenth century with texts and images added in the early sixteenth, commands our
attention.
To properly understand the Harley manuscript, it must be considered within the context
of book production in this period. When it was made, Psalters were no longer the
fashionable book that they had been in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This does
not reflect a decrease in the importance of the Psalms in daily devotions, but rather the
growing popularity of other types of books, such as the breviary – which contained the full
book of Psalms – and the Book of Hours – of which Psalms were an essential component.
Psalters continued to be made, but in significantly smaller numbers. Out of the 472 Psalters
in French public libraries inventoried by Victor Leroquais, 130 (mostly executed in France)
date from the fifteenth century. But the contents vary and the manuscripts are often hybrids:
Psalter-hymnals, Psalter-antiphonaries, Psalter-hours,3 etc. Furthermore, few of the
independent Psalters present any significant illumination. The British Library Catalogue of
Illuminated Manuscripts provides entries for 4985 pre-1600 manuscripts: only twenty-one
of them are Psalters dating from 1400-1550 (if one excludes the hybrid types, while counting
those containing additional canticles and prayers), out of which only eight contain
historiated initials and/or miniatures.4 Similarly, the Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch
Collections online catalogue contains a larger number of Psalters for this period (77), but
only eight include significant (i.e. figurative) illumination.5 A handful of illuminated copies
were completed for distinguished patrons in the late fifteenth century. The Psalter of
Charles VIII, for example, has miniatures painted by the Master of Jacques de Besançon in
Paris c. 1495-1498, and features an interlinear French translation of the Psalms,6 and a
This article is based on a paper given at the British Library on 30 June 2009 on the occasion of the conference
‘Divers Manuscripts both Antient & Curious’: Treasures from the Harley Collection. For additional images of this
manuscript not included in the present article, see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=6644&CollID=8&NStart=1892.
I would like to thank Melena Hope, Deirdre Jackson, Claudia Rabel, Kathryn Rudy and Patricia Stirnemann for
their precious advice.
1
For more on this, see below.
2
M. Orth, ‘The Primacy of the Word in French Renaissance Psalm Manuscripts’, in F. O. Büttner (ed.), The
Illuminated Psalter (Turnhout, 2004), pp. 397-403 (397).
3
Even though this was an antiquated format, considered transitional towards the emancipation of the Book of
Hours in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Psalter-Hours were still being made in the fifteenth century.
4
Search done on 17 January 2010.
5
Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections: http://www.mmdc.nl/ (accessed on 17 January 2010).
Interestingly, none of these eight manuscripts is French.
6
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS. Lat. 774.
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The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
contemporary and even more lavish Parisian Psalter, now in New York, contains 180 large
and small miniatures, partly by the same artist.7 For fifteenth-century French manuscripts
containing the full text of the Psalms, and decorated with eight historiated initials, like Harl.
MS. 1892, one needs to turn to breviaries, such as the Breviary of Rigaud d’Aureille de
Villeneuve (probably Paris, after 1482) or the Rouennais Breviary of Archbishop Charles de
Neufchâtel, made between 1480 and 1498.8
As Myra Orth has observed, paradoxically, ‘illuminated psalters all but disappear after c.
1500 while actual interest in the psalter increased’, the reason being that interest now
focused on the text and translation of the Psalms, rather than on their appropriate
illustration.9 The Harley manuscript is thus a rare specimen.
A Rouennais Psalter
Harl. MS. 1892 is a large Psalter for the use of Sarum,10 as indicated by the prominence of
English saints such as Wulfstan, Edward the Martyr, Edmund, Cuthbert, Fredeswide,
Wenefrede, and Thomas of Canterbury in the calendar and the litanies (see Appendix 1 for
a detailed entry of the manuscript and a more complete list of distinctive saints in the
calendar and litanies). The style of the decoration and miniatures, however, shows that it was
not made in England but in Rouen, c. 1490-1500.11 At the end of the Hundred Years War,
from 1419-1449, Rouen was the centre of English occupation, and the strong ties between
Normandy and England in the second half of the fifteenth century are partly reflected in the
ongoing production of Books of Hours for the use of Sarum in the Norman capital, where
they were made for export, but also for an English clientele residing in France.12 While a
sufficient demand existed for Books of Hours to be produced on speculation, the same
cannot be said of illuminated Psalters, and the present manuscript, although lacking any
marks of ownership, must have been commissioned by an English patron.
The iconography of this Rouennais Psalter is conventional, with the labours of the
months and signs of the zodiac in the calendar (fig. 1),13 and eight historiated initials, whose
subjects reflect the first words of the Psalms that mark the major divisions.14 The text is
continuous and the historiated initials do not always occur at the top of the page, which
implies that no full-page miniatures were intended to introduce the divisional Psalms. The
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
2
New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS. M. 934 (miniatures by the Master of Jacques de Besançon
and Master of Philippe de Gueldres).
Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 69 and Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 69. For
images of both these manuscripts, see the Enluminures website
(http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/documentation/enlumine/fr/index3.html). One should note, however,
that the page layout is significantly different, as late fifteenth-century breviaries tend to be written in two
columns, as in these two examples.
Orth, op. cit., pp. 397ff.
290 x 205mm (text block: 175 x 110).
Such Rouennais features include: the use of a decorated cloth as a backdrop for the signs of the zodiac, and
occasionally for the labours of the months, in the calendar (compare these with the slightly later Hours for
the use of Rouen now in Dijon (Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 2244); the vocabulary of the border decoration
and type of blue and gold acanthus sprays; and the typical bluish grisaille acanthus decorating the two-line
initials throughout.
See Rowan Watson, The Playfair Hours: A Late Fifteenth Century Illuminated Manuscript from Rouen
(London, Victoria and Albert Museum, L.475-1918) (London, 1984).
The calendar illustrations do not follow the model of the Playfair group, studied by Watson (op. cit.).
From the early thirteenth century, this programme had been the most common choice (see V. Leroquais, Les
Psautiers manuscrits latins des bibliothèques publiques de France, 3 vols (Mâcon, 1940-1941), vol. i, pp. 95-96).
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Fig. 1. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 26v: Month of April. Hawking scene and Taurus.
