The Bohun psalter at the Fitzwilliam Museum belongs to a unique group of ten manuscripts produced in England during the second half of the fourteenth century. Each was lavishly decorated by illuminators who were employed by members of the Bohun family: first, at the family castle at Pleshey, Essex; and subsequently at the Rochford, Essex residence of Joan de Bohun (d. 1419), widow of Humphrey, 'the seventh', the last Bohun earl of Hereford, Essex and Northampton (d. 1373). The circumstances of production of these manuscripts are unusual in that they were illustrated by 'house artists' at a time when most luxury books were produced in urban centers by craftsmen who worked for a variety of clients. Even more unusual is the fact that the name of one of the artists - John de Teye - is known, and still more unexpected, that John was an Augustinian Friar, identified as 'mon luminour' ('my illuminator') in the will of Humphrey de Bohun, 'the sixth', earl of Hereford and Essex (d. 1361), who asked for his prayers and left him a bequest of ten pounds. John de Teye illuminated the first page of the Fitzwilliam psalter and another artist, his frequent collaborator who remains anonymous, carried out the rest of the pictorial program of the manuscript, aided by a third craftsman who supplied some of the lesser decoration.
The pictorial program of the Fitzwilliam psalter includes half-page miniatures and historiated initials at the first twelve text divisions, together constituting a cycle of more than thirty scenes from the life of David, from fighting the bear and the lion to the victory of Joab over Sheba (1 Kings 17 – 2 Kings 20). A further half-page miniature and historiated initial of the Last Judgement marks the beginning of the Penitential Psalms. In addition, a genre scene of apes fishing, cooking, and preparing to serve the catch fills of bas de page of the Beatus page (Psalm 1) of the manuscript.
Characteristic of the Bohun manuscripts, the main method of illustration is historical. As in the Bohun Psalter in the British Library (London, British Library, Egerton MS 3277), the subjects are drawn from the Old Testament books of Kings, a logical choice considering that King David was thought to be the author of the Psalms. In the Fitzwilliam manuscript the narrative is presented in clusters of episodes focused on the young David, on David and Goliath, David and Saul, David and Abigail, David and Bathsheba, and David and Absalom. Each sequence begins with two or more subjects in the miniature, followed by another episode in the historiated initial. While long series of miniatures of the life of David occasionally prefaced psalters (for example, the Psalter of Saint Louis: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS latin 10525), the only earlier example of detailed biographical/historical illustration on the pages of the psalter text itself is the marginal cycle of the Tickhill Psalter (New York, New York Public Library, Spencer MS 26), produced in England in the first decade of the fourteenth century.
The decorative scheme of the Fitzwilliam psalter is as elaborate as the pictorial program of the miniatures and historiated initials. Every page has an elegant partial border. Two other features are especially noteworthy. First is the use of detailed micro-architecture with finely wrought pairs of ogee arches, surmounted by pinnacles, crockets, and supported by flying buttresses in the Gothic Decorated Style to frame the miniatures; the subtle variations in design from one to the next are remarkable. John de Teye designed similar architectural frames for the Bohun psalter in Oxford, Exeter College, MS 47 as well as the psalter portion of the Bohun psalter and hours in the Bodleian Library (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D.4.4).
The second feature of the non-figural decoration that stands out is the profusion of heraldry. Carefully blazoned heraldic shields are prominent in the frames on each page with a miniature, physically serving as punctuation points at corners of the images. In addition, the arms displayed as a group in six shields on the Beatus page are repeated individually in the next six psalm initials on the following pages. In total, Bohun family arms appear twenty-three times, more frequently than any other armorials; in fact, in the absence of any other form of written documentation, such as calendar obits or inscriptions of ownership, it is these coats of arms that identify the manuscript as made for a member of the Bohun family. Fundamentally, all 'Bohun' manuscripts are identifiable as such in the same way, first and foremost by multiple representation of shields with the family arms.
