The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This small volume of psalms was created for the private use of a noble lady, probably a relative of Duke Henry the Lion (1129-1195). It was made at Helmarshausen, the same monastery that produced the sumptuous Gospels of Henry the Lion, which sold at auction in 1983 for nearly 12 million dollars, making it the most expensive art object sold to that point. This psalter is much smaller and less elaborate than the Gospels, with only three miniatures, but the quality is very high. The identity of the manuscript’s owner, the lady pictured on fol. 6v, has been the subject of much debate. Scholars have conjectured that she is Gertrud, Henry’s daughter, Clementia, his first wife, or Matilda, his second wife. Because the portrait bears no inscription, and because the facing page, which may have shown the lady’s patron saint, is missing, the question must remain open.
Late Carolingian miniscule; for a full description of the hand, see Krüger 1972, pp. 290-301
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Hamburger, Jeffrey
Contributor: Joyal, Stephanie
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Evers, Jennifer
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Walters Art Gallery. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949, p. 11, no. 24.
Krüger, Ekkehard. Die Schreib- und Malwerkstatt der Abtei Helmarshausen bis in die Zeit Heingrichs des Löwen. Darmstadt: Hessischen Historischen Kommission und der Historischen Kommission für Hessen und Waldeck, 1972, pp. 279-280, 696-713, figs. 66-69.
Jansen, Franz. Die Helmarshausener Buchmalerei zur Zeit Heinrichs des Löwen. Hildesheim and Leipzig: August Lax, 1933, pp. 149-150.
Hoffmann, Hartmut. Bücher and Urkunden aus Helmarshausen und Corvey. Hannover: Hahn, 1992, pp. 19-20.
Korzus, Bernard. Kunst und Kultur im Weserraum, 800-1600; Ausstellung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. Münster in Westfalen: Aschendorff, 1966, pp. 495-496, no. 184.
Bagnoli, Martina. The Medieval World. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2011, p. 165, fig. 148.
Randall, Lilian M.C. Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature: Highlights from the Collection of the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1984.
Luckhardt, Jochen, and Franz Niehoff, eds. Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235: Katalog der Ausstellung Braunschweig 1995. 3 vols. Munich: Hirmer, 1995, pp. 165, 167, no. D12.
Gosebruch, Martin. "'Labor est Herimanni': zum Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen." Abhandlungen der Braunschweigischen Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft 35 (1983).
De Ricci, S. and W.J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 2 vols. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 768, no. 73.
Klemm, Elisabeth. Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen. Frankfurt, 1989. 69-72.
Swarzenski, Hanns. "Recent Literature, Chiefly Periodical, in Medieval Minor Arts." Art Bulletin 24 (1942): pp. 287-304, at p. 296.
Goldschmidt, Adolph. "A German Psalter of the Twelfth Century Written in Helmarshausen." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 1 (1938): pp. 18-23, figs. 1-7.
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.
Helmarshausen, Germany
Second half of the 12th century CE
book
Non-original Binding
Red velvet (probably added by Gruel) over sixteenth- or seventeenth-century beech boards; upper and outer margins clipped; edges gilt and inscribed with a pattern of stars within arches
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created at the monastery of Helmarshausen in Westphalia, second half of twelfth century, by Herimann for a female relative of Henry the Lion
Petrus Grillinger, Canon of Salzburg, early fifteenth century; inscription on fol. 126v reads "Hic liber fuit domini petri Grillinger Magistri Kamere Curie Salzbur[gensis]"
Gruel and Engelmann collection, late nineteenth or early twentieth century; bookplate on upper pastedown, inscribed "136"
Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase, probably from Gruel
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Helmarshausen, Germany
Second half of the 12th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created at the monastery of Helmarshausen in Westphalia, second half of twelfth century, by Herimann for a female relative of Henry the Lion
Petrus Grillinger, Canon of Salzburg, early fifteenth century; inscription on fol. 126v reads "Hic liber fuit domini petri Grillinger Magistri Kamere Curie Salzbur[gensis]"
Gruel and Engelmann collection, late nineteenth or early twentieth century; bookplate on upper pastedown, inscribed "136"
Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase, probably from Gruel
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
This small volume of psalms was created for the private use of a noble lady, probably a relative of Duke Henry the Lion (1129-1195). It was made at Helmarshausen, the same monastery that produced the sumptuous Gospels of Henry the Lion, which sold at auction in 1983 for nearly 12 million dollars, making it the most expensive art object sold to that point. This psalter is much smaller and less elaborate than the Gospels, with only three miniatures, but the quality is very high. The identity of the manuscript’s owner, the lady pictured on fol. 6v, has been the subject of much debate. Scholars have conjectured that she is Gertrud, Henry’s daughter, Clementia, his first wife, or Matilda, his second wife. Because the portrait bears no inscription, and because the facing page, which may have shown the lady’s patron saint, is missing, the question must remain open.
Late Carolingian miniscule; for a full description of the hand, see Krüger 1972, pp. 290-301
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Hamburger, Jeffrey
Contributor: Joyal, Stephanie
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Evers, Jennifer
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Walters Art Gallery. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949, p. 11, no. 24.
Krüger, Ekkehard. Die Schreib- und Malwerkstatt der Abtei Helmarshausen bis in die Zeit Heingrichs des Löwen. Darmstadt: Hessischen Historischen Kommission und der Historischen Kommission für Hessen und Waldeck, 1972, pp. 279-280, 696-713, figs. 66-69.
Jansen, Franz. Die Helmarshausener Buchmalerei zur Zeit Heinrichs des Löwen. Hildesheim and Leipzig: August Lax, 1933, pp. 149-150.
Hoffmann, Hartmut. Bücher and Urkunden aus Helmarshausen und Corvey. Hannover: Hahn, 1992, pp. 19-20.
Korzus, Bernard. Kunst und Kultur im Weserraum, 800-1600; Ausstellung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. Münster in Westfalen: Aschendorff, 1966, pp. 495-496, no. 184.
Bagnoli, Martina. The Medieval World. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2011, p. 165, fig. 148.
Randall, Lilian M.C. Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature: Highlights from the Collection of the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1984.
Luckhardt, Jochen, and Franz Niehoff, eds. Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235: Katalog der Ausstellung Braunschweig 1995. 3 vols. Munich: Hirmer, 1995, pp. 165, 167, no. D12.
Gosebruch, Martin. "'Labor est Herimanni': zum Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen." Abhandlungen der Braunschweigischen Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft 35 (1983).
De Ricci, S. and W.J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 2 vols. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 768, no. 73.
Klemm, Elisabeth. Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen. Frankfurt, 1989. 69-72.
Swarzenski, Hanns. "Recent Literature, Chiefly Periodical, in Medieval Minor Arts." Art Bulletin 24 (1942): pp. 287-304, at p. 296.
Goldschmidt, Adolph. "A German Psalter of the Twelfth Century Written in Helmarshausen." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 1 (1938): pp. 18-23, figs. 1-7.
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.
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