Medieval Psalter Leaf - Nicene Creed & Litany

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Original leaf from a medieval Psalter. 18 lines of ruled Latin text, written in gothic liturgical bookhand script on animal vellum. (150x108mm – 5 7/8 x 4’’) 

One three-line  illuminated initial in pink and blue on a heavily burnished gold ground & extending into the margin; twenty-four one-line illuminated initials alternating in blue with red pen-work, and burnished gold with blue pen-work (many extending into the margin).    

French Flanders, c. 1275-1300.

The text (recto) continues the Athanasian Creed: “[Unus] autem non conversion…” (And He is one, not because His divinity was changed into flesh, but because His humanity was assumed unto God. He is one, not by a mingling of substances, but by unity of person. As a rational soul and flesh are one man: so God and man are one Christ. He died for our salvation, descended into hell, and rose from the dead on the third day. He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead. At His coming, all men are to arise with their own bodies; and they are to give an account of their own deeds.

The three-line illuminated “K” begins the Litany of the Saint (first prescribed by Pope Gregory in 590 following a plague which ravaged Rome): It begins with a shortened version of the Kyrie (notably, there is a scribal omission which has been added in the upper right margin) - followed by a list of saints with each invocation followed by the abbreviation of “Ora pro nobis” (pray for us).  Among the Saints listed are:  Michael, Gabriel and John the Baptist. 

Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat

  • Inventory# IM-4271
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