As much as the Fitzwilliam psalter is identifiable as a Bohun manuscript by its heraldry, it also displays a characteristic Bohun painting style, both in figural imagery and in non-figural decoration. The narrative compositions are crowded with small-scale large-headed figures gesticulating, interacting through facial expression, and thus 'real', but with little physical substance and placed in almost spaceless environments. The sparkling gold backgrounds of miniatures and initials are finely tooled. Surface detail is rich and colorful: garments and accessories are carefully delineated, ladies have seductive bosoms and men wear elaborate silver armor, while ground areas are patterned in stylized zig-zags strewn with tiny flowers. Antecedents of the Bohun style can be traced back to earlier fourteenth century manuscripts such as the St. Omer Psalter (London, British Library, Yates Thompson MS 14), the Brescia Psalter (Brescia, Biblioteca Queriniana, MS A.V.17), and the Psalter of Queen Philippa (London, British Library, Harley MS 2899), all pre-Black Death works marked by narrative detail, refined, small-scale figures, and delicate surface patterning. The impact of the Bohun style is still evident in manuscripts produced in London in the years around 1400, in particular the Carmelite Missal (London, British Library, Add. MSS 29704-29705 and Add. MS 44892).
While it is certain that the Fitzwillam psalter was made for a member of the Bohun family, conclusions about both the identity of this individual and the date of the production of the manuscript have changed over time. Early twentieth-century scholars such as George Warner and Montague Rhodes James (Thompson (1912)), identified the Bohun heraldry, but focused on the shields with arms they blazoned as those of John of Gaunt (France and England quarterly, a label of three points ermine) and Henry, duke of Lancaster, d. 1361, John's father-in-law (England ancient, a label of three points flory or). Consequently they called the manuscript the Psalter of John of Gaunt, and dated it c. 1360. More recently, Lynda Dennison (Dennison (1988) and subsequently) concluded that from a stylistic point of view the manuscript dated to the early 1370s, and on the basis of the heraldry, which includes the arms of John of Gaunt as king of Castile (quarterly Castile and Leon) on the Beatus page, assigned a specific date between 1371, when John claimed the Spanish throne, and 1373, when Humphrey de Bohun, the seventh and last Bohun earl died.
All conclusions about heraldry - and, as a result, dating and intended ownership - have had to be revised in light of the recognition by Lucy Freeman Sandler (Sandler (2003) and (2014)) that the label on the arms previously identified as those of John of Gaunt is actually argent, not ermine. These are the arms of the royal heir apparent, not John of Gaunt. The reidentification made it clear that the heraldry in the Fitzwilliam psalter is organized programmatically, purposefully underscoring the importance of the Bohun family in relation to the English royal family. On the Beatus page, Sandler read the heraldic display as highlighting two father-son relationships: around the miniature on the top left, the position of precedence, the arms of the king of England above the arms of the heir apparent; on the upper right, the arms of John of Gaunt as king of Castile (a claim he retained until 1386) above those of his son, Henry Bolingbroke, as the Lancaster heir; and at the bottom of the page, the arms of the Bohuns as earls of Hereford and Essex, and as earls of Northampton, earldoms joined by Humphrey, 'the seventh'. The explanation for the introduction of Lancastrian arms is that Henry Bolingbroke was married to Humphrey's daughter Mary (d. 1394). The programmatic arrangement is reiterated in the sequence of armorials in the psalm initials on the following pages: England after 1340; John of Gaunt as king of Castile; heir apparent of king of England; Henry Bolingbroke, as Lancaster heir; Bohun of Hereford, Essex and Northampton; Bohun of Northampton; Butler, earl of Ormonde; and Courtenay, earl of Devon (these last two referring to the husbands of female Bohuns of the generation of Humphrey the seventh's father William, earl of Northampton). The arms of Bohun and Bolinbroke recur together on the pages with the miniatures for Psalm 38, Psalm 52, and Psalm 80. Sandler concluded that the inclusion of both Bohun and Lancastrian arms on multiple pages of the manuscript referred to the marital alliance of Mary de Bohun and Henry Bolingbroke, and suggested that the book was made to celebrate their marriage in early 1381.
