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 English manuscript was made in East Anglia in the mid-thirteenth century for a patron with special veneration for St. Olaf, whose life and martyrdom are prominently portrayed in the Beatus initial of Psalm 1. Known as the "Carrow Psalter" due to its later use by the nunnery of Carrow near Norwich, it is more accurately described as a psalter-hours, as it contains, among other texts, the Office of the Dead and the Hours of the Virgin. The manuscript is striking for its rich variety of illuminations, including full-page cycles of saints, martyrs, and biblical scenes, as well as historiated initials within the Psalter, and heraldry added in the fifteenth century to undecorated initials in the Hours of the Virgin. Especially notable is the miniature portraying the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, for after Henry VIII found him guilty of treason in 1538, his image was concealed by gluing a page over it rather than destroying it, and it has since been rediscovered.
Littera prescissa, with smaller size used as cues for psalms cited in liturgical texts, antiphons, versicles
Principal cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Principal cataloger: Noel, William
Principal cataloger: Smith, Kathryn
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Noel, William
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Dutschke, Consuelo
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Grollemond, Larisa
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Yates Thompson, H. A Lecture on Some Illuminated Manuscripts, London: Chiswick Press, 1902, pp. 13-15.
Yates, Thompson, H. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Second Series of Fifty Manuscripts in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902, pp. 2-11, no. 52.
Herbert, J.A. Illuminated Manuscripts, London: British Museum, 1911, p. 181.
Yates Thompson, H. Illustrations from 100 Manuscripts in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson. London: Chiswick Press, 1914, vol. 4, pp. 11-13.
Fett, H. "Gamel norsk malerkunst." Kunst og Kultur 5 (1914/1915): pp. 136, 139.
Lindblom, A. La peinture gothique en Suède et Norvège: Étude sur les relations entre l'Europe occidentale et les pays scandinaves. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1916.
Fett, H. "Norges Malerkunst i Middelalderen." Kristiana 5 (1917): pp. 149-150.
De Ricci, S. "Les manuscrits de la Collection Yates Thompson." Bulletin de la Société française de reproductions de manuscrits à peintures 10 (1926), p. 56.
Fawtier, R. La Bible historiée toute figurée de la John Rylands Library. Paris, 1924, p.36.
Borenius, T. "The Iconography of St. Thomas of Canterbury." Archaeologia 79 (1929): pp. 50-51.
Millar, E.G. English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth century, Paris: G. van Oest, 1926.
Borenius, T. St. Thomas Becket in Art. London: Methuen & Co., 1932, pp. 92-93.
Dickens, B. "The Cult of St. Olave in the British Isles." Saga Book of the Viking Society 12 (1937-1945): pp. 62-63.
De Ricci, S. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, vol. 1, p. 771, no. 90.
Haseloff, G. Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhundert. Studien zur Buchmalerei in England, Frankreich und den Niederländen. Kiel, 1938, pp. 61 ff
Boase, T.S.R. English Art, 1100-1216. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953, p. 204.
Van Gelder, J.G. "Een 13de eeuws Psalterium met een Utrechtse Kalender." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 6 (1955): p. 66.
Ker, N.R. Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964, p. 48.
Jónsdóttir, S. "Enskt saltarabrot á Íslandi." Andvara, 1967: p. 167.
Jónsdóttir, S. "Heilagur Nikulás í Arnasfni." In Afmelisrita Jóns Helgasonar. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið, 1969, pp. 262-265, 268-269.
Jónsdóttir, S. Illumination in a Manuscript of Stjorn. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið, 1971, p. 31.
Meoli Toulmin. Örigini e data di un codice inglese della Marciana." Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Árte 8 (1972): pp. 52, 63.
Randall, L.M.C. "Flemish Psalters in the Apostolic Tradition." In Gatherings in Honor of Dorothy Miner. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1974, p. 180 n. 21.
Jónsdóttir, S. "History of the English Psalter at Skálholt." Gripla 4 (1980): pp. 325-326.
Büttner, F.O., Imitatio Pietatis: Motive der christlichen Ikonographie als Modelle zur Verähnlichung. Berlin: G. Mann, 1983, pp. 191, 205.
