The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This extraordinary Psalter-Hours is one of the largest and most elaborately illuminated devotional books made in the Netherlands for export to England during the fifteenth century and is the only known example of a fully illustrated Psalter produced either in or for England or the Netherlands at that time. It is remarkably singular in its robust cycle of ten full-page miniatures and one-hundred-seventy-four small miniatures, as the majority of these images are not derived from any familiar Psalter model. They were produced by at least six different illuminators and those which occur in the Psalter portion of the manuscript were done in the painterly style of the Master of Anthony of Burgundy. Most of the other illuminators worked in the style of Willem Vrelant, a leading illuminator in Bruges in the late fifteenth century. The rubrics which preface the psalms and canticles provide a running commentary on the historical and allegorical significance of the psalms and differ from those encountered in any other devotional book-making practice. Another strikingly unique feature of the Pembroke Psalter Hours is the text of the opening calendar, composed in the format of a continuous metrical poem of 365 Latin verses into which saints' names and feasts, written in gold and red, are occasionally integrated. It is the only known example of a Latin metrical text in a calendar of the late Middle Ages. Though nothing is known about the manuscript's first patron, in the mid-sixteenth century, it belonged to Sir William Herbert, the First Earl of Pembroke who added twenty folios of prayers to the beginning of the book and sixteen at the end, along with depictions of his coat of arms and emblems and a large miniature of himself in prayer (fol. 2V). The calendar section also contains a series of marginal annotations recording the dates of births and deaths of prominent noble adherents of the House of York and their victories against the Lancastrians in the War of the Roses.
Support: Parchment; Extent: i+230+ii; 289 x 209 mm bound to 306 x 224 mm; Foliation: Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; Collation: 1-2 (8), 3 (4), 4 (6), 5 (10, +1 +6), 6 (8), 7 (9, +7), 8 (10, +2 +8), 9 (11, +1 +5 +10), 10 (8), 11 (9, +1), 12 (8), 13 (7, +2), 14 (2), 15 (9, +1), 16 (10, +3 +7), 17 (9, +6), 18 (9, +6), 19 (9, +6), 20 (9, +7), 21 (9, +8), 22 (8), 23 (10, +1 +6), 24-25 (8), 26 (9, +9), 27 (8), 28-29 (4); Catchwords: Horizontal catchwords, partly trimmed, visible in lower right corner at fols.: 53v, 74v, 92v, 117, and 127v
Two columns of twenty-eight lines each, ruled in brown ink; written area: 183 x 131 mm (fols. 1r-20v); two columns of twenty-eight lines each, ruled in red ink (with single columns of text on pages with large miniatures); written area: 186 x 128 mm (fols. 21r-215v); two columns of twenty-eight lines each, ruled in brown ink; written area: 180 x 132 mm (fols. 216r-230r)
Gothic--textualis semi-quadrata
Two hundred and eighty-nine miniatures consisting of twenty-four roundels of the Labors of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac; twenty-one full-page miniatures; eight half-page miniatures for each hour of the Hours of the Virgin; sixty-two historiated initials following the hour of Lauds in the Hours of the Virgin; 174 single-column miniatures illustrating the psalms and canticles; full foliate borders on pages with miniatures and on pages facing them; illuminated initials and line-endings throughout
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Bruges, Belgium
c. 1465‑1470, with additions c. 1550‑1565
English, red velvet with silver corner pieces and two clasps engraved with biblical scenes, late-sixteenth or seventeenth century
Latin; English
Possibly made for Sir William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke of the first creation (d. 1469); William Herbert (his grandson), the first Earl of Pembroke of the second creation, who commissioned the sixteenth century additions to the manuscript; Prince Borghese of Rome; Alessandro Castellani (1823-1883), Rome; Frederick Startridge Ellis (bookseller), London, before 1880; Brayton Ives, New York, c. 1880-91; sale, American Art Galleries, New York, March 5, 1891, lot 634; Robert Hoe, New York; sale, Anderson Auction Company, New York, part I, May 11, 1911, lot 2127, frontispiece plate; Arthur Ingersoll Hoe, New York; Cortland Field Bishop, New York; sale American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York Part II, April 25-27, 1938, lot 1414; Philip S. Collins, Philadelphia; given by his widow, Mary Schell Collins, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1945
Bruges, Belgium
c. 1465‑1470, with additions c. 1550‑1565
Latin; English
Possibly made for Sir William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke of the first creation
This extraordinary Psalter-Hours is one of the largest and most elaborately illuminated devotional books made in the Netherlands for export to England during the fifteenth century and is the only known example of a fully illustrated Psalter produced either in or for England or the Netherlands at that time. It is remarkably singular in its robust cycle of ten full-page miniatures and one-hundred-seventy-four small miniatures, as the majority of these images are not derived from any familiar Psalter model. They were produced by at least six different illuminators and those which occur in the Psalter portion of the manuscript were done in the painterly style of the Master of Anthony of Burgundy. Most of the other illuminators worked in the style of Willem Vrelant, a leading illuminator in Bruges in the late fifteenth century. The rubrics which preface the psalms and canticles provide a running commentary on the historical and allegorical significance of the psalms and differ from those encountered in any other devotional book-making practice. Another strikingly unique feature of the Pembroke Psalter Hours is the text of the opening calendar, composed in the format of a continuous metrical poem of 365 Latin verses into which saints' names and feasts, written in gold and red, are occasionally integrated. It is the only known example of a Latin metrical text in a calendar of the late Middle Ages. Though nothing is known about the manuscript's first patron, in the mid-sixteenth century, it belonged to Sir William Herbert, the First Earl of Pembroke who added twenty folios of prayers to the beginning of the book and sixteen at the end, along with depictions of his coat of arms and emblems and a large miniature of himself in prayer (fol. 2V). The calendar section also contains a series of marginal annotations recording the dates of births and deaths of prominent noble adherents of the House of York and their victories against the Lancastrians in the War of the Roses.
Gothic--textualis semi-quadrata
Two hundred and eighty-nine miniatures consisting of twenty-four roundels of the Labors of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac; twenty-one full-page miniatures; eight half-page miniatures for each hour of the Hours of the Virgin; sixty-two historiated initials following the hour of Lauds in the Hours of the Virgin; 174 single-column miniatures illustrating the psalms and canticles; full foliate borders on pages with miniatures and on pages facing them; illuminated initials and line-endings throughout
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Clear All
