Ramsey Psalter

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Ramsey Psalter: Oswald of York and Eadnoth of Ramsey

The Ramsey Psalter is a colorfully illustrated psaltery with 174 preserved parchment leaves, which was written around 1300 in the Benedictine Abbey of Ramsey in Cambridgeshire .

description

The texts of the Psalms are consistently in Latin using many abbreviations in one of the translations of the Septuagint . In some places in the psalms, German-language references are added. The finely drawn, detailed and colored illustrations, initials and text ends are almost entirely covered with gold leaf . The parchment sheets in the format 17 centimeters by 26 centimeters are written on and painted on both sides. Due to the extraordinary and extensive decoration, the Ramsey Psalter is one of the most important surviving examples of Gothic illuminated manuscripts .

structure

Facsimile of the Ramsey Psalter. Sheet 17b (left) with Jerome's prayer dedicated to the Psalms and sheet 18a (right) with the beginning of Psalm 1 and an illustration of King David with a harp

In total, the Psalter consists of 174 preserved leaves, which, according to the old Psalm count, are divided as follows:

  • Sheet 1: cover, unlabeled
  • Sheet 2a: Psalm rules for Sunday and weekdays, small writing in the colors red and dark brown
  • Sheet 2b: Unlabeled
  • Sheets 3 to 5a: prayers with red headings and red and blue initials
  • Sheet 5b: Unlabeled
  • Pages 6 to 10: Ten elaborately and artistically designed, multi-colored pictures with biblical scenes from the Old Testament and New Testament and scenes with the partons of the abbey, usually with four scenes per page
  • Pages 11 to 16: The twelve months of the Benedictine calendar in red, blue and gold letters. At the end of this month of December is a portrait of William of Grafham , the cellarer of the Abbey of Ransey mapped.
  • Sheet 17a: Full-page picture with Jesus and Mary sitting next to each other on a throne. Including St. Lucius , King of Britain, who smashed a pagan statue with the staff of the cross
  • Sheet 17b: Jerome's prayer dedicated to the Psalms with half-page image
  • Pages 18 to 37: Large, illustrated initial "B", note on the edge: Nocturn on Sontag , Psalm 1  EU to 25 with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends, King David with harp on the edge
  • Pages 38 to 41: Large, illustrated initial "D", note on the edge: Nocturn am Montag , Psalm 26  EU to 30.15 with multi-colored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 42 to 51a: Ps 30.15  EU to 37 with monochrome, red initials and text ends
  • Sheet 51b to 53: Large initial "D", Ps 38  EU to 40.4 with monochrome, red initials and text ends (the original sheets have been lost)
  • Sheet 54 to 63a: Ps 40.4  EU to 50, with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 63: Large, illustrated initial "Q", Psalm 51  EU with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Pages 64 to 76a: Large, illustrated initial "D", note on the edge: Nocturn on Wednesday , Psalm 52  EU to 67 with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Pages 76 to 91a: Large, illustrated initial "S", note on the edge: Nocturn on Dornstag , Psalm 68  EU to 79 with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Pages 91 to 105a: Large, illustrated initial "E", note on the edge: Nocturn am Frytag , Psalm 80  EU to 96 with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Pages 105b to 107a: Large, illustrated initial "C", note on the edge: Nocturn on Saturday , Psalm 97  EU to 100 with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 107b to 120: Large, illustrated initial "D", Psalm 101  EU to 108 with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 121 to 152a: Large, illustrated initial "D", note on the edge: Die vesper & Sonnentag , Psalm 109  EU to 150 with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 152: Large initial "C", Jes 12  EU with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 152b and 153: Initial "E", Isa 38,10-20  EU with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 153b and 154a: initial "E", 1 Sam 2,1-10  EU with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 154 and 155: Initial "C", Ex 15.1-19  EU with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 155b to 157a: Initial "D", Hab 3  EU with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Pages 157 to 160: Initial "a", Dtn 32.1-43  EU with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 160b and 161: Initial "B", canticum of the Liturgy of the Hours with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 161b and 162: Initial "T", Te Deum with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 162b and 163a: Initial "B", hymn of praise of Zacharias , initial "M", hymn of praise Mary , initial "N", hymn of praise of Simeon with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Pages 163 to 166: initial "G", Gloria , initial "P", pater noster , initial "C", Credo , initial "P", Quicumque with multicolored initials covered with gold leaf and text ends
  • Sheet 167 to 169a: Initial "K", All Saints' Litany with blue and red initials, no longer in the original version
  • Pages 169b to 170: initial "S", prayers with blue and red initials
  • Sheet 171a: Initial "I", beginning of the Gospel of John EU in the colors red and dark brown
  • Pages 171b to 173a: initial "S", prayers with blue and red initials
  • Sheet 173b: Unlabeled
  • Sheet 174: cover, unlabeled

