Leaf from the Touke Psalter: January Calendar, Seated Man Drinking from Bowl with Shoe in Hand

This thirteenth-century Psalter was made in Bruges for a female patron. Lively vignettes fill the calendar, while large historiated initials of saints trampling their oppressors introduce the liturgical psalms. Added Easter tables, as well as birth and death inscriptions in the calendar, attest to the manuscript's presence in England by the fifteenth century where it was extensively used by generations of the Touke family.

Provenance

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

Owned by Touke Family, England, 15th-17th century [1]. Lloyd, Wallis, and Lloyd, England, 19th century. Léon Gruel collection, Paris, by late nineteenth or early twentieth century [2]; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, before 1931; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

[1] Calendar on fols. 3r-6v list brith and death notes for the Touke family in the 15th century. Fols. 1r-2v contain Easter tables through 1589. Erased signature on fol. 144v of John Touke likely from the 17th century.
[2] Sales slip in French in same hand as wrote Gruel's inventory numbers once present on front flyleaf.