Psalter

This charming but fragmentary and misbound Psalter was created in French Flanders for a lady in the first decades of the fourteenth century. The figures in the manuscript are stylistically related to those found in Ghent (diocese of Tournai), the most notable comparisons being manuscripts connected to Copenhagen, Royal Lib. GKS 3384 8°, such as Cambridge, Trinity Lib., Ms. B.II.22, Bodleian, Ms. Douce 5-6, and the Walters' own W.82. Other relationships can be found with works from Saint-Omer, in the diocese of Thérouanne, where the treatment of the borders is strikingly similar to those found, for instance, in W.90. Notes and prayers written, erased, and rewritten over the course of centuries on the originally blank pages of the book attest to its constant use up through at least the seventeenth century.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Léon Gruel, Paris, late 19th-early 20th century [1]; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, early 20th century; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

[1] No. 374 on front pastedown and on dealer description