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 Psalter was created in Southern Italy, likely Naples, in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The litany (fols. 158v - 161r) suggests it was for Cistercian use. It contains six high-quality miniatures attributed to the Neopolitan illuminator Cristoforo Magorana (though the historiated initial of David playing a psaltry on fol. 15r may have been done by another hand), who from 1480-1492 worked at the court of Ferdinand I of Aragon. To date, almost forty manuscripts have been attributed to the artist. The Walters manuscript contains two full-page miniatures, one showing the Tree of Jesse and the other the Man of Sorrows. The Tree of Jesse (described in Isaiah 1:11) shows the ancestry of Christ rising from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David who is depicted on the facing folio (171r). In this depiction Jesse is shown on the trunk of the tree, but it actually rises from Abraham. Surrounding Abraham is a crowd of Prophets each with scrolls with verses believed to prophecy the coming of Christ. The miniature with the Man of Sorrows shows Christ standing in his tomb and surrounded by the objects associated with the Passion (arma Christi). The miniature follows a specific Man of Sorrows iconography that originated in an early-fourteenth century mosaic icon from Constantinople that most likely arrived in Italy ca. 1380. The mosaic panel was believed to be an authentic representation of St. Gregory's vision of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, and this type of image encouraged the viewer to meditate on the suffering of Christ while reading the Passion narratives that follow. The humanist script and white-vine initials place the Walters Psalter firmly within the Humanist tradition of the late fifteenth century. Remnants of black velvet suggest this book once had a chemise binding, comparable to W.294 and W.480. Peter Kidd has suggested that the manuscript may have been written by Pietro Ursuleo of Capua (d. 1483).
Written in Humanist script
flourished c. 1480-94: Cristoforo Majorana (artist)
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Han, Yuna
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 774, cat. no. 109.
Walters Art Gallery, and Dorothy Eugenia Miner. Illuminated books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; an exhibition held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, January 27-March 13. Organized by the Walters Art Gallery in cooperation with the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery. 1949, no. 174.
Walters Art Gallery. The History Of Bookbinding 525-1950 A.D. Organized By The Walters Art Gallery And Presented In Cooperation With The Baltimore Museum Of Art. Baltimore: The Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery. 1957, p. 52, no. 121.
Daneu Lattanzi, A. “Di alcuni codici miniati attribuibili a Matteo Felice e bottega (e di qualche altro codice della scuola napoletana del Quattrocento),” La Bibliofilia 75 (1973), pp. 1-43, esp. pp. 40-41.
Bagnoli, Martina, ed. A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe. Baltimore: The Walters Art Museum, 2016, p. 149, no. 43 (catalog entry by Y. Han).
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.
Naples, Italy
Last quarter of the 15th century CE
book
Original Binding
Fifteenth- or sixteenth-century blind tooled black leather binding over wood boards; tooling in the form of three borders, two with arabesque decoration and one with foliage; remains of a black velvet chemise cover visible on the interior of the top and bottom boards at the edges of the pastedowns; edges are full gilt with gauffered cable-work decoration; the silver gilt catches and hinges of now-missing clasps still preserved and in the form of dog-headed man grasping two dragons; the clasp plates are from an earlier book, possibly thirteenth-century German; likely re-bound since some catchwords towards the front of the manuscript seem to have been cut and some marginalia are partially missing
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created in Southern Italy
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Naples, Italy
Last quarter of the 15th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Created in Southern Italy
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Leo S. Olschki
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
This Psalter was created in Southern Italy, likely Naples, in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The litany (fols. 158v - 161r) suggests it was for Cistercian use. It contains six high-quality miniatures attributed to the Neopolitan illuminator Cristoforo Magorana (though the historiated initial of David playing a psaltry on fol. 15r may have been done by another hand), who from 1480-1492 worked at the court of Ferdinand I of Aragon. To date, almost forty manuscripts have been attributed to the artist. The Walters manuscript contains two full-page miniatures, one showing the Tree of Jesse and the other the Man of Sorrows. The Tree of Jesse (described in Isaiah 1:11) shows the ancestry of Christ rising from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David who is depicted on the facing folio (171r). In this depiction Jesse is shown on the trunk of the tree, but it actually rises from Abraham. Surrounding Abraham is a crowd of Prophets each with scrolls with verses believed to prophecy the coming of Christ. The miniature with the Man of Sorrows shows Christ standing in his tomb and surrounded by the objects associated with the Passion (arma Christi). The miniature follows a specific Man of Sorrows iconography that originated in an early-fourteenth century mosaic icon from Constantinople that most likely arrived in Italy ca. 1380. The mosaic panel was believed to be an authentic representation of St. Gregory's vision of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, and this type of image encouraged the viewer to meditate on the suffering of Christ while reading the Passion narratives that follow. The humanist script and white-vine initials place the Walters Psalter firmly within the Humanist tradition of the late fifteenth century. Remnants of black velvet suggest this book once had a chemise binding, comparable to W.294 and W.480. Peter Kidd has suggested that the manuscript may have been written by Pietro Ursuleo of Capua (d. 1483).
Written in Humanist script
flourished c. 1480-94: Cristoforo Majorana (artist)
Principal cataloger: Berlin, Nicole
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Han, Yuna
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 774, cat. no. 109.
Walters Art Gallery, and Dorothy Eugenia Miner. Illuminated books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; an exhibition held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, January 27-March 13. Organized by the Walters Art Gallery in cooperation with the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery. 1949, no. 174.
Walters Art Gallery. The History Of Bookbinding 525-1950 A.D. Organized By The Walters Art Gallery And Presented In Cooperation With The Baltimore Museum Of Art. Baltimore: The Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery. 1957, p. 52, no. 121.
Daneu Lattanzi, A. “Di alcuni codici miniati attribuibili a Matteo Felice e bottega (e di qualche altro codice della scuola napoletana del Quattrocento),” La Bibliofilia 75 (1973), pp. 1-43, esp. pp. 40-41.
Bagnoli, Martina, ed. A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe. Baltimore: The Walters Art Museum, 2016, p. 149, no. 43 (catalog entry by Y. Han).
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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