Medieval Medical Recipes : Psalter ('Bohun Psalter', previously known as the 'Riches Psalter' and the 'Psalter of John of Gaunt')

Medieval Medical Recipes

<p style='text-align: justify;'>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. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>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 <i>bas de page</i> of the Beatus page (Psalm 1) of the manuscript. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>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: <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc78039r'>Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS latin 10525</a>), 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 (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b22812977'>New York, New York Public Library, Spencer MS 26</a>), produced in England in the first decade of the fourteenth century.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>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 <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_11042'>Oxford, Exeter College, MS 47</a> as well as the psalter portion of the Bohun psalter and hours in the Bodleian Library (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_474'>Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D.4.4</a>). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>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. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>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 (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://queriniana.comune.brescia.it/opac/detail/view/test:catalog:1685212'>Brescia, Biblioteca Queriniana, MS A.V.17</a>), 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).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>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. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>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. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Lucy Freeman Sandler</p>