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881047

Title
Psalter (fragment), Ferrara?, late 15th century.
Call number
SAFE/D 89 (Safe 2/9)
Level of description
fonds
Date

Late 15th century
Type of material
Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Drawings
Reference code
881047
Physical Description
1 volume - ink, gold and pigment on vellum - 535 x 400 mm
ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

This manuscript would have originally formed part of a larger decorated psalter designed for use in the communal recitation of the Divine Office. The book was probably destined for a Franciscan house (Sinclair). The style of decoration suggests a Ferrarese origin (Manion), but the particular workshop is unknown.

References:
Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts in Australian collections / Margaret M. Manion and Vera F. Vines. Melbourne : Thames and Hudson, 1984, pp.87-88.

Descriptive catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance western manuscripts in Australia / K. V. Sinclair. Sydney : Sydney University Press, 1969, p.124.

Sinclair, K. V., 'Manuscrits medievaux d'origine franciscaine en Australie', Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, Vol.57, 1964, p.376.
Scope and Content
Text: The manuscript is a fragment from a conventual psalter with psalms ordered according to the Divine Office and accompanied by antiphons, responses and rubrics for particular hours or nocturns. They are prefaced by invitatories, and hymns for matins on ff.7-8 (which were originally ff.1-2). There are 15 lines of text on each page.

Decoration: On f.1r, the opening psalm 'Beatus vir' is introduced by an historiated initial showing David at prayer in a landscape. The remaining letters of the word 'Beatus' have decorative treatment set against a gold panel. In the centre of the lower margin of f.1r is a circle with the monogram YHS. The volume also features five decorated initials three to four lines high introducing hymns and psalter divisions on 7v, 17r, 24r, 27v and 29r. The initials are set on gold square or rectangular grounds, and are coloured blue, mauve, green and red with white tracery and black and white outlines and shading. Simple one-line red and blue versal initials occur alternately throughout the text. Black initials are often quite elaborately developed and pen-flourished.

Script: 15th century Italian liturgical gothic in black ink with red rubrics.

Binding: Modern brown buckram folder.
System of arrangement
4 gatherings: I (6), II (4), III (10), IV (10). Folios 1-10 are misbound and should read ff. 7-8, 1-6, 9-30.
Language
Latin
Access Conditions

Access via appointment
Copying Conditions
Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
General note

The manuscript is No.497 in the Catalogue of J.T. Hackett's Art Collection, 1918, pp.50-51, located in the Mitchell Library printed books collection at Q708.9/H.
Notes by J. T. Hackett are located at Safe 1/7j.
Author unknown.
Digital order no:Album ID : 832350
Signatures / Inscriptions

There are no quire signatures, foliation or pagination.
Date note

Margaret Manion believes the features of the illuminated initial indicate a dating probably some time during the last three decades of the 15th century.
Creator/Author/Artist
Hackett, J. T. (James Thompson)
Subject
Historiated initials.
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Renaissance.
Psalters--Italy.
Exhibited in

The Medieval imagination : illuminated manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand - State Library of Victoria. Applies to: No.24 in catalogue
Open Rosetta viewer
IE160288