Lucy Freeman Sandler
3 leaves | 1-68 76 8-278 2812 29eleven 306 | 3 leaves
The manuscript is currently too tightly bound to securely establish a collation formula. However, this catalogue record suggests a formula that deviates significantly from that of Wormald and Giles (1982). Although it agrees with their formula up to Quire 27, it proposes that Quire 28 is not a quaternion but a sexternion (i.e. comprising not 8 but 12 leaves). This is supported by the leaf signatures "i"-"vj" on folios 215r-220r and the catchword on f. 226v. While Wormald and Giles state that the manuscript consists of 32 quires, this record proposes that Quire 28 is followed by only two further quires: Quire 29, which contains eleven leaves, and Quire 30, which consists of six leaves. The latter quire comprises the Calendar and clearly forms a separate codicological unit.17th-century olive morocco binding with on both the outside covers: a border of gilt-tooled double-lined fillets, and, at the centre, a gold-stamped decorated medallion with the IHS monogram featuring, above, the Cross flanked by the sun and moon, and, below, the Sacred Heart with the Nails; gold-tooled fillets on the spine but no spine inscription; gilt-tooled edges and gauffered fore edge; two clasps with scallop shell design with catches on the lower cover.
Binding height: 175 mm; width: 125 mm; depth: 60 mm.
20th-century foliation:
[a] + [b]-[c] + [d] + i-iii | 1-243 | iv-vi + [e]-[f]
Numbering in pencil in the lower left-hand corners of all the rectos of ff. i-iii, 1-243, iv-vi, and sometimes also in the lower right-hand corner (e.g. ff. 1, 2, 4, 7, 28, 29, 46, 54, 61, 62, 63, 78, 99, 173; NB. f. 33 has the number 6 in the lower right-hand corner). The latter numbers appear to represent an initial foliation that has been largely erased from the manuscript and is still faintly visible on many folios. Folios i-iii and iv-vi are the manuscripts earliest and probaly original flyleaves. Folios [a], [d], [e]-[f] are later parchment flyleaves. Folios [b]-[c] are two added modern paper flyleaves. Note that this is the foliation that has been followed by scholars and is used in this catalogue record.20th-century foliation:
i, ii-iii, iv + v-vii | 1-243 | [viii]-[x] + [a]-[b]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corners of the first seven flyleaves at the beginning, and the rectos of ff. 1-28. Subsequently, only the rectos of the tens are physically numbered (30, 40, 50, etc.) [with one exception: folio 68 has been foliated as well]. This pattern continues until f. 160r, after which the only numbered leaves are 217 and 230. The flyleaves at the end have not been numbered but the first three flyleaves at the end have been allocated the numbers [viii]-[x] to indicate that they are consecutive with the v-vii, forming the manuscript's earliest and probably original parchment flyleaves, and the letters [a]-[b] have been allocated to the final two flyleaves at the end. The later parchment flyleaves were added later, perhaps at the same time as ff. i and iv (ff. ii-iii are two added modern paper flyleaves). Please note that this foliation is not followed in this catalogue record.Mary de Bohun (c. 1369/70–1394), daughter of Humphrey de Bohun (1342–1373), 7th Earl of Hereford, and Joan Fitzalan (1347/8–1419, or her husband Henry Bolingbroke (1367–1413), later King Henry IV (1399–1413): probably made for Mary on the occasion of her marriage to Henry Bolingbroke in 1380, as suggested by the arms of Bohun and Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, son of John of Gaunt in corners of borders and miniatures and inside initials (see Decoration). Other coats of arms, including those of Butler, Courtenay, John of Gaunt and England, reflect those of family into which past members of the Bohun family had married. A twin manuscript, now Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, MS. Auct. D. 4. 4 is thought to have been made for the same occasion, specifically for Mary de Bohun (see Havens (2020), passim).
Margaret of Anjou (1430–1482), Queen of England (1445–1461) or her husband Henry VI (1421–1471), King of England (1422–1461): the Royal Arms impaled with those of Anjou were later added to the upper corner of the outer margin of 1r.
John Stafford (d. 1452), Bishop of Bath and Wells (1424-1443) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1443-1452): his arms added to the outer margin of f. 1r, below the Royal Arms impaled with those of Anjou. Stafford had crowned Margaret of Anjou Queen in 1445.
Barnaby [Burneby] family: obits for their family members ("Anne B[u]rneby" and "Phelippe burneby")inserted in the Calendar in a neat 15th-centry textualis hand (imitating the original script).
Walton family of Longford: memoranda and obits for their family members inserted in the Calendar, dating to 1580-1592 and 1624, in secretary hands.
Henry Valentine Stafford-Jerningham (1802–1884), 9th Baron Jerningham: Acquired the manuscript through purchase before 1884 according to Henry Yates Thompson's Catalogue (1912), p. 52.