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two first Psalm initials and borders, however, were not painted as part of this first campaign
(Psalms 1 and 26; ff. 32 and 46v; figs 6 and 7). Presumably the original intention was to
entrust them to a more eminent artist, as was often the case, to delight the eyes early on in
the manuscript. For this purpose, the entire bifolium 32/39 was left unfinished by the
Rouennais team, which implies that it was put aside before the illuminator responsible for
the secondary decoration could add the small initials, whereas bifolium 41/46 received the
Rouennais initials, but space was left for the historiated initial. As explained below, the
missing decoration was supplied only at a later stage by an artist working in quite a different
style.
Dark Eyes Masters
Most unusually, the calendar does not occur at the beginning of the manuscript. Instead, the
book opens with a section of twenty-four folios, arranged in three quires, written in a
different hand (ff. 1-24v). This section, together with a Tree of Jesse painted on a singleton
(f. 31v),15 was probably added in the last decade of the fifteenth century, c. 1500. It contains
various prayers and excerpts from the Gospels commonly found in Books of Hours, starting
with indulgenced prayers, and also including the ‘O Intemerata’, a prayer to one’s guardian
angel, the Gospel lessons, the Psalter of St Jerome, etc.16 The added texts were common in
the context of a Psalter, which rarely contained only the book of Psalms. These three quires
and singleton were inserted originally where such prayers and texts belonged, that is
between the calendar and the beginning of the Psalter. However, all but the single leaf were
later displaced and misbound. An indication of the original state of affairs is given by the
rubric on f. 24v which announces the Psalter with the words ‘Sequitur liber ympnorum vel
soliloquiorum’, and yet the folio is followed immediately by the Rouennais calendar.
The full-page miniature introducing the manuscript on f. 1v (Crucifixion and Passion
scenes) and the one preceding the Psalter on f. 31v (Tree of Jesse; fig. 2), as well as the
historiated initials and flamboyant foliate initials, are all painted in the style of the so-called
Masters of the Dark Eyes.17 The manuscript was mentioned briefly in Klara Broekhuijsen’s
recently published corpus of the work by these artists, although she excluded it from her
catalogue because the contribution of the Dark Eyes Masters consisted only of an addition
to an existing book.18 This group of illuminators were active mostly in North Holland c.
1490-1520, but a number of surviving manuscripts, including Harl. MS. 1892, indicate that
some of these Dutch craftsmen emigrated to England where they were extremely successful.
Indeed, surviving marks of ownership show that they worked for the King and his entourage
(Henry VII and possibly Henry VIII).19
15
16
17
18
19
4
That the manuscript was originally composed of fifteen quires is confirmed by the remaining quire signatures
m, n and o (the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth letters of the alphabet) in what are now quires XVI, XVII
and XVIII.
See Appendix 1 for more details. The manuscript is in surprisingly fine condition, as neither the long rubrics
explaining indulgences at the beginning of the manuscript nor the references to St Thomas of Canterbury
have been defaced.
On these, see H. L. L. Defoer, A. Korteweg, W. C. M. Wüstefeld, The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript
Painting (New York, 1990), pp. 285-95, and more recently, K. Broekhuijsen, The Masters of the Dark Eyes.
Late Medieval Painting in Holland (Turnhout, 2009).
Broekhuijsen, op. cit., pp. 6 and 2.
Instructions in Dutch have survived in two of the manuscripts made in England (Harl. MS. 2838 and Royal
MS. 2 B. XII-XIII), showing that the artists were Dutch, rather than English illuminators trained in the
Northern Netherlands. For the manuscripts belonging to the ‘English Group’, see Appendix 2.
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Fig. 2. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 31v: Tree of Jesse.
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The Harley artist is closest to the Master of Cornelis Croesinck, named after a Book of
Hours executed c. 1494 for this South Holland forester and his wife (New York, Pierpont
Morgan Library, M 1078).20 Characteristic features of this artist’s work include a
predilection for small figures and miniatures subdivided into several smaller scenes, a
pattern of dotted gold on vibrant blue for certain garments, and skies streaked by the setting
sun. Several elements confirm that the section painted in the Dark Eyes style was made
especially for this manuscript. The number of lines and size of the text block is consistent
throughout,21 none of the added texts and prayers repeats existing texts, and the Tree of
Jesse facing the beginning of the Psalter is suitably placed, stressing the lineage between
David and Christ.22
Further Additions and Incongruities
In the Dark Eyes section, a remarkable ink drawing enhanced by touches of colour and gold
highlights (f. 18v; fig. 3) has been tipped in so as to face the beginning of the Gospel lessons
introduced by a small miniature of St John on Patmos on the opposite page. The scene,
depicting Christ before Annas, is a virtuoso copy of an engraving by Martin Schongauer
belonging to his Passion series (usually dated c. 1475).23 The copy is probably to be dated to
c. 1480-1490.24 The artist has taken the liberty of eliminating the architectural setting so that
20
21
22
23
24
6
Broekhuijsen (pp. 6 and 21) argued that the English group was stylistically closest to the Marciana group
(named after a Book of Hours now in Venice, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, MS. It. I, 35). More specifically,
she attributed to the Master of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis the ‘added miniature’ in Harl. MS. 1892.
It is unclear to which of the two full-page miniatures painted in this style she is referring, and she seems not
to be aware of the historiated initials and small miniatures. There seem to be many hands in the Dark Eyes
group and they are difficult to differentiate, so I shall not attempt to suggest further subgroups, but simply
stress that the miniaturist working on the Harl. MS. 1892 addition is in my opinion closest to the Master of
Cornelis Croesinck. For images of the Hours of Cornelis Croesinck, see Corsair, the Online Research Resource
of the Pierpont Morgan Library: http://utu.morganlibrary.org/index.htm. Compare especially the Tree of
Jesse (M. 1078, f. 112r) with that in the Harley manuscript (f. 31v; fig. 2)
The text block is 170 x 110 mm (except in calendar), in pink ink; the horizontal ruling of the first and two
last lines on the page is extended into the whole width of the margins.
Many thirteenth-century Psalters begin with a Beatus initial enclosing the Tree of Jesse. See for example the
Imola Psalter (Imola, Biblioteca Comunale, MS. 100, ff. 10v-11).
Visible on the Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett: http://kk.haum-bs.de/?id=m-schongauer-ab3-0005 (Bartsch
(11); Lehrs (V, 132, 21)).
It is interesting to note that the size of the miniature matches the size of the print: the composition must have
therefore been transferred using some kind of tracing system for which there is unfortunately no visual evidence.
