Latin Psalter and Missal, Germany, 14th century

Component identifier:

Item 4

Content Summary:

Description: i, 401, ii leaves (vellum); 142 x 110 mm.; faults in leaves 214, 252 and 254 and on f.370r the marginal decoration is smeared.

Script: German littera gothica textualis

Decoration: Rubricated in red and blue; marginal flourishes in red and blue ink; calligraphic capitals in red and blue.

Layout: Part in double columns, 32 lines to the page; the greater part in one column of 26 lines to the page; calendar begins April (f.1r – f.5r).

Binding: Fine contemporary German tooled pig-skin binding of stamped vellum over champered oak boards with remains of original brass clasps. The stamped binding comprises a central rectangle of interlaced flower sprays surrounded by seven compartments of New Testament scenes, each with blind-stamped title. Includes image of David playing the harp, St Paul with his sword, Crucifixion etc. The lower cover is similarly stamped with the figures of Saints. Inside back cover appears to have a manuscript fragment underlying paper pastedown. Evidence that folios have been cut down (eg f.365v).

Provenance: 1. Cisterican church of St Mary in Furstenvelt, Diocese of Freising, with colophon dated 1306 of a monk, Heinrich von Biberach on f.399r. Freising was a major religious centre in the middle ages. 2. On front flyleaf i (recto) are two inscriptions which together suggest the name [Joannes Dir H. Mayer? or perhaps Ioannes Dirttmaiier?], dated 1569 and refer to his being adopted (perhaps by office rather than parents) in 1567. A naive drawing of a quadruped sits under this inscription. His inscriptions continue on front flyleaf i (verso) and say that he was ordained acolyte on the feast of St Cuthbert, 1569. 3. Inside front cover has an illuminated ex libris of Charles Clifford, 1839.

Notes: On the front flyleaf i (recto) are bon mots [good words] about mortality, dated 1569; end flyleaf ii and inside front cover contain the following text: Canticles for feast days; the addition of St Corbinian, patron of Freising and archdiocese of Munich, to the calendar in November (f.4v) reinforces that the manuscript is from the diocese of Freising. He is also included in a contemporary addition in main text at the foot of f.363r; St Acacius added to calendar in June (f.2r).

Reference: Sinclair: No.6 pp. 24-25; not in Manion Vines

Immediate source of acquisition:

The collection was purchased by the National Library of Australia from the estate of the 11th Baron Clifford in November 1963. It reached Canberra in April 1964. The Chertsey Cartulary (item 65), possibly the most important medieval manuscript held in Australia due to the fact that it is one of only three extant from the 14th century and the only one held outside the UK, was received in 1975, following the granting of an export licence by the British Government.

Names:

Clifford, Hugh, Colonel Hon.

Access and use