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Psalter: MS McClean 40

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Current Location: In storage

Titles

Psalter

Entities

Categories

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, ii paper flyleaves + 224 fols. + ii paper flyleaves, 132 x 95 (88 – 92 x 57) mm, 17 long lines, ruled in black ink, leaves lost after fol. 220 and text supplied in slightly later hand on fols. 221r – 223v.

BINDING: eighteenth century, brown leather over pasteboards, gold-tooled spine.

CONTENTS: fols. 2r – 7v Calendar; fol. 8r Table of Sunday letters; fol. 8v Roundels for establishing Sunday letters in leap years and Golden numbers
fol. 9r Table relating the Zodiac Signs to parts of the human body; fols. 10r – 205v Psalter, Gallican; fols. 205v – 223v Canticles, Te Deum, Athanasian Creed.

ORNAMENTATION: Blue and pink initials [7 – 12 ll.] with white floral ornament, acanthus and foliage infill on gold grounds, and full or partial acanthus and floral spraywork borders for Psalms 1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97, 109 (fols. 10r, 40r, 59r, 77r, 94v, 117v, 139r, 161v); identical initials [6 ll.] with two-sided borders for Psalms 51 and 101 (fols. 76r, 141v); blue initials [3 – 5 ll.] with white floral ornament, acanthus and foliage infill on gold grounds, and partial acanthus and floral spraywork borders for Psalms 24, 102, 119 (fol. 37r, fol. 144r, fol. 181v) and Canticles of Isaiah and Moses (fol. 205v, 208v); gold initials [2 – 3 ll.] on blue and pink white-patterned grounds with occasional partial spraywork borders and animals (nimbed eagle on fol. 11v, hound chasing hares on fol. 41v, hare blowing horn fol. 81v; stag on fol. 105v, hound chasing stag on fol. 145v); alternate red and blue one-line penwork initials.

Notes

History note: Made for a Brigittine in Cologne (Calendar); wedding gift for Johanna von Prantt from her father (sixteenth-century inscription, fol. 1v); Charles Robert des Ruffières (bookplate inside upper cover); his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 27 February – 4 March 1899, lot 1759; purchased by Frank McClean (1837 – 1904); his bequest, 1904

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1904) by McClean, Frank

Dating

15th Century, Mid
Production date: circa AD 1450

People, subjects and objects depicted

Project

  • Cambridge Illuminated

Materials used in production

Gold

Components of the work

Support composed of parchment

Techniques used in production

Penwork
Illumination

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: [medita]tati sunt inania
  • Location: Fol. 11r
  • Type: Secundo folio

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: MS McClean 40
Primary reference Number: 170705
Project ID: 19

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 24 August 2020

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Manuscripts and Printed Books

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Psalter" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/170705 Accessed: 2025-12-05 08:01:41

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/170705 |title=Psalter |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 08:01:41|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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