On the subject of the influence of prints on miniaturists, see the recent publications by U. Weekes, Early
Engravers and their Public (Turnhout, 2004), F. Villaseñor Sebastián, ‘Préstamos e influencias extranjeras en
la miniatura hispanoflamenca castellana: 1450-1500’, in El arte foráneo en España. Presencia e influencia
(Madrid, 2005), pp. 227-235 (pp. 234-235), and S. Nash, Northern Renaissance Art (Oxford, 2009), pp. 128141, but also R. G. Calkins, ‘Parallels between Incunabula and Manuscripts from the Circle of the Master of
Catherine of Cleves’, Oud Holland, xcii (1978), pp. 137-160; J. H. Marrow, ‘A Book of Hours from the Circle
of the Master of the Berlin Passion: Notes on the Relationship between Fifteenth-Century Manuscript
Illumination and Printmaking in the Rhenish Lowlands’, Art Bulletin, lx (1978), pp. 590-616; A. Matthews,
‘The Use of Prints in the Hours of Charles d’Angoulême’, Print Quarterly, iii, no. 1 (March 1986), pp. 4-18;
K. Broekhuijsen, ‘The Bezborodko Masters and the use of Prints’, in K. Van der Hoerst and J. -C. Klamt
(eds.), Masters and Miniatures, Proceedings of the Congress on Medieval Manuscript Illumination in the
Northern Netherlands (Utrecht, 1989), pp. 403-12.
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Fig. 3. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 18v: Christ before Annas.
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the men and their weapons stand out against the unpainted vellum. The cross-hatching used
for the shading is so fine that one could easily mistake the miniature for a print.
Furthermore, the full border framing the composition matches the exuberance and intricacy
of contemporary engravings of decorative foliate motifs such as Schongauer’s Foliage with
Owl,25 which suggests that the artist was probably of Germanic or Netherlandish origin, and
possibly an engraver.
Three more engravings from Schongauer’s Passion copied on single leaves by a less
talented hand were added to the Psalter: the Arrest of Christ, Flagellation, and Harrowing
of Hell (ff. 47, 66v-67, 109).26 Contrasting with the masterly Christ before Annas, they rely
on the heavy use of garish colours, crowded compositions, exaggerated shading,27 and fussy
brushstrokes. Not one but two copies of the Flagellation form a powerful diptych where the
body of Christ, at first unharmed, is then shown covered in blood (ff. 66v-67; fig. 4). Both
the ‘bloody Flagellation’ (f. 67) and the Harrowing of Hell (f. 109; fig. 5) are used as rectos,
although devised as versos (narrow border on the right), making it quite clear that they were
Fig. 4. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 66v-67: Flagellation.
25
26
27
8
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-1077 (visible on the Rijksmuseum website:
http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/zoeken/asset.jsp?id=RP-P-OB-1077).
Harrowing of Hell (Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett: http://kk.haum-bs.de/?id=m-schongauer-ab3-0011
(Bartsch (19); Lehrs (V, 160, 29)); Arrest of Christ (Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett: http://kk.haumbs.de/?id=m-schongauer-ab3-0004 (Bartsch (10); Lehrs (V, 128, 20)).
In some instances, the shading of the original print has been clumsily translated, as in the scene of the Arrest
of Christ scene, where a large bulge appears on the side of Malchus’s head.
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Fig. 5. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 109: Harrowing of Hell.
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not originally intended for this location.28 The painted borders of uneven width nevertheless
indicate that they were designed for inclusion in a book rather than as a series of devotional
images on single parchment leaves. The same hand was responsible for completing the two
missing historiated initials with borders (for Psalms 1 and 26), and smaller initials that had
been left out during the Rouen campaign (ff. 32rv, 39rv, 46v; figs 6 and 7).
Fig. 6. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 31v-32r: Tree of Jesse; David playing the harp (Psalm 1)
Fig. 7. Harl. MS. 274, f. 118 (detail): King and courtiers. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 32r (detail): David playing the harp.
28
10
The scene of the Arrest of Christ with Instruments of the Passion in the border was inserted so that it would
face the beginning of Psalm 26 (f. 46v), and the same illuminator was responsible for providing the historiated
initial and border. The double flagellation precedes Psalm 52, introduced by a historiated initial depicting the
King and the fool painted in the Rouen style (f. 68). As a result, the initial faces a blank page. The Harrowing
of Hell (f. 109; fig. 5) faces the beginning of Psalm 109, introduced by a Rouen historiated initial and border,
the initial depicting the Trinity as a Throne of Mercy (f. 108v).
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The borders by this hand are teaming with scattered flowers, creatures and objects.
Framing the ‘bloodless Flagellation’, jewels and pearls mingle with skulls and maggots,
stressing the vanity of earthly riches (f. 66v; fig. 4). The scroll meandering among skulls,
inscribed with a verse from Psalm 82, echoes this moralizing message: ‘Vos autem sicut
homines moriemini et sicut unus de principibus cadetis.’ (‘But you like men shall die: and
shall fall like one of the princes’). In the border of the Harrowing of Hell, a mounted knight
in armour is fighting a frightening creature that has just escaped from Hell into the margin,
while another monster has crept in between the miniature and the blue cloth pinned in
trompe-l’oeil to the parchment. On the blue cloth is a painted gold insignia featuring a Pietà.
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, especially in Flanders, it is not rare to find
pilgrim’s badges attached to the pages of breviaries or prayer books, while others contain
their painted replicas.29 As Hanneke van Asperen wrote, ‘En collant ou en cousant des
insignes sur le parchemin, le croyant établissait le lien entre l’effort physique déployé lors de
son pèlerinage et ses exercices spirituels’ (‘In the glueing or stitching of pilgrim badges to
the parchment, the believer forged a link between the physical effort expended during his
pilgrimage and his spiritual exercises’).30 In the absence of an identical surviving insignia, as
in the present case, one cannot be certain that the illuminator modelled its design on an
actual badge rather than creating a generic evocation of the object.31
The rather naïve artist was also using prints when composing the borders, as can be seen
on the opening page of the Psalms (f. 32; fig. 6), where the three dogs and a cat have been
clumsily copied from an engraving by the Master of the Berlin Passion (active in the
Rhenish Lowlands c. 1450-1470).32 With regard to the production of the Master of the
Berlin Passion, Ursula Weekes wrote: ‘The engravings of birds and animals should [...] be
understood in relation to the model book tradition, where master painters, illuminators or
goldsmiths set down prototype designs so that motifs could be preserved and reused in their
workshops.’33 Additionally, the background of the smaller initials and of some borders
imitates the fond criblé (dotted background) found in engravings in early printed books. The
depiction of the owl attacked by other birds is derived from bestiary iconography and
occasionally found in manuscript borders throughout the late Middle Ages.34
The oddity of this style could prompt one to doubt the fifteenth-century dating of these
miniatures: the swirling skies and tormented tree in the Arrest of Christ are somewhat
reminiscent of Van Gogh, while the body of Christ in the first Flagellation appears strangely
29
30
31
32
33
34
11
For real pilgrim’s badges, see for instance The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS. 77 L 60, f. 98 (Flanders,
late fifteenth-early sixteenth century), a manuscript attributed to the Masters of the Small Eyes, usually
localized to Bruges, c. 1440-1460; for a painted example, see Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 3028, ff.