Randall, L.M.C. Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature: Highlights from the Collection of the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1984, pl. 13.
Roberts, M.E. "The Relic of the Holy Blood in the Iconography of the Thirteenth Century North Transept Portal of Westminster Abbey." In W.M. Ormrod, ed., England in the Thirteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium. Harlaxton: Boydell Press, 1985, p. 135.
Morgan, N. J. Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2: 1250-1285. A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 4. London: Harvey Miller, 1988, no. 118.
Noel, William, and Daniel Weiss. The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible. London: Third Millennium Publishing; Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2002, p. 157, no. 6 (fols. 24v-25r).
Linenthal, R.A. "'The Collectors Are Far More Particular than You Think': Selling Manuscripts in America." Manuscripta 51, no. 1 (2007): pp. 131-142, p. 137
Sandler, L.F. "A Scientific Textbook for a Noble Student: Sacrobosco's Treatises in the New York Public Library." In J. H. Marrow, R. Linenthal, and W. Noel, eds., The Medieval Book: Glosses from Friends and Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel, 't Goy-Houten: Hes & DeGraaf, 2010, p. 55, n.2.
Bagnoli, M. The Medieval World, Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2011, pp. 96 (fol. 15v), 104 (fol. 15v), 191-192.
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.
East Anglia, England
Mid-13th century CE
book
Non-original Binding
Henry Yates Thompson had the manuscript rebound in the early twentieth century; limp vellum binding, hair side out with stiff square yapp and green ribbons at fore edge; spine inscribed in gold tooled letters "Psalter of the Monastery of Carehow near Norwich circa A.D. 1245."
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Made in East Anglia, England, mid-thirteenth century, for patron with special devotion for St. Olaf
Carrow Priory, Norwich, fifteenth century, recorded in a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century inscription on fol. 1r: "Istud psalterium pertinet domui de Carehowe." Added heraldry may have been the arms of the abbey's benefactors.
John Baptist, 3rd Lord Caryll
George Galway Mills, England, before 1800; collection sold in Mills Sale, London, February 24, 1800
Reverend David T. Powell
4th Earl of Ashburnham
Henry Yates Thompson
Bernard Quaritch, from Yates Thompson sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, March 23, 1920, no. 34, for 4,100 pounds stirling.
Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase from Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 1920
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
East Anglia, England
Mid-13th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Made in East Anglia, England, mid-thirteenth century, for patron with special devotion for St. Olaf
Carrow Priory, Norwich, fifteenth century, recorded in a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century inscription on fol. 1r: "Istud psalterium pertinet domui de Carehowe." Added heraldry may have been the arms of the abbey's benefactors.
John Baptist, 3rd Lord Caryll
George Galway Mills, England, before 1800; collection sold in Mills Sale, London, February 24, 1800
Reverend David T. Powell
4th Earl of Ashburnham
Henry Yates Thompson
Bernard Quaritch, from Yates Thompson sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, March 23, 1920, no. 34, for 4,100 pounds stirling.
Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase from Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 1920
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
This English manuscript was made in East Anglia in the mid-thirteenth century for a patron with special veneration for St. Olaf, whose life and martyrdom are prominently portrayed in the Beatus initial of Psalm 1. Known as the "Carrow Psalter" due to its later use by the nunnery of Carrow near Norwich, it is more accurately described as a psalter-hours, as it contains, among other texts, the Office of the Dead and the Hours of the Virgin. The manuscript is striking for its rich variety of illuminations, including full-page cycles of saints, martyrs, and biblical scenes, as well as historiated initials within the Psalter, and heraldry added in the fifteenth century to undecorated initials in the Hours of the Virgin. Especially notable is the miniature portraying the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, for after Henry VIII found him guilty of treason in 1538, his image was concealed by gluing a page over it rather than destroying it, and it has since been rediscovered.
Littera prescissa, with smaller size used as cues for psalms cited in liturgical texts, antiphons, versicles
Principal cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Principal cataloger: Noel, William
Principal cataloger: Smith, Kathryn
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Noel, William
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Dutschke, Consuelo
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Grollemond, Larisa
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Yates Thompson, H. A Lecture on Some Illuminated Manuscripts, London: Chiswick Press, 1902, pp. 13-15.