Emma Eliza (née Gerard) Stafford-Jerningham (bef. 1842–d. 1912), Lady Stafford. Daughter of Frederic Sewallis Gerard and Mary Ann (née Wilkinson) Gerard. Former second wife of 9th Baron Stafford, and later wife of Basil Thomas Fitzherbert.: Was gifted the manuscript by her husband Henry Valentine Stafford-Jerningham (1802–1884) according to Henry Yates Thompson's Catalogue (1912), p. 552.
Beatrice Mary Teresa (née FitzHerbert) Plowden (c. 1862–1949), Lady Chichele-Plowden. Daughter of Basil Thomas Fitzherbert and Emily Charlotte (née Stafford-Jerningham) Fitzherbert; wife of Trevor John Chichele Chichele-Plowden, KCSI; and step-daughter of Emma Eliza (née Gerard) Stafford-Jerningham, Lady Stafford: sold the manuscript to Henry Yates Thompson in 1907. her name inscribed in pencil on f. i recto: "Lady Chichele-Plowden".
Henry Yates Thompson (1838–1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts, newspaper proprietor, and grandson of Joseph Brooks Yates: purchased the manuscript from Lady Chichele-Plowden on 31 December 1907 as is indicated by a printed ex libris on the inside of the upper cover from the library of Henry Yates Thompson with the gold-stamped inscription: "EX MUSAEO HENRICI YATES THOMPSON" that bears the handwritten number: "C" [but the number "XCIX" written in pencil above the label] and the handwritten note: "[...] Lady Plowden Dec. 31 1907". This manuscript is listed in the following catalogues of his library: Heny Yates Thompson, of Fourteen Illuminated Manuscripts; nos. XCV to XVII and 79A Completing the Hundred in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912), pp. 45-52 (no. XCIX); and Heny Yates Thompson, Illustations from One Hundred Manuscripts in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson, 7 vols (London: Chiswick Press, 1907-1918), IV (1914): pp. 33-35; plates LII-LIX. Sold the manuscript at Sotheby's, Lot 40, 23 March 1920 see Sotheby's Catalogue of Twenty-Six Illuminated Manuscripts and Eight Fifteenth Century Books Printed on Vellum: The Property of Henry Yates Thompson (London: Dryden Press, 1920), pp. 85-86 ['The Psalter of John of Gaunt'].
Thomas Henry Riches (d. 1935), art collector: owned until his death in 1935 as indicated by his donation bookplate on the inside of the front cover: "Fitzwilliam Museum - Bequeathed by T.H. Riches, M.A. Gonville and Caius College - 1935", with the handwritten addition: "Received 1950". The latter refers to the fact that although Riches bequeathed the manuscript to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1935, the museum only received it on the death of his widow Katherine Anne Riches (née Maclean) who had a life-interest, in 1950.
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3 leaves | 1-68 76 8-278 2812 29eleven 306 | 3 leaves
The manuscript is currently too tightly bound to securely establish a collation formula. However, this catalogue record suggests a formula that deviates significantly from that of Wormald and Giles (1982). Although it agrees with their formula up to Quire 27, it proposes that Quire 28 is not a quaternion but a sexternion (i.e. comprising not 8 but 12 leaves). This is supported by the leaf signatures "i"-"vj" on folios 215r-220r and the catchword on f. 226v. While Wormald and Giles state that the manuscript consists of 32 quires, this record proposes that Quire 28 is followed by only two further quires: Quire 29, which contains eleven leaves, and Quire 30, which consists of six leaves. The latter quire comprises the Calendar and clearly forms a separate codicological unit.17th-century olive morocco binding with on both the outside covers: a border of gilt-tooled double-lined fillets, and, at the centre, a gold-stamped decorated medallion with the IHS monogram featuring, above, the Cross flanked by the sun and moon, and, below, the Sacred Heart with the Nails; gold-tooled fillets on the spine but no spine inscription; gilt-tooled edges and gauffered fore edge; two clasps with scallop shell design with catches on the lower cover.
Binding height: 175 mm; width: 125 mm; depth: 60 mm.
