Franciscan Liturgical Psalter

This Psalter was made for Franciscan use in Cologne in the late thirteenth century. It was owned in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century by the Augustinian nuns of St. Cecilia in Cologne, who added the calendar, the Breviary texts, prayers, and the Collect at the end. The manuscript is written in Latin and in the Ripuarisch dialect spoken in the Cologne region. The style of the historiated initials, as well as that of the bar borders topped with grotesques, closely resembles the style of Walters Ms. W.41 and of the two graduals made for the Franciscans of Cologne in 1299 by Johannes von Valkenburg (Cologne, Diozesanbibliothek, Ms. 1B, and Bonn, Universitatsbibliothek, Ms. 384). It is a well-preserved example of High Gothic illumination in Cologne.

Provenance

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

[Made for Franciscan use in Cologne, late thirteenth century, Ripuarisch dialect points to Cologne region]; Augustinian nuns of St. Cecilia, Cologne, late 15th or 16th century; Susanna Koull, 17th century; L.S. Olschki [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, by purchase [L.S. Olschiki, no. 24][date of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.