Yates, Thompson, H. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Second Series of Fifty Manuscripts in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902, pp. 2-11, no. 52.
Herbert, J.A. Illuminated Manuscripts, London: British Museum, 1911, p. 181.
Yates Thompson, H. Illustrations from 100 Manuscripts in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson. London: Chiswick Press, 1914, vol. 4, pp. 11-13.
Fett, H. "Gamel norsk malerkunst." Kunst og Kultur 5 (1914/1915): pp. 136, 139.
Lindblom, A. La peinture gothique en Suède et Norvège: Étude sur les relations entre l'Europe occidentale et les pays scandinaves. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1916.
Fett, H. "Norges Malerkunst i Middelalderen." Kristiana 5 (1917): pp. 149-150.
De Ricci, S. "Les manuscrits de la Collection Yates Thompson." Bulletin de la Société française de reproductions de manuscrits à peintures 10 (1926), p. 56.
Fawtier, R. La Bible historiée toute figurée de la John Rylands Library. Paris, 1924, p.36.
Borenius, T. "The Iconography of St. Thomas of Canterbury." Archaeologia 79 (1929): pp. 50-51.
Millar, E.G. English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth century, Paris: G. van Oest, 1926.
Borenius, T. St. Thomas Becket in Art. London: Methuen & Co., 1932, pp. 92-93.
Dickens, B. "The Cult of St. Olave in the British Isles." Saga Book of the Viking Society 12 (1937-1945): pp. 62-63.
De Ricci, S. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, vol. 1, p. 771, no. 90.
Haseloff, G. Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhundert. Studien zur Buchmalerei in England, Frankreich und den Niederländen. Kiel, 1938, pp. 61 ff
Boase, T.S.R. English Art, 1100-1216. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953, p. 204.
Van Gelder, J.G. "Een 13de eeuws Psalterium met een Utrechtse Kalender." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 6 (1955): p. 66.
Ker, N.R. Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964, p. 48.
Jónsdóttir, S. "Enskt saltarabrot á Íslandi." Andvara, 1967: p. 167.
Jónsdóttir, S. "Heilagur Nikulás í Arnasfni." In Afmelisrita Jóns Helgasonar. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið, 1969, pp. 262-265, 268-269.
Jónsdóttir, S. Illumination in a Manuscript of Stjorn. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið, 1971, p. 31.
Meoli Toulmin. Örigini e data di un codice inglese della Marciana." Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Árte 8 (1972): pp. 52, 63.
Randall, L.M.C. "Flemish Psalters in the Apostolic Tradition." In Gatherings in Honor of Dorothy Miner. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1974, p. 180 n. 21.
Jónsdóttir, S. "History of the English Psalter at Skálholt." Gripla 4 (1980): pp. 325-326.
Büttner, F.O., Imitatio Pietatis: Motive der christlichen Ikonographie als Modelle zur Verähnlichung. Berlin: G. Mann, 1983, pp. 191, 205.
Randall, L.M.C. Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature: Highlights from the Collection of the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1984, pl. 13.
Roberts, M.E. "The Relic of the Holy Blood in the Iconography of the Thirteenth Century North Transept Portal of Westminster Abbey." In W.M. Ormrod, ed., England in the Thirteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium. Harlaxton: Boydell Press, 1985, p. 135.
Morgan, N. J. Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2: 1250-1285. A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 4. London: Harvey Miller, 1988, no. 118.
Noel, William, and Daniel Weiss. The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible. London: Third Millennium Publishing; Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2002, p. 157, no. 6 (fols. 24v-25r).
Linenthal, R.A. "'The Collectors Are Far More Particular than You Think': Selling Manuscripts in America." Manuscripta 51, no. 1 (2007): pp. 131-142, p. 137
Sandler, L.F. "A Scientific Textbook for a Noble Student: Sacrobosco's Treatises in the New York Public Library." In J. H. Marrow, R. Linenthal, and W. Noel, eds., The Medieval Book: Glosses from Friends and Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel, 't Goy-Houten: Hes & DeGraaf, 2010, p. 55, n.2.
Bagnoli, M. The Medieval World, Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2011, pp. 96 (fol. 15v), 104 (fol. 15v), 191-192.
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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