20th-century foliation:
[a] + [b]-[c] + [d] + i-iii | 1-243 | iv-vi + [e]-[f]
Numbering in pencil in the lower left-hand corners of all the rectos of ff. i-iii, 1-243, iv-vi, and sometimes also in the lower right-hand corner (e.g. ff. 1, 2, 4, 7, 28, 29, 46, 54, 61, 62, 63, 78, 99, 173; NB. f. 33 has the number 6 in the lower right-hand corner). The latter numbers appear to represent an initial foliation that has been largely erased from the manuscript and is still faintly visible on many folios. Folios i-iii and iv-vi are the manuscripts earliest and probaly original flyleaves. Folios [a], [d], [e]-[f] are later parchment flyleaves. Folios [b]-[c] are two added modern paper flyleaves. Note that this is the foliation that has been followed by scholars and is used in this catalogue record.20th-century foliation:
i, ii-iii, iv + v-vii | 1-243 | [viii]-[x] + [a]-[b]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corners of the first seven flyleaves at the beginning, and the rectos of ff. 1-28. Subsequently, only the rectos of the tens are physically numbered (30, 40, 50, etc.) [with one exception: folio 68 has been foliated as well]. This pattern continues until f. 160r, after which the only numbered leaves are 217 and 230. The flyleaves at the end have not been numbered but the first three flyleaves at the end have been allocated the numbers [viii]-[x] to indicate that they are consecutive with the v-vii, forming the manuscript's earliest and probably original parchment flyleaves, and the letters [a]-[b] have been allocated to the final two flyleaves at the end. The later parchment flyleaves were added later, perhaps at the same time as ff. i and iv (ff. ii-iii are two added modern paper flyleaves). Please note that this foliation is not followed in this catalogue record.Mary de Bohun (c. 1369/70–1394), daughter of Humphrey de Bohun (1342–1373), 7th Earl of Hereford, and Joan Fitzalan (1347/8–1419, or her husband Henry Bolingbroke (1367–1413), later King Henry IV (1399–1413): probably made for Mary on the occasion of her marriage to Henry Bolingbroke in 1380, as suggested by the arms of Bohun and Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, son of John of Gaunt in corners of borders and miniatures and inside initials (see Decoration). Other coats of arms, including those of Butler, Courtenay, John of Gaunt and England, reflect those of family into which past members of the Bohun family had married. A twin manuscript, now Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, MS. Auct. D. 4. 4 is thought to have been made for the same occasion, specifically for Mary de Bohun (see Havens (2020), passim).
Margaret of Anjou (1430–1482), Queen of England (1445–1461) or her husband Henry VI (1421–1471), King of England (1422–1461): the Royal Arms impaled with those of Anjou were later added to the upper corner of the outer margin of 1r.
John Stafford (d. 1452), Bishop of Bath and Wells (1424-1443) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1443-1452): his arms added to the outer margin of f. 1r, below the Royal Arms impaled with those of Anjou. Stafford had crowned Margaret of Anjou Queen in 1445.
Barnaby [Burneby] family: obits for their family members ("Anne B[u]rneby" and "Phelippe burneby")inserted in the Calendar in a neat 15th-centry textualis hand (imitating the original script).
Walton family of Longford: memoranda and obits for their family members inserted in the Calendar, dating to 1580-1592 and 1624, in secretary hands.
Henry Valentine Stafford-Jerningham (1802–1884), 9th Baron Jerningham: Acquired the manuscript through purchase before 1884 according to Henry Yates Thompson's Catalogue (1912), p. 52.
Emma Eliza (née Gerard) Stafford-Jerningham (bef. 1842–d. 1912), Lady Stafford. Daughter of Frederic Sewallis Gerard and Mary Ann (née Wilkinson) Gerard. Former second wife of 9th Baron Stafford, and later wife of Basil Thomas Fitzherbert.: Was gifted the manuscript by her husband Henry Valentine Stafford-Jerningham (1802–1884) according to Henry Yates Thompson's Catalogue (1912), p. 552.
Beatrice Mary Teresa (née FitzHerbert) Plowden (c. 1862–1949), Lady Chichele-Plowden. Daughter of Basil Thomas Fitzherbert and Emily Charlotte (née Stafford-Jerningham) Fitzherbert; wife of Trevor John Chichele Chichele-Plowden, KCSI; and step-daughter of Emma Eliza (née Gerard) Stafford-Jerningham, Lady Stafford: sold the manuscript to Henry Yates Thompson in 1907. her name inscribed in pencil on f. i recto: "Lady Chichele-Plowden".