161v-162 (Flanders, c. 1510-1525).
H. van Asperen. ‘Pèlerinage et dévotions: les insignes dans les manuscrits du haut Moyen Age’, in J.
Koldeweij, Foi et bonne fortune: Parure et dévotion en Flandre médiévale (Arnhem, 2006), pp. 234-44 (p. 243).
On this topic, see also D. Bruna, ‘Témoins de dévotion dans les livres d’Heures à la fin du Moyen Âge’,
Revue Mabillon, N. S., lxx (1998), pp. 127-61.
I have searched numerous catalogues of English, Flemish and French pilgrim’s badges and found a few
representing a Pietà. The Kunera Database (www.kunera.nl) contains a handful of German examples, albeit
not identical to the one represented here. See also D. Bruna, Enseignes de plomb et autres menues chosettes du
Moyen Age (Paris, 2007), pl. 145, which features a Pietà among the five fifteenth-century badges cast into the
bronze of a bell in the church of Hablingbo (Gotland, Sweden), now in Stockholm, Statens Historika
Museum.
See Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Inv. 1926/823 (Lehrs (III, 121, 82)). For a reproduction of this
engraving, see Weekes, op. cit., fig. 53. Fernando Villaseñor Sebastián has also shown that this engraver’s work
had an impact on Spanish illuminators (pp. 234-5).
Weekes, op. cit., p. 55.
See for instance Harl. MS. 1275, f. 1 (England, second half of the fifteenth century).
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nineteenth-century in its rendition. However, the convincing iconographical vocabulary
used in the borders, combined with the eighteenth-century Harleian binding, proves that
such doubts are unfounded. The unconventional appearance of these miniatures and
historiated initials is therefore more likely to be the sign of a non-professional hand
(hereafter designated as the ‘Strange Hand’). The first historiated initial, for example,
resembles in composition initials introducing English statute books featuring an enthroned
king shown frontally, but its most significant feature is the characteristically English cusped
treatment of the body of the initial (compare for instance with the initial in Hargrave MS.
274 (London?, c. 1488-1489), f. 118 (Richard II); fig. 7). In light of the dating of the original
Rouennais core as well as the copies and direct borrowings from late fifteenth-century
prints, these peculiar additions by the ‘Strange Hand’ can be dated to c. 1500-1510.
Scattered French Leaves
Two further additions likewise provide evidence of the composite nature of this volume. A
full-page Nativity provides yet another example of a miniature based on a Schongauer print,
but this time painted in an early sixteenth-century Parisian style.35 It has been tipped in so
as to face the beginning of the Fifteen Oes of St Bridget (f. 8v; fig. 8): this was an appropriate
location, as the iconography of the Nativity with Christ lying on the ground was derived
from one of the saint’s visions. The Fifteen Oes were commonly found in Books of Hours
and introduced by an image of the Man of Sorrows or the Mass of St Gregory. Indeed,
opposite this added miniature, the text of the Fifteen Oes begins, introduced by a historiated
initial with the Man of Sorrows painted in the same hand as the rest of these first quires, i.e.
in the Dark Eyes style. The border was added by the ‘Strange Hand’, as is particularly
apparent in the rendering of flowers, snails and birds, mixed with grinning skulls (parallels
are most fruitful with the border of the ‘bloody Flagellation’ where the skull featured in the
outer border is partly erased; fig. 4).36 The miniature must therefore have made its way to
England soon after it was painted.
Finally, an intriguing earlier French miniature has been placed in the middle of the
text of Psalm 118 (f. 115; fig. 9), showing on the same page a prominent Crucifixion, the
Expulsion from Paradise, a Pietà with the Instruments of the Passion, and the Harrowing of
Hell – a juxtaposition for which I have found no parallels. Yet, iconographically, the choice
of subject matter is logical, and each scene acquires a deeper significance in relation to the
others. For example, the Original Sin, alluded to by the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from
Paradise, is redeemed by Christ’s suffering, represented here by the Crucifixion and echoed
by the Pietà below, where the Virgin, as the New Eve, plays her part in the redemption of
mankind. According to Christian belief, at the end of time, Adam and Eve will be forgiven
and Christ will come and release them from the flames of Hell. This is perfectly illustrated
by the symmetry between the Fall and the Harrowing of Hell, with the wounded and lifeless
body of Christ acting as a bridge between the two scenes.
It is surprising that this very powerful combination was not used more often. Even in the
present case, the leaf, although ruled on the verso with two columns, which could indicate
that it was originally intended for a missal (although the text was usually written before the
miniatures were painted), seems to have been used only as an added illustration. This
miniature was expertly painted in a style related to that of the Boucicaut Master, although
drier: elongated figures, starry skies and silver clouds, downcast eyes, slender greyish faces,
35
36
12
Visible on the Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett: http://kk.haum-bs.de/?id=m-schongauer-ab3-0002 (Bartsch
(5); Lehrs (V, 46, 4). I would like to thank Albert Châtelet and Anne Korteweg for recognizing the print by
Martin Schongauer as the model for this scene.
It is worth noting that both this page and the Nativity border are painted in more muted colours, but I will
not go so far as to argue that the Strange Hand is actually two hands.
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Fig. 8. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 8v: Nativity.
13
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The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
Fig. 9. Harl. MS. 1892, f. 115: Crucifixion, Expulsion from Paradise, Pietà, Harrowing of Hell. Saints.
14
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The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
subtle shading of bodies and draperies are reminiscent of manuscripts produced by the
Parisian Master c. 1408-1409, such as his eponymous Book of Hours or the Missal of
Lorenzo Trenta.37 On this basis, the miniature can be dated to c. 1410-1420.38
Judging from the border featuring the twelve apostles with attributes and foliate
decoration, this leaf must have crossed the Channel soon after it was painted.