Emergence

According to other sources, the Ramsey Psalter was produced between 1303 and 1310 between 1286 and 1316 in the Benedictine Abbey of Ramsey in Cambridgeshire , which at that time had worked there for over three hundred years and was an important spiritual center in the Anglo-Saxon region . The Benedictines there used the book for their own purposes.

The psalter was from Cellerar William of Grafham around 1310 the abbot of Ramsey, John from Sawtry , passed. The foundation and history of the abbey are illustrated on page 9b.

When creating the detailed initials, the artist may have been influenced by the reception of the pre-Romanesque Utrecht Psalter in England .

Whereabouts

The Ramsey Psalter was in the possession of lay people and world priests for a long time and came to the Benedictine monastery of Sankt Blasien in the middle of the 16th century . After the dissolution of the monastery in 1806 in the course of secularization , it came to Carinthia in the Benedictine Abbey of Sankt Paul in Lavanttal .

Originally the Ramsey Psalter had ten specially decorated initials, of which only nine have survived. The eleven elaborately designed picture miniatures were removed from the bound work a long time ago and the ten pages that have been preserved (sheets 6 to 10) are now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. The remainder of the work is located in St. Paul Abbey in Lavanttal .

Others

A psalter from the late 10th century (British Library, Harley 2904) is also known as the Ramsey Psalter.

literature

  • Ramsey Psalter. Facsimile with gilding, Vol. VIII of the Codices Selecti series, Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Paul im Lavanttal, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York and Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1996, limited edition, ISBN 3-201-01661-6 .
  • Lucy Freeman Sandler: The Ramsey Psalter: complete facsimile edition of Codex 58/1 of the Abbey Library St. Paul im Lavanttal (fols. 2-5, 11-174) and Ms. M.302 of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York ( fols. 1-5, Volume 3), Volume 103 of Codices selecti , Codices selecti phototypice impressi, Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1999, ISBN 3-201-01718-3
  • Lucy Freeman Sandler: The Ramsey Psalter: Codex 58/1 of the Abbey Library of St. Paul in Lavanttal and Ms. M.302 of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Volume 12, Glanzlichter der Buchkunst, Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1999, ISBN 3-201-01805-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The Ramsey Psalter - Gothic book art in perfection (online)
  2. ↑ a b c d e Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck: Lucy Freeman Sandler (editor): Der Ramsey-Psalter (online)
  3. ↑ Ramsey-Psalter University of Klagenfurt (online)
  4. ↑ a b The Ramsey Abbey Psalter 1310 History of Ramsey Abbey (online)
  5. ^ Nigel Morgan, Rodney M. Thomson, Lotte Hellinga , Joseph Burney Trapp: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain: 1100-1400. Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-5217-8218-0 , p. 20.
  6. ↑ Ronald H. Fritze, William Baxter Robison: Historical dictionary of late medieval England, 1272-1485 - The Great Cultural Eras of the World Series. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0-313-29124-1 , p. 33.
  7. ↑ The Ramsey Psalter ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Scriptorium (online) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.skriptorium.at
  8. ↑ The Ramsey Psalter ( Memento of August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Paleography Exercises - Ramsey Psalter medival writing (online)
  10. ↑ Ramsey Abbay - Library (online)