Leaf from Psalter: Psalm 1, Initial B with David Harping Above and Decapitating Goliath Below

The text of Psalm 1 on this page begins with a large, illuminated letter B. Inside the top part of the letter, Kind David sits playing his harp and in the bottom part he is shown decapitating Goliath. Below the text, another illustration shows Saul playing the bagpipe while David aims his slingshot at Goliath.

This Psalter, with an additional Office of the Dead, was created in the late thirteenth century in northeastern France. A large quantity of Franciscan saints in the calendar and litany, as well as marginal imagery of them, suggests that the original owner had a strong affinity for that order. The manuscript was likely begun for one patron but finished for another, given a change in scribal and artistic hands and the addition of heraldry from Psalm 109 onward. Arms for the Fieschi family, as well as a birth notice in the calendar, identify the manuscript's first owner as Leonardo dei Fieschi, a Genoese nobleman (d. 1331). Among a multitude of drolleries, the manuscript contains a number of unusual marginal vignettes depicting SS. Francis, Clare, and Elisabeth of Hungary. One image of St. Francis (fol. 139v) is heavily worn, which may be evidence of devotional touching by the manuscript's owner.

Provenance

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

Acquired by Leonardo dei Fieschi (d. 1331), Genoa, ca. 1290-1331. Acquired by Léon or Paul Gruel, Paris, ca. 1900-1910; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.