Beschreibung:

Leaf from a finely illuminated Psalter, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [southern Netherlands, late thirteenth century] Single leaf, with single column of 14 lines in a high-grade gothic bookhand (Psalm 96:7, followed by Antiphons and Psalm 97:1-2), red rubrics, one-line initials in gold on blue and burgundy angular grounds heightened with white penwork, line-fillers in coloured foliate sprigs on gold grounds (these enclosing an animal masked drollery creature with a long undulating foliate tail, two sets of tiny and precise hares and hounds arranged in pairs nose to nose and a tiny red hare), one 2-line initial in blue with white penwork on burnished gold grounds, enclosing a clean-shaven tonsured head, two floral sprouts meandering along the margins from edges of large initial and ending in coloured foliage, spots and stains and a few later penmarks in bas-de-page of one side, else excellent condition, 157 by 115mm. Acquired from a private European collector in 2017. The ornament here, especially the slightly bulbous face of the figure with his lips touched in red, points to southern Netherlandish art (compare the figures in the cuttings from an Antiphonal made for the abbey of Beaupre-lez-Grammont in 1290, now Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, IV.173 and II.3634, 1-2 and other places; reproduced in Manuscrits dates conserves en Belgique, I, 1968, no. 23, pl. 77-8). The animals in the line-fillers here add great charm.