Characteristically English in style, the border was probably painted in the second quarter of
the fifteenth century to make the page suitable for inclusion in a missal. The fact that this
leaf featured a prominent Crucifixion dictated its re-use in the context of a missal, to mark
the Canon of the Mass, as is indicated by the gold cross painted in the centre of the lower
border, a standard feature of such openings, which the officiating priest was instructed to
kiss at this point in the liturgy, so as to avoid damaging the miniature. In this new context,
the French composition with its English apostles must have faced a miniature of God the
Father on the opposite page, as was customary. The missal was larger than the present
Psalter and the upper part of the leaf is now folded to fit the format of the codex.
Furthermore, it was inserted as a recto in the Harley manuscript even though the border
clearly indicates that the leaf was designed as a verso.39
A Passion for the Passion
In its original state, the textual and pictorial content of Harl. MS. 1892 was entirely
dedicated to the Old Testament and did not contain any reference to the Passion. That the
Passion was deemed to be lacking is reflected in the choice of texts added to the manuscript
as part of the Dark Eyes campaign, which focused strongly on Christ and his Passion (the
Fifteen Oes, St John’s account of the Passion, etc.) and, to a lesser extent, on the Virgin
Mary. The full-page miniature of the Crucifixion and Passion scenes (now f. 1v) and various
historiated initials adequately illustrate this selection of texts. Most of the single-leaf
additions reflect a preference for these subjects. In sum, the original content of the
manuscript has been enhanced and reshaped through a process of customization and
recycling. Although the Passion miniatures could have all been placed at the beginning of
the manuscript in the manner of a prefatory cycle which, by then, was out of fashion, they
have been interspersed with the text in chronological order. The images thus serve as a
visual commentary, giving an added dimension to the text they introduce. This
accumulation of images of the Passion enables the reader to link the Old Testament and the
New, and stresses the typological relationship between King David and Christ.40 These
miniatures, while creating a parallel narrative, are still devotional images in their own right,
recalling their primary function as prints. They reshape the textual content of the
manuscript, which originally did not contain any evocation of the Passion, and thus respond
to current devotional preferences in England. Stella Panayotova and James Marrow have
37
38
39
40
15
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, MS. 2, and Lucca, Biblioteca Statale, MS. 3122, especially the Crucifixion,
on f. 151v; for reproductions, see Paris 1400. Les Arts sous Charles VI (Paris, Musée du Louvre, 22 March-12
July 2004), exhibition catalogue (Paris, 2004), entries 78 and 172.
An intriguing detail is the way in which the turbaned figure depicted from the back on the right wraps his
arm around the shoulders of the man standing next to him, presumably to call for his companion’s undivided
attention to the spectacle of the suffering Christ.
Signs of damage and the transverse folding mark on this leaf indicate that it was kept unbound for some time.
This relationship is given prominence in an unusual mid-fifteenth-century Psalter (and Office of the Dead)
made in Ghent for use in England, in which each of the eight main divisions in the Psalter is introduced by
two miniatures side by side combining the standard Davidic cycle (as in Harl. MS. 1892) with scenes from
Christ’s Passion, beginning with David in Penance and the Agony in the Garden. On this manuscript, see J.
H. Marrow and S. Panayotova, Private Pleasures: Illuminated Manuscripts from Persia to Paris, exhibition
catalogue (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 34-6. I thank Stella Panayotova for bringing this manuscript to my attention.
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The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
stressed that in the Hours of the Virgin ‘while scenes from Christ’s Infancy, such as the
Nativity or the Adoration of the Magi, were the norm in most continental Books of Hours,
the preference in England was for depictions of the Passion.’41
Furthermore, the added Passion miniatures illustrate the late medieval fascination for
Christ’s suffering and an increasing devotion to his blood and wounds.42 Writings such as
Pseudo-Bonaventure’s Meditations on the Life of Christ (second half of the thirteenth
century) or Ludolf of Saxony’s Vita Christi (fourteenth century) encouraged the viewer to
empathize with Christ’s trials by providing detailed accounts of his Passion. The arresting
double flagellation closely echoes the account of this episode in the Meditations on the Life of
Christ:
He stands naked before them all, in youthful grace and shamefacedness,
beautiful in form above the sons of men, and sustains the harsh and grievous
scourges on his innocent, tender, pure, and lovely flesh. The Flower of all flesh
and of all human nature is covered with bruises and cuts. The royal blood
flows all about, from all parts of His body. Again and again, repeatedly,
closer and closer, it is done, bruise upon bruise, and cut upon cut, until
not only the torturers but also the spectators are tired...43
This type of iconography, centred on the tormented body, was particularly favoured in a
monastic context where the relationship between the individual and Christ was experienced
in a more personal and emotional way.44 Numerous such images have survived especially in
the Netherlands and Germany, but also in England, as can be seen in a Psalter and rosary
made c. 1480-1490, probably in a Carthusian environment, and introduced by several
openings covered in red to evoke Christ’s shed blood.45
The So-called Hours of the Earls of Ormond
The single-leaf additions made to the Rouennais manuscript reflect a desire to accumulate
holy images, be they printed or painted, in Books of Hours and prayer books at this time.
The same phenomenon can be observed in the so-called Hours of the Earls of Ormond, also
in the Harley collection (Harl. MS. 2887). Like Harl. MS. 1892, this manuscript contains a
41
42
43
44
45
16
Marrow and Panayotova, op. cit, p. 35. For examples of this, see J. H. Marrow, ‘The Pembroke Psalter-Hours’,
in B. Cardon, J. Van der Stock, D. Vanwijnsberghe, et al. (eds.), ‘Als ich can’. Liber Amicorum in Memory of
Professor Maurits Smeyers, 2 vols (Leuven, 2001), vol. i, pp. 861-902, and P. Binski and S. Panayotova (eds.),
The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam
Museum), exhibition catalogue (Cambridge, 2005), entry 94.
On this subject, see especially E. Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400-c.
1580 (New Haven and London, 1992), esp. pp. 234-248; J. Clifton, ‘A Fountain Filled with Blood:
Representations of Christ’s Blood from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century’, and M. Rubin, ‘Blood:
Sacrifice and Redemption in Christian Iconography’, in J. M. Bradburne (ed.), Blood: Art, Power, Politics and
Pathology (Munich, 2001), pp. 64-99.