Henry Yates Thompson (1838–1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts, newspaper proprietor, and grandson of Joseph Brooks Yates: purchased the manuscript from Lady Chichele-Plowden on 31 December 1907 as is indicated by a printed ex libris on the inside of the upper cover from the library of Henry Yates Thompson with the gold-stamped inscription: "EX MUSAEO HENRICI YATES THOMPSON" that bears the handwritten number: "C" [but the number "XCIX" written in pencil above the label] and the handwritten note: "[...] Lady Plowden Dec. 31 1907". This manuscript is listed in the following catalogues of his library: Heny Yates Thompson, of Fourteen Illuminated Manuscripts; nos. XCV to XVII and 79A Completing the Hundred in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912), pp. 45-52 (no. XCIX); and Heny Yates Thompson, Illustations from One Hundred Manuscripts in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson, 7 vols (London: Chiswick Press, 1907-1918), IV (1914): pp. 33-35; plates LII-LIX. Sold the manuscript at Sotheby's, Lot 40, 23 March 1920 see Sotheby's Catalogue of Twenty-Six Illuminated Manuscripts and Eight Fifteenth Century Books Printed on Vellum: The Property of Henry Yates Thompson (London: Dryden Press, 1920), pp. 85-86 ['The Psalter of John of Gaunt'].
Thomas Henry Riches (d. 1935), art collector: owned until his death in 1935 as indicated by his donation bookplate on the inside of the front cover: "Fitzwilliam Museum - Bequeathed by T.H. Riches, M.A. Gonville and Caius College - 1935", with the handwritten addition: "Received 1950". The latter refers to the fact that although Riches bequeathed the manuscript to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1935, the museum only received it on the death of his widow Katherine Anne Riches (née Maclean) who had a life-interest, in 1950.
ii recto: O pastor eterne
The prayer to the Holy Helpers on f. i verso has been copied by a 15th-century hand working in a cursive script with anglicana features.
The suffrages on ff. ii recto=iii recto have been copied by a 15th-century hand working in a neat textualis script.
The medical recipe and charm in the upper half of f. iii recto has been copied by a 15th-century hand working in a cursive script with both secretary and anglicana features.
Written height: 100-130 mm, width: 60-80 mm. Ruled in ink frame and line ruling. Single columns. 19-25 lines to the page, written below and above top line.
Three large (2-3 lines) initials in brown ink decorated with cadels on f. ii recto.
2r: conuenerunt in unum
Leaf signatures "Aj" to "Aiiij" in brown ink at the centres of the lower margins of the rectos in the first half of Quire 11 (ff. 79r-82r) [the number "Aiiij" also seems to occur on f. 194r]; and the cropped numbers "ij"-"vj" visible in Quire 28 (ff. 216-220). Anther copped and unidentified signature visible on f. 227r.
A cross in (?) pencil added to the first lower margins of the recto of the inner leaves of Quire 11 (i.e. f. 83r).
Catchwords in brown ink in the lower right corners of the last versos of quires, usually cropped off, but sometimes still legible: see ff. 62v, 102v, 226v.
Folios 1r-243v have been copied by a single scribe working in a textualis script.
Written height: 100 mm, width: 60 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line ruling. Single columns. 18 lines to the page, written below top line.
The manuscript contains thirteen half-page miniatures in colours on gold-patterned grounds and inside architectural (Gothic pinnacled canopies) frames: twelve show scenes from the Life of David at the liturgical divisions of the Psalter, and one marks the begining of the Seven Penitential Psalms. The miniatures were painted by a group of artists who produced several psalters and books of hours for the Bohun family. Among this group was the Augustinian friar John de Teye (doc. 1361-1384), who is responsible for the opening miniature in this mansucript (f. 1r). The other paintings were done by a close associate who worked with him on most of Teye's other surviving Bohun manuscripts (see Sandler, Illuminators and Patrons (2014), p. 237). The miniatures show the following scenes:
With the exception of the miniature on f. 61r, all the half-page miniatures feature coats of arms in colours on gold grounds at their corners. Most have a coat of arms at each corner, but the miniatures on f. 174v and f. 207r only feature two. The first half-page miniature has two additional coats of arms in the lower corners of the full borders. The coats of arms that extend from the miniatures and borders as follows:
The lower margin of f. 1r contains a scene in colours, featuring a landscape with six monkeys engaged in, respectively, carrying a dish; fishing; cutting up a fish; heating water in a cauldron using another monkey's body as a pair of bellows for blowing on the fire; and carrying a dish.
