Felice, Matteo, active 1467-1493, artist Catholic Church. Psalter collects (Romana series) Selections Catholic Church. Psalter collects (Hispana series imperfecta) Selections Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Manuscript. HM 1041
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Description
ff. 1-188v; ff. 189-194v blank. [Psalter]. Latin. Biblical psalter, each psalm proceded by a titulus and followed by collects (here "oratio"); the collects generally agree with the Roman series, except for 12 of the Hispanic series and 27 not precisely identified; collect R74 is copied twice, after Pss. 73 and 74; the collect after Ps. 118, 96 is R11811; after Ps. 118, 153 there are 4 collects. See L. Brou, The Psalter Collects. HBS 83 (London 1949). On ff. 167-177v, canticles; on ff. 177v-181v, Gloria, Credo, Pater noster, Te deum, Quicumque vult; on ff. 181v-187, litany including Germanus, Nicholas and Louis among the confessors; Benedict, Maurus, Placidus, Onuphrius and Leonard among the monks and hermits; Scholastica among the virgins; on ff. 187-188v, added, s. XVII, an index in Italian of the psalms for the office of the Virgin arranged according to the hours of the office, and index of the penitential and gradual psalms with reference to page numbers added to the text leaves by the same person. Title from printed catalog Support: Parchment. Script: Humanistic. Layout: 1-18¹⁰ 19⁸ 20⁶. Evidence of one catchword, f. 80v, horizontally in the inner corner. 20 long lines, ruled in ink with only the vertical bounding lines full length; written above the top line. Decoration: Opening leaves, ff. ii verso and 1, decorated with large miniatures and historiated borders, probably by Matteo Felice, although they have been damaged and heavily repainted. Leaves of psalter divisions decorated across the top by a band of 3 small miniatures, presumably by the same artist, and generally of 2 OT types at the sides and the NT antitype in the middle, with a full border of dense vine swirls, colored flowers and leaves, putti, animals, peacocks and roundels. Other Decoration: At psalter divisions, 3-line initials in white-patterned blue or dark pink against infilling of the other color with a colored acanthus leaf in the center, on a gold ground. To begin individual psalms, 3-line gold initials entwined in white vine stem, infilled in red and green, on a blue ground; 2-line initials for the collects in gold on white-patterned blue, red and green fields; 1-line initials for verses alternating blue with red harping or gold with purple. Assigned Date: s. XVex. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 7/31/2012. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Bound, s. XVII ineunte, in red morocco over wooden boards; gold tooled; evidence of 4 clasps; gauffered and gilt edges; fragments of a liturgical (?) text, Italy, s. XV (?), visible through the pastedown. HM 1041. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Written in southern Italy, perhaps Naples, to judge from the style of the decoration; the presence of Onuphrius in the litany may also suggest a southern origin. The coat of arms in the lower border of f. 1 has been repainted and is now per fess, or and gules. A lengthy note in Italian accompanying the volume states that the artist "fu certamente senese o fiorentino" and that the book belonged to the Placidi family of Siena, heirs to the Bandinelli family. Date and source of acquisition by Henry E. Huntington unknown.
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