I. Ragusa and R. B. Green (tr.), Meditations on the Life of Christ: An Illustrated Manuscript of the Fourteenth
Century (Princeton, 1961), pp. 328-9.
See in particular J. F. Hamburger, Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent (Berkeley, 1997).
Eg. MS. 1821. See D. Areford, ‘The Image in the Viewer’s Hands: The Reception of Early Prints in Europe’,
Studies in Iconography, xxiv (2003), pp. 5-42 (pp. 16-21) and P. Parshall and R. Schoch (eds.), Origins of
European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public (Washington, National Gallery of Art),
exhibition catalogue (Washington, 2005), entry 49. For images, see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8389&CollID=28&NStart=1821.
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The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
number of similarly puzzling additions, including one miniature painted by a different
member of the Dark Eyes group (f. 3v). This Book of Hours for the use of Sarum was
executed in England in the 1460s (before 1467),46 but around 1500-1510, a member of the
Butler family47 had a number of texts added with miniatures painted in a wide variety of
styles. For example, a full-page blessing Christ holding a crystal orb in the Dark Eyes style
introduces a prayer to Christ written in English by a non-professional sixteenth-century
hand, presumably to accompany the miniature. A number of added prayers and suffrages
follow, including prayers to Henry King of England (which could refer to Henry VII or
Henry VIII), and it is only on f. 20 that the part of the manuscript written in the 1460s
begins. Probably contemporary with this English addition are four nearly identical
miniatures showing the Trinity, painted in an early sixteenth-century English style, and
influenced by French miniature painting.48 These are inserted in both the added and original
parts of the text (ff. 6v, 8v, 27v, 33v). Another full-page miniature of the Annunciation
combined with the Agony in the Garden and smaller scenes from the Life of the Virgin (f.
28v) was tipped in so that it would face and update the earlier English Annunciation
enclosed in the historiated initial at the beginning of the Hours of the Virgin. Although
displaying the Ormond arms in its lower border, this leaf was painted by a Rouen artist
probably in the first decade of the sixteenth century.49 Finally, probably the most puzzling of
all these additions are two bifolia by an English illuminator (ff. 55v-58; first recto and final
verso are blank; see fig. 10).50 Each opening repeats, in a slightly different order, the same
ten scenes from the Passion and the Infancy of Christ/Life of the Virgin.51 One can only
speculate that they must have provided the visual support for the rote recitation of specific
prayers. Kathleen Scott remarked that, by their number, the thirty miniatures on these
leaves could relate to the Fifteen Oes of St Bridget which they introduce.52 If this is the case,
it is surprising that they do not focus more on episodes of the Passion. Indeed, the
importance placed on the Virgin, who features in every scene, would point to Marian
devotional practices. It is also interesting to note that the two lower scenes are repeated in
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
17
It was probably made for a member of the London-based Gower family: the births of four Gower children
(starting with 1467) are recorded on a flyleaf (f. 1v). On this manuscript, see K. L. Scott, ‘A Mid-Fifteenth
Century English Illuminating Shop and Its Customers’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxxi
(1968), pp. 170-96 (pp. 172-82, pl. b); eadem, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts
Illuminated in the British Isles, vi, 2 vols (London, 1996), vol. ii, entry 109, pp. 299-302. See also the online
entry on the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8765&CollID=8&NStart=2887.
Scott suggests it may have been Thomas Butler, seventh Earl of Ormond, who died in 1515 (‘A Mid-Fifteenth
Century English Illuminating Shop’, p. 182). The family coat of arms features in the border of f. 28v, and
obits are found on f. 2.
Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, p. 301.
The recto of this folio has a fine preparatory pen drawing showing the two main scenes, that is the
Annunciation and the Agony in the Garden, arranged according to a different layout where no border scenes
were envisaged.
Incidentally, he was responsible for the illumination of a number of statute books, including Hargrave MS.
274 (fig. 7).
Left to right, top to bottom, the subjects are as follows. f. 55v: row 1: Resurrection – Ascension; row 2:
Assumption; row 3: two altars with Annunciation and Visitation – Nativity; f. 56: row 1: Presentation in the
Temple – Christ among the Doctors; row 2: Crucifixion; row 3: Bearing of the Cross – Pietà; f. 56v:
Presentation in the Temple – Christ among the Doctors; row 2: Bearing of the Cross; row 3: two altars with
Annunciation and Visitation – Nativity; f. 57: row 1: Ascension – Assumption; row 2: Resurrection; row 3:
Crucifixion – Pietà; f. 57v: exactly as on f. 55v; f. 58: row 1: Bearing of the Cross – Pietà; row 2: Crucifixion;
row 3: Presentation in the Temple – Christ among the Doctors.
Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, p. 301.
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The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
Fig. 10. Harl. MS. 2887, ff. 55v-56.
the same location on all three versos. One is particularly intriguing because it is not a
straightforward episode from the Life of the Virgin. Two altars are depicted: one seems to
have statues of the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate on either side; the other
altar has a small Visitation. Was this composition meant to evoke two specific altars
frequented by the owner, one dedicated to the Annunciation and the other to the Visitation?
Conclusion
Both Harley manuscripts give evidence of the ways in which English owners endeavoured
to improve their books through customization and multiple additions, resulting in a
somewhat disconcerting appearance, often juxtaposing radically different styles. The
ongoing ties with Rouen book production are visible in both examples, as well as the taste
for Netherlandish craftsmanship, here represented by members of the Dark Eyes group
active in England. From an iconographical point of view, the Book of Hours presumably
reflects the Earl of Ormond’s personal veneration of the Trinity and other, as yet
unexplained, devotional exercises. The Psalter, on the other hand, illustrates the widespread importance of the Passion for an English audience, and provides another example of
the impact of printing on manuscript painting, with full compositions and isolated motifs
being used as models by three illuminators of different nationalities. Martin Schongauer’s
engravings ‘were distributed as models to the assistants of Veit Stoss and Tilman
Riemenscheider and were copied by artists from Poland to Spain, and Italy to the
18
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Netherlands’,53 thus influencing artists in a wide range of media. In addition to the Nativity
copy made in France, and the grisaille version of Christ before Annas probably executed in
Germany or the Netherlands, the copies by the Strange Hand in Harl. MS. 1892 give
valuable evidence of the impact of Schongauer’s prints in England c. 1500.