At the half-page miniatres (ff. 1r, 29r, 46r, 61r, 62r, 78r, 99r, 120r, 123r, 142v, 163v, 174v, and 207r) are full bar borders in blue, pink, and gold with acanthus leaves in blue, gold, grey, and orange. The upper halves of the borders, enclosing the half-page miniatures, feature architectural motifs, including turrets, rooftops, walls, and other structures that often are interconnected with similar architectural structures that vertically divide the miniatures into two panels. Some of the borders are inhabited by winged dragon-like creatures with a antropomorphic or zoomorphic heads (ff. 10v [with headdress], 28r, 33r [with mitre], 38v, 51r, 73v, 81r, 104r, 121r [with mitre], 145v, 158v [with mitre], 166v).
Partial bar borders (full bars in the outer margins and half bars in the upper and lower margins) in blue, pink, and gold with acanthus leaves in blue, gold, grey, and orange on every page. Some of the borders are inhabited by winged dragon-like creatures with a antropomorphic or zoomorphic heads (ff. 10v [with headdress], 28r, 33r [with mitre], 38v, 51r, 73v, 81r, 104r, 121r [with mitre], 145v, 158v [with mitre], 166v).
Accompanying the manuscript's thirteen half-page miniatures at the major sudivisions of the Psalms and at the beginning of the Penitential Psalms are thirteen large (4 or 5 lines) historiated initials in blue and purple, sometimes with knotwork motifs, in frames with gold patterned grounds and miniatures inside their letters. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
Large (3 lines) initials for the initials of psalms: in blue and/or pink with acanthus leaves and in frames with gold grounds with decorative motives (e.g. knotwork) painted with white and red on the letters, sometimes with foliate patterns with acanthus leaves inside their letters but often with more extensive decorative features:
Small (1 line) champ-style gold initials in frames with blue and purple grounds for the ferial letter "A"in the Calendar.
Small (1 line) initials alternating between blue and pink with foliate motifs inside their letters in the opposite colour and orange edges inside gold frames at the beginning of psalm verses.
Gold horizontal bars as line-fillers, usually with geometric or foliate motifs in colours but sometimes also featuring hybrid and dragon-like creatures (see ff. 5r, 178r, 187r, 189r, and 213r).
Marginal headings dividing the Litany of Saints, titles of and introductory rubrics to prayers, written in red ink. Entries in the Calendar highlighted in blue or red ink.
A list of the subject contents of the full-page miniatures in the manuscript on ff. [b] recto-[c] recto, entitled: "Explanation of the Paintings" written in a late 19th-century or early 20th-century hand. The same hand has numbered the manuscript's miniatures with pencil in the outer margins of the pages.
The manuscript is kept in a box together with a small paper folder with the classmark "MS. 38-1950" stamped on the front. It contains: a rectangular paper label with the printed text: "Bohun Psalter. c. 1370. English. Bequeathed by T.H. Riches, 1935. MS. 38-1950"; a round paper label with a hanwritten inscription in brown ink: "H. Yates Thompson", followed by a number (not read) and a question mark; and a rectangular paper label with the manuscript's classmark written in pencil, a handwritten inscription in brown ink ("Riches bequest"), and a handwritten inscription in pencil: "Bohun [...] Exhibited"
ii recto: O pastor eterne
3 leaves (ff. iv-vi)
The text on indulgences associated with the Order of St John of Jerusalem that has been didvided with one half on the last flyleaf at the beginning (f. iii verso) and the other half of the first flyleaf at the end (f. iv recto) has been copied by a 15th-century hand working in a secretary script.
The suffrage to King Henry VI on f. iv verso has been copied by a 15th-century hand working in a textualis script.
The text on the legend of the oil of St Thomas of Canterbury on ff. v recto-vi verso has been copied by a 15th-century hand working in a secretary script.
The suffrage to St Winifred on f. vi verso has been copied by a 15th-century hand working in a textualis script.
Written height: 100-130 mm, width: 60-80 mm. Ruled in ink frame and line ruling. Single columns. 19-25 lines to the page, written below and above top line.