Appendix 1: Entry
HI = Historiated initial
BM = Border miniatures
Quires
Folio Text
Illustration
Illuminators
I6+ 1 (ff. 1-7v; f.
1 is a singleton)
2
‘Adoro te ihesu
Christe…’
f. 1v: Crucifixion;
border: Passion
scenes (full-page)
Dark Eyes
3v
‘O domine ihesu
christe rogo te…’
‘Ave sanctissima
maria mater dei
regina…’
Risen Christ
appearing to the
Virgin (HI); Virgin
and Child (HI).
Dark Eyes
4v
‘O bone ihesu’
Holy Face of Christ
(HI)
Dark Eyes
5v
‘O Intemerata’
Virgin and St John
the Evangelist (HI)
Dark Eyes
6v
Prayer to Guardian Angel (HI)
Angel
Dark Eyes
Fifteen Oes of
St Bridget
f. 8v: Nativity
Singleton: Paris, c.
1500, after
Schongauer;
border:
Strange Hand
f. 9: Man of Sorrows
(HI)
Dark Eyes
Arrest of Christ;
inscription above
reading ‘Passio
domini nostri jhesu
xpisti secundum
Johannem’ (small
miniature).
Dark Eyes
II8+1 (ff. 8-16v; f. 9
8 is a singleton)
13
53
19
Passion according
to St John
Nash, Northern Renaissance Art, p. 136.
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Quires
Folio Text
III (ff. 1717
24v; f. 18 is a
singleton; the
last leaf of the
quire was
probably cut out
because it was
blank).
8-1+1
19
IV6 (ff. 25-30v)
54
20
Illustration
Illuminators
‘Salve sancta facies’ Veronica’s veil (small Dark Eyes
miniature)
Gospel lessons
f. 18v: Christ before
Annas (full-page)
Singleton: After
Schongauer.
Grisaille.
f. 19: St John on
Patmos (small
miniature)
Dark Eyes
21
St Jerome’s Psalter St Jerome and lion
(HI)
Dark Eyes
25
Calendar:54
January
Couple at table with
servant; Aquarius
(BM)
Rouen
25v
February
Man by a fire, and
another bringing
wood; Pisces (BM)
Rouen
26
March
Man pruning the
vine; Aries (BM)
Rouen
26v
April
Man and child (?)
hawking; Taurus
(BM)
Rouen
27
May
Courting couple on
horseback; Gemini
(BM)
Rouen
27v
June
Woman shearing a
sheep; Cancer (BM)
Rouen
28
July
Man with a scythe
standing by a wheat
field; Leo (BM)
Rouen
Calendar: Wulfstan (18 January and 15 October), Osburg (22 January), Chad (2 March), Edward (18 March),
Cuthbert (20 March), Richard (2 April), George (22 April; in red), John of Beverley (7 May), Dunstan (19
May), Aldhelm (25 May), Augustine (26 May and 28 August; both in red), translation of St Edmund (9 June),
translation of St Richard (16 June), translation of St Edward (20 June and 13 October), Alban (22 June),
Etheldrede (23 June), translation of St Thomas (7 July; not defaced; in red), feast of the relics of St Thomas
(8-9 July; in red), translation of St Swythun (15 July), St Kenelm (17 July), Oswald (5 August), Cuthburga
(31 August), translation of St Cuthbert (4 September), Edith (16 September), translation of St Etheldrede
(17 October), Fredeswide (19 October), Winifred (3 November), Edmund Archbishop (16 November),
Edmund the King (20 November), Thomas (29 December, in red). Litany: Albine, Swythun, Birinus, Edith.
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Quires
Folio Text
Illustration
Illuminators
28v
August
Man tying a bundle
of hay together,
another thrashing
wheat; Virgo (BM)
Rouen
29
September
Man sowing; Libra
(BM)
Rouen
29v
October
Man treading the
grapes;
Scorpio (BM)
Rouen
30
November
Man feeding a pig;
Sagittarius (BM)
Rouen
30v
December
Couple about to
bleed a pig;
Capricorn (BM)
Rouen
V8+1 (ff. 31-39; f.
31 is a singleton)
Rouen (only
initials), except ff.
31v, 32rv, and 39rv.
31v
32
Tree of Jesse
(full-page)
Psalm 1:
‘Beatus Vir’
David playing the
Strange Hand
harp (HI, full border) (also responsible
for one-line initials
on bifolium 32/39)
VI8+1 (ff. 40-48v;
f. 47 is a
singleton)
Rouen (only
initials), except ff.
46v and 47.
46v
47
Psalm 26:
‘Dominus
illuminatio mea’
King pointing at his Strange Hand
eyes (HI, full border) (including initials
on f. 46v)
Arrest of Christ;
border: Instruments
of the Passion
(full-page)
VII8 (ff. 49-56v)
VIII (ff. 57-64;
catchword)
8
IX8+2 (ff. 6574v; ff. 66 and
67 are
singletons;
catchword)
21
Singleton:
Dark Eyes
Singleton:
Strange Hand
Rouen (only initials)
57
Psalm 38: ‘Dixi
David in prayer (HI,
custodiam vias meas’ full border)
Rouen
Rouen (only
initials), except ff.
66v-67
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Quires
Folio Text
Illustration
Illuminators
66v
Flagellation; border: Strange Hand,
skulls, worms, jewels, after Martin
coral pendants,
Schongauer
pearls, inscription on
scroll: ‘Vos autem
sicut homines
moriemini et sicut
unus de principibus
cadetis propitia.
L. I.’ (full-page)
67
‘Bloody’ Flagellation
Strange Hand,
after Martin
Schongauer
68
Psalm 52: ‘Dixit
Insipiens’
King and fool (HI
and full border)
Rouen
X8 (ff. 75-82v)
76v
Psalm 68: ‘Salvum
me fac’
David in waters of
despair (HI and full
border)
Rouen
XI8 (ff. 83-90v)
87v
Psalm 80: ‘Exultate David playing on
deo’
bells (HI and full
border)
Rouen
Psalm 97: ‘Cantate
domino’
Rouen
XII8 (ff. 91-98v) 97v
Singing choir (HI
and full border)
XIII8 (ff. 99106v)
XIV8+2 (ff. 107116v; ff. 109
and 115 are
singletons)
Rouen (only
initials)
108v Psalm 109: ‘Dixit
Dominus’
Trinity as
Gnadenstuhl (HI
and full border)
Rouen
Except ff. 109
and 115
109
Harrowing of Hell
Singleton: Strange
Hand, after
Martin
Schongauer
115
Crucifixion,
Expulsion from
Paradise; Pietà with
Instruments of the
Passion; Harrowing
of Hell; twelve
apostles in the
border.
Singleton: French,
c.1410-1420 and
English border
(2nd quarter of
the 15th century)
XV8 (ff. 117124v)
XVI8 (ff. 125132v; leaf
signatures m1-4)
22
Rouen (only
initials)
f. 132: Canticles
Rouen (only
initials)
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The Metamorphoses of a Late Fifteenth-Century Psalter (Harl. MS. 1892)
Quires
Folio Text
XVII (ff. 133140v; leaf
signatures n1-4)
XVIII8 (ff. 141[148]; leaf
signatures o1-4),
text ends on f.
145v, but the
last three folios
are ruled in the
same way.
Illustration
Illuminators
Rouen (only
initials)
8
f. 141v: Litany
followed by a
few prayers
Rouen (only
initials)
Appendix 2: The ‘English Group’
Klara Broekhuijsen listed eleven manuscripts in what she called the ‘English Group’:55
• a prayer book commissioned by Margaret Beaufort (b. 1443, d. 1509) for her
husband Thomas Stanley (b. 1435, d. 1504), as is shown by the heraldic evidence
(London, Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey Muniment Room, MS. 39);
• a Lectionary given by Stephen Jenyns, Lord Mayor of London and his wife to the
London church of St Mary Aldermanbury, in 1508 (Royal MS. 2 B. XII-XIII;
colophon evidence); 56
• a copy of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, commissioned in London c. 1500, for
presentation to Henry VII, possibly by Richard Fitzjames (d. 1522), chaplain to
the King, (Harl. MS. 2838);57
• a Psalter for Bridgettine use, made c. 1500-1510 for the Bridgettine House of Syon
Abbey (England, private collection; formerly Ramsen, Antiquariat Bibermühle);
• the Ordinances of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, London,
with Henry VII (d. 1509) and his wife (d. 1503) shown kneeling before the
Immaculate Conception and a list of members for the period 1503-1517 (Oxford,
Christ Church, MS. 179);
• two manuscripts written in London by Pieter Meghen for Christopher Urswick,
almoner of King Henry VII, and presented to the Cistercian abbey of Hayles
(Gloucestershire) in memory of Sir John Huddleston (d. 1513) and his wife Joan:
a Psalter known as the ‘Hayles Psalter’, written in 1514, and a copy of John
Chrysostom’s Homiliae in Matthaeum, dated to 1517 (Wells, Cathedral Library,
MSS. 5 and 6).
55
56
57
23
Broekhuijsen, The Masters of the Dark Eyes, pp. 20-2, 220-40.
On this manuscript, see Scot McKendrick, John Lowden and Kathleen Doyle (eds.), Royal Manuscripts:
The Genius of Illumination, exhibition catalogue (London, 2011), entry 42.
On this manuscript, see Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, p. 301 and Royal Manuscripts: The Genius
of Illumination, entry 38, where Deirdre Jackson puts forward Richard Fitzjames as the most likely
commissioner of the manuscript.
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In addition to these manuscripts, the Dark Eyes style is encountered in two dated
documents:
• a plea roll dated Michaelmas (29 September) 1514 (London, National Archives,
KB 27/1013);
• a charter dated 12 January 1511 (Woburn Abbey).
Klara Broekhuijsen identified a Book of Hours for the use of Sarum now in Oxford
(Queen’s College Library, MS. 349) as having been made in England in the early sixteenth
century,58 while Peter Kidd has shown that it was made for a member of the English
Bourchier family (partly erased emblem in the borders), and was probably fully executed in
Flanders in the late fifteenth century, including the contribution by the illuminators
working in the Dark Eyes style.59 Klara Broekhuijsen attributed a prayer book (Add. MS.
15525) to the illuminator she called the Master of Queen’s 349 after the Oxford Hours,
together with three South Netherlandish hands, and thus presented it as part of the English
group, dating to c. 1500-1510. Byvanck and Hoogewerff, on the other hand, had recognized
this manuscript as having been executed in the Northern Netherlands c. 1475 (also four
hands).60 Upon examination, we agree with the dating given by Broekhuijsen but the
manuscript displays absolutely no connection with England, either stylistically or textually,
especially since the text is written in Dutch, and both early and later ownership marks point
to the Netherlands (Byvanck and Hoogewerff also recognized the arms of Holland in the
rampant lion which appears in one of the original coats of arms).
Both the Oxford and the London prayer book should therefore be removed from the
English corpus. On the other hand, one should add to it: a copy of Cicero’s De Officiis
printed on parchment in Mainz in 1465, but decorated in the Dark Eyes style between 1495
and 1502 for Prince Arthur (b. 1486, d. 1502) (Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS. 5.3.11).
Kathleen Scott attributes to the same artist the miniature in a late fifteenth-century
Coronation Order of Richard II (Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.3.29) and in a copy
of the Modus tenendi parliamentum (London, Society of Antiquaries, MS. 58).61 A Manual on
Warfare for the Instruction of a Prince, by Robert de Balsac, made for Henry VIII (heraldic
evidence), in which one historiated initial and three miniatures were painted by a member
of the Dark Eyes group, has also recently come to light (Cotton MS. Vespasian A. XVII, ff.
1 (initial), 11, 13v, 15v).62
Additions made in England to existing manuscripts include the three quires in the
present Psalter, and the single leaf miniature added to Harl. MS. 2887 (f. 3v).
58
59
60
61
62
24
Broekuijsen, The Masters of the Dark Eyes, pp. 20-2, 237-9.
See Peter Kidd’s entry for this manuscript at
http://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/library/medieval-manuscripts/descriptions/349.pdf.
A. Byvanck and G. Hoogewerff, Noord-nederlandsche Miniaturen in Handschriften der 14e, 15e en 16e eeuwen
(’s-Gravenhage, 1921-25), no. 130.
On these three books, see by K. L. Scott, ‘Manuscripts for Henry VII, his Household and Family’, in S.
Panayotova (ed.), Cambridge Illuminations. The Conference Papers (London, 2007), pp. 279-286 (esp. p. 281 n.
35, with further bibliography).
D. Starkey and S. Doran (eds.), Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, exhibition catalogue (London, 2009), no. 59.
eBLJ 2011, Article 10